Sydney-based author Sushil Suresh has never been one to shy away from uncomfortable truths. His latest book, Australia the Racial Caste System, is a provocative exploration of how racism, far from being a relic of the past, continues to structure the social, economic, and cultural fabric of contemporary Australia. In a conversation brimming with candour and complexity, Suresh explains why he frames Australian society through the lens of a “racial caste system,” a term he believes captures the entrenched hierarchies that persist beneath the veneer of multicultural harmony.
Drawing on historical, political, and sociological insights, Suresh unpacks how systemic racism manifests in areas such as the labour market, housing, and public policy. His perspective challenges Australia’s self-image as a multicultural success story, arguing instead that racial privilege cloaks itself in coded language and institutional norms.
For Suresh, the urgency of this conversation lies in its potential to reframe how Australians understand inclusivity and equity. Yet, he remains sceptical of easy solutions, acknowledging the deeply entrenched nature of these hierarchies. This interview explores his thought process, where he candidly discusses the myths, contradictions, and realities of race in Australia today.
What inspired you to write Australia the Racial Caste System, and why do you believe this perspective is urgent now? How did you arrive at the term “racial caste system” and why do you think it is the best framework to describe Australia’s social structure? Can you elaborate on why racism, in your view, is an organising principle rather than an anomaly in Australian society?
There is a great deal of research and other writing on race and racism in Australia and in the US and UK. All this shaped my own views about race, but I felt that race/racism was too omnipresent, too varied, too fluid and complex for research or journalism to be able to speak to its everyday avatars. While it is well known that racism is a manifestation of social power and hierarchies in society, debate and discussion in the public sphere have something of a ritualistic, and formulaic side. This is partly because the matter is sensitive, and public debates usually unfold along sanctioned paths. Another reason is that it is impossible to speak of a universal experience of racism. This means that only certain concerns related to racism are voiced in the public sphere. These concerns and debates are shaped by powerful interests in society that claim to speak for marginality and in the process promote their own political goals. This is not a matter of good vs bad, but a matter of different sections of society competing to shape public perceptions of marginality, and in the process deciding what is legitimate and what lacks legitimacy. For for instance, some forms of racism are seen as human nature and so beyond questioning. This ensures that many everyday customs and conventions go unchallenged.
Racism is not just a matter of state policy or institutionalised politics, although these should be critiqued for their racial biases. I started from the position that larger processes in society, like economics, investment, government policy on migration etc are shaped by everyday life. This is well known, but what is not spoken of explicitly is how racism has always shaped larger social phenomena. I wanted to use contemporary issues and debates to show the connections of everyday racism/s to larger social processes like migration, jobs, education and housing. This is what I’ve attempted: to show that racial privilege masks itself as natural superiority or the result of a past that is dead and gone. I wanted to challenge the idea of biological races, the myth that there are biological races with biologically defined cultural and other traits, as well as the idea that the history of racism does not live with us today. All this has been extensively written about, but I wanted to bring those insights to bear on the problem of race/racism and the job market in Australia, and to also try to show the connections between housing, jobs, education and racial privilege and power in Australia. I felt that one must be cautious in seeing multiculturalism and racial diversity as progress, at a time when race/racism continues to structure society and shape everyday life for most people.
Racism is a dirty word no one likes to be tainted with. This situation, combined with other social processes, has changed the nature of public life in a manner that has enabled racism to thrive behind race neutral ways of speaking and acting. So, we have coded ways of speaking that enable racism to thrive in public life: the debates on immigration is a classic example. Housing is another great example. We think that these are purely economic or social issues. My question is: are they really race neutral? Or can we think that immigration, like housing, today is a sanitised term that permits race neutral discussions of community, demography. It seems to me that these discussions often veil the racial anxieties around rising levels of diversity, and the corrosive effect this has on Australia’s image of itself as a White nation.
Racial power and privilege in Australia today depend on social and economic realities that should force us to question the official propaganda about the economy and society. What role does racial caste play in shaping migration and the job market? When we look at our suburbs is there reason to think that segregation is not an organising force in urban life today? What is the nature of diversity in the job market today? Why is it that some jobs and professions have low levels of diversity? Shouldn’t we be asking if these sectors really represent the diversity we see on the streets? If not, why not? What ends does the job market serve if entire sectors of the workforce are incapable of representing racial diversity? It can’t be an accident that the labour market is a blocked institution in Australia. We must see these blockages as the result of a micropolitics of racism, a racism that creates injustices and inequalities in society. If race is a fundamental faultline in society then it should make us wonder if we are safe, as members of the community, in situations where we have to go to court or expect to be treated like an equal in a school or university or at work or in the suburbs.
