Making a place in Footscray: everyday multiculturalism, ethnic hubs and segmented geography

• Published in: Identities (Yverdon, Switzerland) Vol. 25; no. 3; pp. 320 - 338
• Main Authors: Oke, Nicole, Sonn, Christopher C., McConville, Christopher
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Abingdon Routledge 04-05-2018; Taylor & Francis Ltd
• Subjects: belonging; ethnic group; Ethnic groups; Ethnicity; Everyday multiculturalism; Footscray; Geography; Identity; Meaning; Minority & ethnic groups; Multiculturalism & pluralism; place-making; Racism; Melbourne Victoria Australia
• ISSN: 1070-289X; 1547-3384
• DOI: 10.1080/1070289X.2016.1233880

In this article, we explore through analyses of interviews the meanings and experiences of everyday multiculturalism in a suburb in Melbourne, Australia. The people we interviewed valued and experienced diversity in different, yet interrelated ways: as an experience of multiculturalism, as providing comfort in diversity and as embodied in ethnic hubs in a segmented geography. Everyday racism can make forging belonging and connections across diverse ethnic groups difficult. Yet, Footscray is constructed as a place in which diversity is regarded as normative and protective. Our focus on a local suburb has allowed us to develop insight into the diverse ways identities are constituted through multiple understandings and experiences of diversity.