ABSTRACT
Industrialism and its apparent social demands for cultural homogeneity was by the 1990s being replaced in part by new forms of global market relations that turned ethnocultural assimilation in Australia on its head. Specifically, Global Value Chains (GVCs) are identified in this chapter as a unique manifestation of the new global market, nevertheless reinforcing the skewed production, distribution and accumulation of wealth between the Global North and South. By linking migration and GVCs conceptually, we can then think further about ethnoculture and value; that is, the share of value captured by labour and the special role of non-productive forms of labour in GVCs and the global market generally. This sets the scene for a discussion of ‘agency’, a contested concept in human and cultural capital terms, to understand the importance of occupations and ethnoculture – and not diversity – as a perceived skillset in the international division of labour and non-productive labour.