You argue that migrants from the global south are funnelled into low-wage roles. What historical or political factors do you believe created this structure? How does Australia’s skilled migration programme contribute to the perpetuation of racial hierarchies, in your opinion? Do you think there are industries or sectors where these labour market dynamics are particularly visible?
I studied data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) on the employment experiences of skilled migrants. The book outlines the different phases in Australia’s recent migration history, and discusses research on the employment patterns of “skilled” and “unskilled” immigrants to Australia. This research generally assumes that while there is discrimination in the labour market, most educated migrants work in professional roles in Australia. This is a blatant lie, and propaganda. Race determines the distribution of migrants in sectors of the labour market in Australia. The reasons why people think that immigrant professionals are in white collar occupations, especially if they have the required qualifications, are complex. The appearance of diversity on the streets and in the workplace adds to this myth. Any interested observer will find well-educated migrants from the third world, including doctors and engineers, driving cabs or working in jobs that have nothing to do with their education.
It needs to be kept in mind that the job market is a blocked institution everywhere in the world, be it India, China, wherever… Labour market segmentation also happens along the lines of gender, age, region etc However, in Australia race is playing a decisive role in labour market segmentation, and so-called experts are turning a blind eye to this phenomenon that is plain as daylight even to schoolboys. While everyday people may not use the words of sociologists or economists, many immigrant communities, the largest ones from the Global South, are usually associated with low wage or blue-collar work. A consequence of this is that several ethnicities find this stereotype a hurdle in itself, and needless to say that it favours some other ethnicities who seek entry to the job market. It would make my answer long and complex to list all the factors behind the segmentation of the labour market along the lines of race/ethnicity, but definitely choice plays a big part: many immigrants prefer to work in ethnic niches or factories or stable jobs. Many immigrants are just happy to be working in Australia, regardless of the job they hold. So, individual choice, circumstances all play a big part.
However, collectively, viewed as a social trend, the segmentation of the labour market promotes the maintenance of White privilege and the marginalisation of non-white communities. The skilled migration program does not always, and cannot possibly, determine the actual shortages and requirements of the labour market at any point in time. Besides, skill is something that is a matter of definition. Most migrants today have tertiary level education, and many have qualifications from Australian universities. Many have years of experience in the source countries, yet when we look at their placement in the labour market, their working lives, it would be hard not to think that racism forces them to find alternative paths to make a life in Australia. This is not necessarily a bad thing, certainly not for everyone, but there are political reasons behind this. And one should question why White is considered more eligible or suitable for certain jobs?
Can you expand on how housing patterns reinforce racial segregation and inequality in Australia? Do you think government policies, such as zoning laws or housing subsidies, play a role in perpetuating these divides? How do you see the intersections between housing wealth, education, and access to jobs shaping long-term racial inequities?
Government policies shape everyday life, including housing; and zoning etc play a role in promoting “necessary” or unnecessary devious divisions in society. Housing and jobs/professions are not separable. We know that entire suburbs are either predominantly high income White, or low-income immigrant “ethnic” suburbs. But we commonly tend to think that both these jobs and homes are available to anyone who has the right education, skills and income. Given the blockages in the labour market — and we must name these blockages: they are created by a racialised culture — access to jobs is not open to everyone in society. Even if diversity enables people from all ethnicities to get jobs in any industry, surviving in a profession can be difficult if the diversity is merely tokenistic. This makes it hard to build a long-term career that enables one to save to buy a home. In short, while individuals may prosper in sectors, and live in leafy suburbs, on the whole housing and the job market work together in complex ways to promote segregation in Australia. The Research on renting in urban Australia, for example, always relies on anecdotal evidence to confirm the existence of racial bias in housing. But the fact is that entire suburbs wouldn’t be predominantly low income or ethnic, recent immigrants etc if racial steering is not prevalent. Really, it’s bizarre that writers, journalists, academics speak and act as though this is not how things are.
My ethnicity means, more often than not, people assume where I live in the city. But it’s not just where I live: a host of other associations come into play in determining my everyday social life and interactions in the workforce and the community at large. To believe and argue that this is not the case, to be blind to race and its logic/s in everyday life is a shocking form of innocence or apathy. One sees this sort of behaviour all the time in the community. Immigrants often want to believe that the host society is not prejudiced, and will treat them fairly. The reality is that society is a terrain structured towards herding people of certain ethnicities and appearances to certain spaces and places…Since this type of segregation enormously privileges certain sections of society at the expense of others there is a deafening silence about this caste system. These privileged sections have a voice, but their voice and their public stage is literally funded by economic growth that owes a great deal to immigration from the global south.
