Australian Expert Gives Advice on Multicultural Programs
By Kim Se-jeong
Staff Reporter
Stewart Foster, an Australian government official who has been formulating multicultural programs for the past 16 years, came to share the Australian experience with Korean policymakers.
During his speech at the Multicultural Policy Forum organized by the Korean National Commission for UNESCO and Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the acting assistant secretary of the multicultural affairs branch at the Australian Department of Immigration and Citizenship reiterated the significance of media in implementing multicultural policies.
``One of the things we found was that many journalists are Anglo-Australians,'' Foster told The Korea Times, adding that it limits reporting diversity.
What the government has done was create, in collaboration with Melbourne University, a special curriculum to train ``prospect" journalists diversity reporting.
The program has the benefit of encouraging non-Anglo Australians to start journalism careers, he said, and it will eventually make Australia more open to immigrants who come in search of better lives.
Since the mid-1940s, Australia has received 6.5 million migrants, which is a great number out of a total population of 21 million.
To the Korean government, to which the multicultural issue has come as a new challenge, Foster advised that it educate the young generation first. College students and younger people are the most receptive to differences and the biggest supporters of multicultural programs, he said.