ABSTRACT
Australian multiculturalism has largely grown through settlement in metropolitan areas. A significant literature has considered the settlement issues of refugee-humanitarian settlers to these areas, but this overlooks the important transitions that are being made in rural communities as a whole that produce what we might call rural and regional multiculture. This chapter explores critical multicultural practices in rural, regional and remote contexts of Australia. It examines aspects of the policy and practice context of rural multiculturalism. The chapter looks at the issues experienced by culturally and linguistically diverse people and communities in rural landscapes and also at their contributions. It describes how two rural/regional Australian communities have engaged with increasing ethnic diversity, drawing on the concept of ‘transversal enablers’, and argues for a reorientation of rural social work practice to engage innovatively with the evident resource that peoples of difference are for rural community life.
