The themes discussed throughout this book have a particular significance in the context of a country of immigration, such as Australia. The specific ways in which economies, policies and existing cultural forms define the lives of migrants reveal important similarities and differences within a society. Analyses of these can demonstrate some of the constitutive social processes that we refer to by abstractions such as ‘class’, ‘ethnicity’, ‘gender’ and even ‘nation’.

Such analyses are by definition critical, in bringing into question some of the hallowed ideals of most countries of immigration – ideals such as democracy, freedom, tolerance and equality before the law. Critics of multiculturalism in Australia sometimes suggest that this challenging of ideals in the name of representation weakens the ideals themselves. Others, including myself, believe that the gaps revealed between theory and practice are in themselves far more destructive of such valuable and civilised principles.

Several writers have critically explored some of the implications of immigration in relation to nationalism and Australian identity (see, for example, Bottomley, 1988; Castles, et al. 1988; Pettman, 1988; de Lepervanche, 1990; Turpin, 1990).