White Australian Immigration Analysis

WWII had a big impact on the social changes in Australia before and after the war. One of the reasons it had such an impact on Australia was due to the immigration policy, which was made to increase Australia’s population. The immigration policy is a policy on legal migrants. Legal migrants who come to Australia under the migration act are non – Australians who come to the country for work or other reasons without permission or people who overstay their visas. This enforces that those who come in the country without permission may be subject to mandatory immigration detention and may be deported from the country at any time, unless been given permission to stay in Australia. This policy has contributed to the multicultural society of Australia today. To this day, there in an estimated 50 000 people who have overstayed their visas, most of these people come from British nations. Those touching base by boat or different means without official classification as refugees are no longer granted permission outcast status on landing. For example, those from an Asian background are becoming a more familiar part of Australia’s society today. Overseas migrant entries have assumed a vital part in changing the face of Australia. The current variety of migrants born in Australia include areas such as The United Kingdom, New Zealand, Italy, Vietnam, China, Greece, Germany, Philippines and India. Since the change in immigration policy in the late 1960s to one of non-discrimination on race or ethnic background, there has been a significant change in the overseas sources of migrants, with settlers arriving from more diverse regions of the world. To this day, Australia’s overseas born population consists of people who practise over 140 recognized ethnic groups, people who fluently speak over 90 different languages and people who believe in over 80 different religions. This expanding ethnic and social diversity has changed the way Australians view both themselves and other societies of the world. It has

Net overseas migration has doubled from 146,800 in 2005-6 to 298,900 in 2008-9 (Australian Bureau of Statistics [ABS], 2011). Migrants born overseas account for a

The 27th of March 1952, approved the admission of some Japanese war brides and ex-servicemen into Australia. This was a significant turning point for Australian Immigration as previously, because of the, “White Australia” policy, immigration policy had been racially discriminatory and not let any other nation into Australia other than Europeans.

The same fate for other war-torn countries happened in the 20th century where Australia had experienced huge amounts of migration activity, e.g. countries such as Vietnam, Hungary, and Chile migrated to Australia to escape from war. The substantial immigration program experienced most migrants coming from the United Kingdom, China and India, this huge influx of migration saw much success in Australia, where migrants brought about new and unique developments in the economy, things such as entrepreneurship, new labour and skills in which they provided and catered to the rapidly increasing population’s demands for goods and

Historically, Australia and its policies were not accepting of immigration of a Multicultural Australia. With the ‘White Australia Policy’, adopted in 1901 (when the colonies

Australia, the country on a whole, has been favourable to skilled foreign workers, generating lists of occupations every few years to invite skilled foreign workers into the country. Attractive schemes are employed where the skilled migrant receives ample remuneration. The Skilled Occupation list is released every now and then with modifications and additions to sectors where skilled individuals are required, making sure that conditions are mutually beneficial to both the country and the skilled migrant.

Australia is a diverse country with many minority groups and foreign-born citizens. However, looking into Australia’s past we can see the multiple cases of anti-immigration based on racism and not xenophobia. The majority of Australians are of European descent, and they were the first immigrants to Australia. The first major immigration after the British settlements in the late eighteenth century was the Chinese immigrants during the gold rush. The White Australia Policy was later implemented from 1901 to 1966. The policy was rooted from the immigration wave during the gold rush. It is true that immigrants were scared of foreigners coming to take over their jobs, but it is hard to give an answer to why the Australians were not fearful of the

Australia is the currently ranked first amongst the major developed countries for its rapidly increasing population growth rate. Since 1851, when the discovery of gold was found in Bathurst, NSW, a significant number of continental Europeans, North Americans and Chinese migrated to Australia with the hope of making a fortune. Moreover, during the second half of the nineteenth century, the Australian government decided to subsidise migration to increase the immigration of Europeans to Australia. With the "White Australian Policy" in place, in 1938, the Australian Government agreed to accept 15,000 Jewish refugees, as a large proportion of the Jewish community were seeking to leave Germany and Austria due to the forced removal of Jews, "The Nazi policy of Judenrein." The "White Australia Policy" began to be abandoned in 1966, under Prime Minister Harold Holt. The last reside of the system was finally abolished in 1973 under the Government of Gough Whitlam.

