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The purpose of this research is to explore how immigrant library users view Auckland Libraries as a multicultural bridge in New Zealand. The research explored the various factors keeping different cultures apart in the New Zealand socio cultural systems and to find out the gaps in the provision of multicultural services in Auckland public libraries. The study also discusses the specific roles Auckland public libraries play in the development of multiculturalism in New Zealand from the perspective of immigrant users.

The study uses a qualitative research approach. Semi-structured interviews conducted with 15 participants including five library staff members and ten users of the Auckland library. Thematic analysis (qualitative data analysis, where data is grouped into themes) was used for data analysis.

Participants perceive that the Auckland Library had an advantage over other citizen service institutions in the development and services of multiculturalism in New Zealand. The participants understand that language, cultural background, beliefs and values are some of the causes of gaps between different ethnic groups, and only by learning from each other can groups enhance mutual understanding between them. The services and programs Auckland Library offer to immigrant enable various interactions among different cultural groups and enhance learning from one another to facilitate their integration into the New Zealand society. The findings show that Auckland public libraries have some gaps in multicultural services. In particular, there are more than 200 different ethnicities in Auckland, but the Auckland library's website does not have the function of a multilingual search tab service, lacks a multicultural book collection and some of the existing collections of books are of low quality, low literary value and so on. The study suggests that these issues need to be improved.

This was small-scale research involving the perspectives of only 15 participants. Nevertheless, the findings provide constructive insight into the development of multicultural services in Auckland libraries that can serve as a useful basis for a broader exploration of more immigrant groups in Auckland and New Zealand as a whole.

The results of this research will provide valuable information for the Auckland libraries to have a better plan for multicultural services in the future. The findings will also serve as a reference for improving multicultural services in the Auckland libraries.

Although other studies have looked at immigrants’ behavior and perception on various issues in New Zealand, this study is the first to look at how different immigrant groups percept Auckland libraries as a multicultural bridge to help integrate them.

The purpose of this paper is to examine why people visit multicultural festivals, with the overall aim being to better understand the apparent popularity of multicultural festivals. The paper aims to provide key stakeholders with a platform upon which to better manage and improve multicultural festivals as tourism attractions.

An on‐site questionnaire survey was administered at one of the multicultural festivals in South Korea in 2010. The reasons for visit were measured using a scale based on existing benefit scales, and literature related to multiculturalism. In total, 17 items were analyzed as visitor reasons for their visit. Demographic questions included age, nationality, the reason for living in South Korea if not a Korean, and gender. Out of 203 collected questionnaires, 183 were considered usable.

In total, five factors were identified as the reasons for attending a multicultural festival – family togetherness, escape, cultural exploration, socialization, and curiosity. The cultural exploration proved to be the most common reason for attending a multicultural festival for visitors.

The findings of this study will help all key stakeholders to more fully understand what visitors want, and guide festival management to organize sustainable festivals as a niche tourism attraction. Due to the desire for cultural exploration, festivals should offer multicultural themed activities. Sport competitions can be good for socialization between migrants and South Koreans, or migrants themselves.

Although multicultural festivals are held in many countries, there appears to be little research into the multicultural festivals in a country like South Korea, in transit from being ethnically homogeneous to becoming a multicultural society. This paper is a pioneer study in that particular discipline.

The research examined factors of academic studies as perceived by Jewish and Arab students in Israel, and changes in their implementation of activities in a multicultural context in the field of education, comparing between undergraduates studying for a BA in education and graduate students for MA in education and attending a course titled “Multiculturalism in the Global Era”.

The findings are derived from a questionnaire distributed to Arab and Jewish students (N = 434), studying together in the Faculty of Education of one academic college in Israel. In total, 251 of them were graduate students, and 183 who were undergraduates.

It was found that insofar as the students from either programme acquired knowledge and tools regarding multiculturalism, they reported (1) more positive attitudes regarding the “Other” group and regarding multiculturalism, (2) implementation of a larger number of activities relating to multiculturalism in the field of education, (3) Arab students performed more activities in multicultural contexts and (4) older students performed a larger number of activities in multicultural contexts. The research findings also indicated a direct relation between participation in the course and activities conducted in the field of education. In addition, students' acquiring of knowledge on multiculturalism mediated the relation between participation in the course and implementation of multicultural activities in the field of education.

The research stresses the importance of higher education institutions in promoting knowledge and practice of multiculturalism in Israeli society.

This paper aims to attend to the issues that remain veiled and excluded in the name of multiculture.

This paper problematizes South Korean multicultural education policies through Bourdieu’s concept of capital as a theoretical frame.

First, the paper discusses that material wealth is unequally distributed to most of the multicultural families, resulting in their lack of economic capital. Second, it notes that students from multicultural families are deprived of cultural capital, as they are racialized in Korean society. As a strategy used to distinguish and exclude a so-called different minority from the unnamed majority, race enables the possession of cultural capital. Third, insufficient social capital identified with resources emerging from social networks positions students from multicultural families as a perpetual minority. As the accumulation of various forms of capital secures power and privilege (Bourdieu, 1986), multicultural education in its current state would continuously reproduce the existing power dynamics where students from multicultural families are subordinate.

