This book answers such fundamental questions as: what is multiculturalism; how did it originate; and how did it become a basis for the Australian government's ethnic affairs policy?

Researched from primary evidence—much of it made available to the author exclusivelymdash;it is an essential and solid foundation for future research and policy work in this field.

Multiculturalism continues to stir emotions and excite passionate public debate. This work presents new, accurate, ideologically neutral, historically based definitions of multiculturalism. It also provides accurate and analytically useful definitions and explanations of assimilationism and integrationism, thus establishing a valuable framework for analysis and debate.