Australasian Review of African Studies, 2018, 39(2), 74-84 http://afsaap.org.au/ARAS/2018-volume-39/ https://doi.org/10.22160/22035184/ARAS-2018-39-2/74-94 AFSAAP 2018 74 ARAS Vol.39 No.2 December 2018 The ‘Culturally and Linguistically Diverse’ (CALD) label: A critique using African migrants as exemplar Kwadwo Adusei-Asante Edith Cowan University K.adusei@ecu.edu.au Hossein Adibi Edith Cowan University h.adibi@ecu.edu.au Abstract This article critiques the widely accepted official label ‘Culturally and Linguistically Diverse’ (CALD), used in Australia to refer mainly to Australia’s non-Indigenous ethnic groups other than the English-speaking Anglo-Saxon majority. Our main contention is that it is a racialised and racialising label that perpetuates institutional racism, providing a conceptual excuse for legitimising privilege and altruistic governmentality over minority groups, while inferiorising and projecting these groups as an analogous population who need ‘fixing’. The article draws on the sociological construct of labelling, through which we analyse the framing of CALD people in the literature as ‘deviants’ using Black African Migrants in Australia as exemplars. We propose that CALD labelling is counterproductive because it hinders social integration, divides people into ‘us and them’, homogenises, blurs particular lived experiences and needs, and ignores intersectional issues. Introduction In Australia, the term ‘Culturally and Linguistically Diverse’ (CALD) is a widely accepted and institutionalised label that is used in political, government, research and popular discourse to refer to non-English-speaking and non-Anglo-Saxon minority groups (other than indigenous Australians). Adopted in the 1990s to replace an even more problematic label ‘non-English Speaking Background (NESB), the CALD label is rarely critiqued but rather, is used un-problematically. In our view, the CALD label, however subtly and inadvertently, frames minority groups in Australia as “deviants”.