Sustainable multilingualism as an essential characteristic of multicultural societies: the case of Australia

Abstract

This paper argues that multicultural societies cannot be sustainable if they do not embrace multilingualism as an essential and embedded element of multiculturalism. Multilingualism is a crucial desideratum for multicultural societies who wish not only to ‘manage’ diversity, but also use diversity as a resource and a key element of social capital. The discussion in this paper takes place in the context of Australian communities. There are essentially two aspects of sustainability to discuss in this context: (1) the maintenance of the linguistic diversity that is present in a multicultural society: this involves the maintenance of indigenous languages and immigrant languages; and (2) the development of multilingual skills in the wider Australian society. The concept of sustainability provides a theoretical framework and it is presented with the purpose of opening up discussions across various multicultural and multilingual contexts.