You critique the image of Australia as a multicultural haven. How do you think this narrative has been constructed and maintained? What are some of the most glaring contradictions between Australia’s multicultural branding and its institutional realities? How do you hope your book will challenge or reshape public perceptions of Australia’s social fabric?
It is hard to see my writing making any change. Books and writing are not capable of making any change. Most writing though comes from powerful sections of society and reflects the prestige attached to the spaces that produce these writings, in the form of research, books, media articles etc.
But I think racial diversity is an established fact in urban Australia. It is working its way into every aspect of life, and really…it would be hard to argue that any part of society can escape the reality of diversity… However, the resistance to diversity takes many forms. Workplace diversity, or the appearance of diversity, contrary to the claims it makes about its progressive nature…workplace diversity is more a façade that stymies real diversity. Workplace diversity is often a carefully curated diversity that aims to strike a pose while maintaining the status quo.
The lack of real diversity in the workforce is a danger to pluralism as it uses individuals who are not White to promote the illusion of inclusivity. A diverse workforce would be based on a program of not just offering individuals a seat at the table but creating diversity at all levels of an organisation or making a profession responsive to the diversity in society. Why would you have entire bureaucracies, the public sector, or the legal system, or the teacher workforce largely made up of one ethnicity? Where do the taxes or the profits for a bank or private business today come from? Certainly, from the wider “multicultural community”. Why then do we not have this community been involved in decision making in organisations? Surely, this is unethical. One race keeping all the prestigious jobs and positions of society for itself. In many arenas of public life we see mere tokenism, for instance politicians giving funds to ethnic bodies, and other forms of patronage. Really, in some ways it’s a deadlock. Given the limited number of jobs and the rising levels of migration, I’m not sure what the way out is. I can only see a caste system entrenching itself behind the charade of multiculturalism.
How do Australia’s racial hierarchies compare to those in other settler societies, such as the United States or Canada? What role do you think Indigenous histories and ongoing struggles play in your analysis of Australia’s racial caste system? Do you believe Australia’s media and cultural industries contribute to the perpetuation of these racial hierarchies?
There is a common assumption that Australia is not America; that this is a genuinely multicultural society where racism has no place… but I think there are plenty of similarities, and most people are aware of it. The denial of the similarities arising from immigration, racial diversity etc is another way of denying the centrality of race/racism in society.
I believe that there is no common experience of racism. There are different histories of racism, and bringing them all together under the one rubric is lazy and easy. I wish people wouldn’t take the easy way out, and be open to engaging with racism and society in all its complexity rather than rely on slogans of solidarity when often these solidarities are not practical, or definitely fraught. But it is important for immigrants, for example, to know and engage with the history of settlement in Australia. I have always been interested and continue to learn from indigenous histories, but it is important to remember that there is no grand overarching narrative of racism, and so our solidarities too will be provisional and fragmented.
What steps do you believe are necessary to dismantle the racial hierarchies you describe in your book? How can institutions like schools or local governments play a role in promoting genuine inclusivity and equity? What role do you see for grassroots activism or community organisations in addressing these systemic issues?
I think it is naïve to think racial hierarchies can be dismantled. While race itself is constantly changing, and our ideas of racism are changing too, it is unlikely that we will move into a post-racial world. The way racism works will always change. Many older forms of racism will be seen as unacceptable. Race is not a stable category, it is bound up with class, culture, nation, profession and so much else. It is neither good nor bad, in some senses. Looking back over the last few decades, I would say that our idea of race, and of Whiteness itself is changing, although often we’re not conscious of it. As the ethnic make-up of the community shifts the discourses on race will see subtle and not-so subtle changes, for instance in claims made for equality, inclusion etc.
Were there any moments during your research or writing process that particularly shocked or moved you? How has the reception to your book been so far, and do you anticipate any challenges in presenting these ideas to a broader audience?
What shocked me the most was the number of educated non-white people in low-wage low-status jobs. I did not expect to find so many engineers, doctors etc in blue collar jobs. I met many engineers who had worked in Australia for many years as engineers and then after losing a job could not continue in their profession. One of them, a man from Pakistan, told me that it was mental torture not being able to make use of his education and experience. I was also taken aback by the extent of segregation in Sydney, both the residential and labour market. Last, but not least, I find the new phase of immigration centred around higher education really shocking, and a clear illustration of the caste system that Australia is today. What is more shocking is that most people act as if this is not how things are, and we live in a truly pluralistic and diverse society and democracy. I find both these beliefs untenable.
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