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Intercultural Cities
Australian National Network
In 2022-2023, Australia will become home to 195,000 migrants who will became permanent residents.
Each person regardless of age, gender, sexual orientation, ability, nationality, religion, language or ethnicity needs the opportunity to feel part of their new community.
Wherever they live, the only way positive settlement experiences will happen is for networks to be developed within their new communities - with people from different cultural backgrounds - First Nations Australians, Australian-born non-Indigenous people and other overseas-born people. This is intercultural settlement.
Intercultural settlement needs all of us to step out of our usual networks; to get know each other; to share experiences; to share ideas and create new products and services; to become friends with people we may not ordinarily meet.
As the government closest to its community, local government can be a catalyst for local community interaction between people from different age, gender, sexual orientation, ability, nationality, religion, language and ethnic backgrounds.
What if relationships were deliberately facilitated at the local government level to reduce fear of each other, promote economic development, create friendships, meaningful interaction and improve harmony and social cohesion?
What if communities lived interculturally?
Interculturalism is a new term and practice in Australia and we're proud to champion it.
How does multiculturalism differ from interculturalism?
What is the Intercultural Cities Australian National Network?
ICANN is a national network of the Council of Europe’s Intercultural Cities (ICC) program. It promotes intercultural policy and practice in local government authorities in Australia, supports Australian cities to implement intercultural policies and practices and disseminates information and resources from the program to its members.
The specific objectives of the network are to:
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Provide a forum for peer support and information exchange among Australian intercultural cities
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Support Australian cities to adopt and develop intercultural policies, including by providing briefings on the intercultural approach to elected officials and assisting policymakers to develop intercultural strategies
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Represent Australian intercultural cities as a group within the ICC
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Develop a ‘critical mass’ of intercultural cities in Australia by growing Australian membership of ICANN and ICC
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Foster communication and collaboration between Australian and international intercultural cities which encourages further development of intercultural policies and practices
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Promote the intercultural cities approach in public forums in Australia
Membership of ICANN
In line with other ICC national networks, membership of ICANN is open to local governments interested in using an intercultural approach to facilitate social inclusion and other interested parties.
This includes
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Members of the Council of Europe’s ICC network
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Cities which are interested in becoming members of the ICC network
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Cities which are interested in adopting intercultural approaches without becoming a member of the ICC
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Representatives from across all levels of government
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Practitioners and policymakers advocating for interculturalism
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Researchers working on intercultural cities
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