In the midst of international conflict, social and political polarisation and economic pressures and inequalities, the harmony and cohesion of society has emerged as a global social issue. While Australian society has been remarkably resilient to date, pressures and challenges have arisen, contributing to a secular decline in the sense of national identity and belonging, distrust in the political system and growing concern for economic inequalities. Ongoing and increasing symbolic support for migration, diversity and Australian multiculturalism is a source of strength, though is undermined by the experience of discrimination, racism and structural inequalities in diverse and disadvantaged migrant communities.

In this presentation, James will draw on his public and academic research to describe and explain these trends, placing them in the context of Australia’s recent demographic and migrant history. Emphasis will be placed on the importance of longitudinal processes at individual and community levels in shaping migrant diversity and social cohesion, in the argument that neither diversity nor cohesion are ever static, but are rather continually produced and re-produced through the combination of individual, social and demographic circumstances and dynamics.

Dr James O’Donnell is a Demographer at the Australian National University with a research focus on social cohesion and wellbeing and their longitudinal and life course relationships with migration, population dynamics and social and economic inequalities. James is the Chief Investigator of the Scanlon Foundation’s Mapping Social Cohesion study, Australia’s pre-eminent and longest-running survey of attitudes, perceptions and behaviours related to social cohesion, immigration and a range of topical issues. He is also an early career research fellow of the Australian Research Council, funded to study how cohesion and wellbeing are changing over time and in response to personal and societal upheaval.

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