The rush of new people introduced Australia to diverse cultures, religions and languages. Australia went from being devoted to the idea of becoming the White Australia to a multicultural country whom now shares multiple economics and politics of the Asian-Pacific regions (Neville Meaney, 1995). Currently Australia's migration policy gives any country the opportunity to migrate to Australia, regardless of their culture, race, religion or language (Spinks, 2010). Australian have slowly changed their attitudes towards foreigners. As a variety of cultures have been exposed Australians have developed an understand of other cultures and religions. Although many Australians have accepted the country's new role as a multicultural nation, there is still a large strong unlaying of racism in

“Today Australia is one of the most ethnically diverse societies in the world. Almost one in every four Australian residents was born outside of the Australian boarders and many more are first or even second generation Australians. These children and grandchildren would have recently arrived as migrants or refugees, But in the ninetieth and twentieth century, Migration was not accepted the same way. Australia had various laws that aimed to keep people who were from non-european backgrounds out of the country. These laws also restricted the lives of people who were not white and were already currently living in Australia. The Immigration Act 1909 - most popularly known as the White Australia Policy - which caused upset within Australia’s international relationships with Britain and Japan. This caused other nations to criticise Australia’s racial views and eventually immigration restrictions were gradually loosened and Australian’s began to be less fearful of people from a wide range of different countries and backgrounds. The big push for the Immigration Act 1901 in the first place was due to Australia’s fear of Asian migration and population take over. “

The issue of “truth” and it's representation in regards to the perception of “non (White) Australian” Australians has been a recurring motif through out Australian history. The majority of representations of Indigenous Australians, those the White Australia policy was designed to exclude and refugees who arrived since World War 2 have been deliberately manipulated to reinforce the perceived undesirability of these people.

Some of the reasons for internal migration in Australia are natural disasters destroying homes and surrounding areas. For centuries floods, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions have left millions of people unable to return to their homes. This internal migration is for environmental reasons. People need to move because of health issues as well (to be nearby hospitals or medical facilities). Some people choose to move cities because they believe that they will have a better life there, or to be near family members for family support. Retirement is also a factor contributing. The sea change suburbs have high levels of immigration of young families and retirees. These people move for social reasons. Sometimes, people move for career opportunities or educational purposes so that they can better their lives

The change of Australia’s culture and multiculturalism from 1945 to the present time has been shaped by the revolution of official government migration policies. The changes in policies allowed many different migrants from all around the world to settle in Australia. The end of World War II showed a turning point in Australia’s views of migration as Australia thought that it was necessary they make an impact in the new world order. Since then discrimination such as the ‘White Australia Policy’ and the ‘Ten Pound Pom’ are no longer said because the making of modern Australia.

Figures from the Bureau of Statistics indicate that Australia's population increase due to migration has begun to slow down this year. It was approximated that the amount of people migrating to Australia last year was 184,100. This figure follows a trend in which the amount of people migrating to Australia is becoming lower, especially since this figure is a 15% decrease from the year before. In total, migration into Australia totalled to over 470,000 people to the overall population, also 5.3% fewer than the year previous. Australia’s growth rate has dropped to 1.4%, the population only increasing by 330,200 to total at 23.6m by last year. In addition to the fact that migration figures are decreasing, many people are leaving states such as Queenland, Northern Territories and Western Australia. However, this did not affect their overall population too much as the amount of births exceeded the amount of deaths. The article also states that overseas migration was at its’ peak during 2008.

“The number of former migrants leaving the country has doubled in just over a decade to 48,000 and last year made up more than half of all Australians moving overseas.” Is this because of marginalisation or something else?