24 Multiculturalism and Whiteness: Through the Experiences of Second Generation Cypriot Turkish Lütfiye Ali Christopher C. Sonn Victoria University Multicultural policies have enabled many migrants and their descendents to develop a sense of belonging to Australia. However, national multicultural policies also position the Anglo Saxon descendents as a higher civilised group who are more Australian relative to their ‘ethnic’ counterparts, who are confronted with ambiguity when identifying as an Australian. By adopting critical whiteness studies as an analytical framework we explore community dynamics by focusing on how the Anglo Saxon ethnic group maintains its dominance and privilege. We examine discourses that second generation Cypriot Turkish people in Australia use to construct their identity. Our analysis reveals the covert and often banal ways in which privilege is maintained. We suggest that whiteness studies provides a set of tools to extend critical community psychology because of its focus on unpacking how dominance is negotiated and potentially reproduced by those who have differential access to racialised privilege. This article examines dynamics of Australian, as not having an ethnic identity. On inclusion and exclusion through the the other hand, for many migrant descendants experiences of second generation Cypriot their Australian identity is accessible if it is Turkish Australians. In the year 1973 the hyphenated with their ethnic identity. As a White Australia Policy, which favoured result people other than Anglo Saxon have immigration from certain countries, was noted ambiguity about their belongingness to officially replaced with the national policy of the Australian community (Ang, Brand, Noble Multiculturalism. Multicultural policies did not & Sternberg, 2006; Castles & Vasta, 1996; discriminate on the basis of race, culture and Sonn & Lewis, 2009; Vasta, 1992; Vasta, religion in relation to immigration to Australia 1993; Zevallos, 2003; Zevallos & Gilding, (Department of Immigration and Citizenship 2003). These processes of identity negotiation, [DIAC], 2007). Multicultural policies were which we describe in this article, demonstrate also a reactionary move following migrant the relational and contingent nature of ethnic resistance to assimilation as they redefined identity. their past in a new social and political context Ethnic identity is conceptualised as a (Vasta, 1993). Multicultural policies afforded relational construct which is negotiated with different ethnic groups the right to practice ones world and other people, structures, social their cultural and religious beliefs (DIAC, conditions expressed through discourses rather 2003). These policies provided impetus for the than something that is possessed (Hook, 2003; construction of new discourses and the Verkuyten, 2005). Mama (1995) defines emergence of the ethnic identity. In Australia, discourses as “historically constructed regimes the ethnic category embraces the identities of of knowledge. These include common-sense many migrants and the descendants of assumptions and taken-for-granted ideas, belief migrants in Australia. However, descendants systems and myths that groups of people share of an Anglo Saxon background are ostensibly and through which they understand each omitted from this category1. Those of Anglo other” (p. 98). Discourses position people in Saxon background are simply identified as relation to each other socially, culturally, and The Australian Community Psychologist Volume 21 No 1 June 2009 Multiculturalism and Whiteness 25 politically, -- ‘ethnics’ are positioned in anyone who identified as other than Turkish had Australia as the other to Anglo Australians to pay extra tax shaping the modern bicultural who occupy a privileged, dominant and community of the island (Hugg, 2001). Cyprus normative position (Hage, 1998; Sonn & became an independent state in 1960 following Fisher, 2005). This normative and privileged an agreement between Britain, Greece and position has been named whiteness Turkey, which recognised the two ethnic groups (Frankenberg, 1993). Arguably, being as equal citizens under the new constitution positioned outside the dominant culture (Gorvett, 1999; Hugg, 2001). However, this provides a vantage point from which to make constitution collapsed during 1963 when the visible dominance and dynamics of inclusion drive for the unification of Cyprus with Greece and exclusion (Ladson-Billings, 2003; Sonn, gained momentum and ethnic cleansing became 2004). Challenging normativity and dominance widespread. In response, Turkey intervened to is in line with a community psychology (e.g., prevent the unification of Cyprus with Greece Watts & Serrano-García, 2003) agenda that is and to protect the Cypriot Turkish