If public appetite for multiculturalism is softening, an Asia capability strategy that ignores the communities already here amounts to a major missed opportunity to invest in social cohesion when it is needed most. Australia’s current Asia capability strategies are not taking advantage of its own Asian diasporas.
Other nations have deeply embedded language and cultural learning within their education system. With only 36% of Australian students studying a second language in 2018, Australia ranked second last among 64 countries surveyed of school students learning a foreign language at school by the OECD (Opens in new window).
In the United States, Spanish remains the most widely taught and requested non-English language in schools (Opens in new window), accounting for more than 70% of all secondary foreign language enrolments. This is in keeping with the United States being home to the second-largest population of Spanish speakers in the world. The US gets both outcomes with the same investment: teaching Spanish because of the community already speaking it at home has also strengthened the country’s ties with Latin America. Engagement with the neighbourhood is a byproduct of engagement with its own people.
Australia’s approach inverts this. Mandarin is taught to open doors in Beijing and Shanghai, not to build relationships with the Chinese–Australian communities already here. The secondary language policies in the United States reflect bridging its local communities and focusing on its current demographics, while Australia’s policies are focused on its neighbourhood instead.
The parliamentary inquiry report clearly acknowledges that the Asia-Australia diaspora is an underutilised asset. But it advocates for an Asia-capable workforce for the purpose of “long-term business resilience and performance” within the Asia region. It should also emphasise the purpose of Asia capability among non-Asian heritage students. Australians of non-Asian heritage should be aiming to strengthen their Asia capabilities to build relationships with the local communities in Australia, rather than only finding an international advantage.
Asia literacy and language capability among police officers, nurses, doctors, lawyers, and Australians from all walks of life does more for Australia’s relationship with Asia, and with its own citizens, than a capability strategy aimed only at advancing Canberra’s trade objectives. Australia’s focus on Asia capability needs to shift focus from its neighbours to communities at home.
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