Given this, policies for multicultural education in South Korea should cover a wide range of issues, including race, class and network and be redesigned to resolve realistic problems that have been hidden under the name of celebration of culture.

The Korean multicultural education policy has not been analyzed through Bourdieu’s concept of capital. Using a different theoretical viewpoint would be valuable to figure out the problems underlying the policy.

Approaching anti-essentialism from the perspective of multiculturalism this article reexamines the value of tolerance in dealing with inter-cultural conflicts and in facilitation of multicultural discourses. It asserts that tolerance can be a potentially useful practice in specific local contexts, but it is not an ideal in itself. The article questions the role of public administration in building tolerance for cultural diversity and argues that providing visible forms of public recognition of cultural practices could be one possible role for government agencies.

While it is essential to further research the growing diversity in western metropolitan cities, little is currently known about how the members of various ethnic communities acculturate to multicultural societies. The purpose of this paper is to explore immigrants’ cosmopolitanism and acculturation strategies through an analysis of the food consumption behaviour of ethnic consumers in multicultural London.

The study was set within the socio-cultural context of London. A number of qualitative methods such as in-depth interviews, observation and photographs were used to assess consumers’ acculturation strategies in a multicultural environment and how that is influenced by consumer cosmopolitanism.

Ethnic consumers’ food consumption behaviour reflects their acculturation strategies, which can be classified into four groups: rebellion, rarefaction, resonance and refrainment. This classification demonstrates ethnic consumers’ multi-directional acculturation strategies, which are also determined by their level of cosmopolitanism.

The taxonomy presented in this paper advances current acculturation scholarship by suggesting a multi-directional model for acculturation strategies as opposed to the existing uni-directional and bi-directional perspectives and explicates the role of consumer cosmopolitanism in consumer acculturation. The paper did not engage host communities and there is hence a need for future research on how and to what extent host communities are acculturated to the multicultural environment.

The findings have direct implications for the choice of standardisation vs adaptation as a marketing strategy within multicultural cities. Whilst the rebellion group are more likely to respond to standardisation, increasing adaptation of goods and service can ideally target members of the resistance and resonance groups and more fusion products should be exclusively earmarked for the resonance group.

The paper makes original contribution by introducing a multi-directional perspective to acculturation by delineating four-group taxonomy (rebellion, rarefaction, resonance and refrainment). This paper also presents a dynamic model that captures how consumer cosmopolitanism impinges upon the process and outcome of multi-directional acculturation strategies.

“Multiculturalism” is a troubled concept, in a political as well as in a scholarly sense. What has triggered this paper is the authors’ experience of the hardships involved in understanding the power structures embedded in societies termed “multicultural”; we find ourselves equipped with a set of conceptual tools that are confusing, and with policy makers that compound that confusion. This presentation takes as its point of departure the tension engendered at the interface between popular democracy ground rules and minority rights, and turns in its second part to current political vocabulary in Norway. Thematically, the discussion moves from the intricacies of “cultural rights” to a closer look at the bias implicit in the benevolent phrase “fair terms of integration.” The suggestion is that hidden underneath the niceties, we find the unavoidable and seemingly unspeakable dilemmas of a welfare state confronted with non-economic, humanitarian principles. Let us be clear about one thing, however; the aim of this presentation is not to solve problems, but to face them.

This study explores how a group of middle school social studies teachers at a school, whose student population is primarily affluent and white, include multicultural content in their curriculum. Interviews and observations along with an analysis of the textbooks, state standards, and the school’s scope and sequence were the main sources of data collection. Three common themes arose in this study in relation to the incorporation of multicultural content into the social studies curriculum: (a) There is a discrepancy between teachers’ perceptions and practices; (b) the teachers’ background in multicultural education is limited, and (c) though there is some inclusion of multicultural content, it is not put into practice in any substantial way because it is not seen as applicable to their school environment.

“Black Day to Freedom” project was the culmination of five years of performance ethnography research that continues today in various forms through BeyondLabels. The title “Black Day to Freedom” came from an asylum seeker participating in a “free verse” workshop where all participants expressed their views on globalisation, social movement of people and identity. “Black Day to Freedom” his title, provides an insight into his perceptions of life and this framed a need to conduct further research into providing a voice for refugees and asylum seekers through informal multicultural education and associated visual arts expression.

The research follows a performance ethonographic perspective into the informal multicultural education project specific to exploring expressions of identity of refugee by migrant artists.

The informal multicultural education initiative specific to exploring expressions of identity of refugee by migrant artists was highly personalised and immersive in style with both educators and learners being co‐producers. This immersive, challenging, absorbing project required a passion by all to the mode of communications (visual arts) and the subject focus of refugee identity. The key implication of the informal multicultural education initiative is the unique insights provided by the migrant voices.

A key implication of this research into informal multicultural education practice in the context of supporting expressions of refugee indentity by migrant artists is the need for further research into pedagogy equity in the context of personalised learning design for non‐traditional learners. One key question for future studies would be how we can improve our understanding of the “bridge” between informal and formal education and as a consequence engage the non‐engaged from cultural diverse backgrounds in our educational institutions.

Provides insights into multicultural education initiatives.