population aimed at deconstructing and transforming (Peggs, 1998). taken for granted discourses about race and The island has since been divided into ethnicity that position self and others in a two, with two separate governments. However, broader context of power relations. In this the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus article, we explore ethnic identity construction, (TRNC) is not recognised internationally by with a focus on the negotiation of whiteness, any other country besides Turkey (Gorvett, from the perspectives of Cypriot Turks who 1999; Rotberg, 2003). Turkish Cypriots remain grew up in Australia. unrepresented in the international arena unlike We draw on data from a research project the Greek Cypriots who represent Cyprus in that focused on dynamics of inclusion and international political and social arenas exclusion and the discourses that construct the (Bamanie, 2002). Due to the conflict around the multi-hyphenated nature of the Cypriot legitimacy of TRNC, the voices of Cypriot Turkish Australian identity (Ali, 2006; Ali & Turks’ and the representations of Cyprus have Sonn, in press). In this article we examine the been restricted making Cyprus, for those who negotiation of whiteness through the are not familiar with its history, a Greek Island experiences of second generation Cypriot with Cypriot Greek population. Turks Australians. We consider two discourses As a result of these historical and political that are used to construct Cypriot Turkish processes, Cypriot Turks who identify as a identity and examine how whiteness is Cypriot lose their ‘Turkishness’ as Cyprus is reproduced and privilege maintained through represented as a Greek Island. On the other the construction of other identities. Before this hand, identification as a Turk leads to the we provide background to the Cypriot Turkish assimilation of their identity with mainland identity and review literature on whiteness and Turks. Although Cypriot Turks have strong ties whiteness in an Australian context. This is with the mainstream Turkish community, they followed by examining whiteness from the perceive themselves and are perceived by vantage point of Cypriot Turkish lived mainland Turks as different, on the basis that experiences. they are not from Turkey and differ in terms of Cypriot Turkish identity and migration speaking and cultural values such as level of Cypriot Turks are descendents of the secularity (Canefe, 2002). Ottoman Empire, who remained in power Due to the inter-communal conflict of the until1878 when Cyprus was ceded to Britain. 1950s and 1960s and the economical and During this period the island was governed politically unstable nature of Cyprus during the under the Ottoman Millet system where 1970s and 1980s following the ongoing The Australian Community Psychologist Volume 21 No 1 June 2009 Multiculturalism and Whiteness 26 embargo imposed on TRNC, many Cypriot decide who belongs to the nation and the power Turks have migrated from Cyprus (Robins & to name racism. For instance, knowledge Aksoy, 2001). It is estimated that 40,000- around and the representations of Australia’s 50,000 people emigrated from Cyprus during colonial history is a political endeavour shaped this period (Kücükcan, cited in Robins & by the normative worldview of whiteness Aksoy, 2001). Cypriot Turks began migrating (Larbalestier, 2004). Whiteness also reproduces to Australia in early 1960 with the biggest and maintains its position of dominance as it is influx in the late 1960s (Sayar, 1988). linked with ownership of a nation whilst people Whiteness who do not belong to the white category are Steyn (2006) wrote that critical made to feel unease with their sense of whiteness studies has provided a site critiquing belonging to a nation due to the lack of racial formations by tracing processes that representation at a national level (Green et al., have lead to the ways in which white people 2007; Hage, 1998). Finally, whiteness are socially positioned relative to others. Part constructs itself through antiracism practices of the focus is to understand the implications because white people can assume the power to for identity construction of those racialised into name what is and what is not construed as whiteness as well as understanding the racism, and they can deny noticing race mechanisms and process – semiotic, including their own racial position (Ahmed, discursive, material and everyday ways – 2004; Green & Sonn, 2005; Green et al., 2007) through which whiteness is produced and Whiteness is not just shaped by daily life maintained. Frankenberg (1993) explains and current race relations but also shaped by whiteness to be a position of privilege, a local, national and international histories worldview and a set of cultural practices