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The White Australia policy is a generic term used to describe a collection of historical legislation and policy, intended to restrict non-white (people) immigration to Australia, and to promote European ethnic groups immigration, from 1901 to 1973. However, the Policy started unravelling some decades earlier than this, with reforms starting in the 1940s that encouraged non-British and non-white immigration. From 1973 onwards, the White Australia policy was for all practical purposes defunct, and in 1975 the Australian Government passed the 1975 Racial Discrimination Act 1975 which made racially-based selection criteria illegal.

Restrictions on immigration began with anti-China legislation during the Australian goldrushes of the 1850s. The key legislative enactment of the White Australia Policy was the Immigration Restriction Act 1901 of 1901. Discriminatory immigration policies were gradually removed between the end of World War II and 1982 with racially discriminatory aspects of the Migration Act 1958 officially overturned in 1973.

"White Australia Policy" is also commonly used to refer to the conception of Australia in ethnic nationalism terms.

Immigration policy prior to Federation Pre Gold Rush Immigration Prior to 1830, the Australian colonies of New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land had no specific policies on immigration; they were predominantly concerned with the penal transportation of British convicts and the support of these new settlements. Of the nearly 150,000 convicts transported to Australia, only 4,000 were not from the dominion and of these only 900 were non-white.{{cite web|url=http://www.manningclark.org.au/papers/belonging.htm| last =Jordans| first =Anne-Mari| date = 2004-07-01| title = Belonging and exclusion: national identity and citizenship, immigration and multiculturalism| format =HTML| publisher =Manning Clark House Inc.| accessdate =2006-06-14--> These figures do not reflect a deliberate bias in immigration policy, rather they likely reflect the ethnic distribution of persons processed by the British legal system at the time. From 1830, the two Australian colonies made deliberate efforts to increase the number of Britons in Australia, as part of a program to increase their population. Incentives, including relocation expenses, were offered to British citizens to emigrate to Australia. This was driven by a "new Britannia" policy which aimed to see Australia recreated in Britain's image. Between 1830 and 1940, 1,068,312 Britons accepted this subsidised relocation to Australia.{{cite web|url=http://www.law.unimelb.edu.au/events/citizen/jupp.pdf| last =Jupp| first =Dr James| date =| title = Immigration and Citizenship| format =PDF| publisher =University of Melbourne| accessdate =2006-06-14-->

Gold Rush era The discovery of gold rush in Australia in 1851 led to an influx of immigrants from around the world. Over the next 20 years, 40,000 Chinese (mostly Cantonese people) migrated to the gold-fields.{{cite web|url=http://www.highbeam.com/library/docfree.asp?DOCID=1G1:18167215&ctrlInfo=Round20%3AMode20c%3ADocG%3AResult&ao=| last =Markey| first =Raymond| date = 1996-01-01| title = Race and organized labor in Australia, 1850-1901| format =HTML| publisher =Highbeam Research| accessdate =2006-06-14--> Competition on the gold-fields led to significant conflict between groups. The Chinese were frequently denounced by white prospectors and blamed for bad luck and "unfair" competition.

This tension eventually led to a series of protests and riots, including the Lambing Flat riots between 1860 and 1861. Charles Hotham, on 16 November 1854, appointed a Royal Commission on Victorian gold-fields problems and grievances. This led to restrictions being placed on Chinese immigration and residency taxes levied from Chinese residents in Victoria (Australia) from 1855 with New South Wales following suit in 1861. These restrictions remained in force until the early 1870s, but the tension never ceased.

Support from the trade union movement The growth of the sugar industry in Queensland in the 1870s led to searching for labourers prepared to work in a tropical environment. During this time, thousands of "Kanakas" (Pacific Islanders) were brought into Australia as indentured workers.{{cite web] movement began a series of protests against foreign labour. Their arguments were that Asians and Chinese took jobs away from white men, worked for substandard wages, lowered working conditions and refused unionisation.

Objections to immigration restrictions for non-whites came largely from wealthy land owners in rural areas. It was argued that without "Asiatics" to work in the tropical areas of the Northern Territory and Queensland, the area would have to be abandoned. Despite these objections to restricting immigration, between 1875-1888 all Australian colonies enacted legislation which excluded all further Chinese immigration. Asian immigrants already residing in the Australian colonies were not expelled and retained precisely the same rights as their Anglo and Celtic compatriots insofar as citizenship.

Agreements were made to further increase these restrictions in 1895 following an Inter-colonial Premier's Conference where all colonies agreed to extend entry restrictions to all non-white races. However, in attempting to enact this legislation, the Governors of New South Wales, South Australia and Tasmania reserved the bills, due to a treaty with Japan, and they did not become law. Instead, the Natal Act of 1897 was introduced, restricting "undesirable persons" rather than any specific race.

From Federation to World War II Federation Convention and Australia's first government Immigration was a prominent topic in the lead up to Australian Federation of Australia. At the Federation Convention, Western Australian premier and future federal cabinet member, John Forrest, summarised the prevailing feeling: is of no use to shut our eyes to the fact that there is a great feeling all over Australia against the introduction of coloured persons. It goes without saying that we do not like to talk about it, but it is so.

The government following Federation in 1901 was formed by the Protectionist Party with the support of the Australian Labor Party. The support of the Labor Party was contingent upon restricting non-white immigration, reflecting the attitudes of the Australian Workers Union and other labour organisations at the time, upon whose support the Labor Party was founded.

Immigration Restriction Act 1901 The new Federal Parliament, as one of its first pieces of legislation, passed the Immigration Restriction Act 1901 to "place certain restrictions on immigration and... for the removal... of prohibited immigrants". The act drew on similar legislation in South Africa. Edmund Barton, the prime minister, argued in support of the Bill with the following statement: "The doctrine of the equality of man was never intended to apply to the equality of the Englishman and the Chinaman."

Early drafts of the Act explicitly banned non-Europeans from migrating to Australia but objections from the British government, which feared that such a measure would offend British subjects in India and Britain's allies in Japan, caused the Edmund Barton government to remove this wording. Instead, a "dictation test" was introduced as a device for excluding unwanted immigrants. Immigration officials were given the power to exclude any person who failed to pass a 50-word dictation test. At first this was to be in any European language, but was later changed to include any language.

Australia was not the only British Dominion to have such immigration policies. South Africa, Canada, and New Zealand also had racially restrictive immigration policies in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Similar restrictions also existed in the United States of America. In 1905 legislation was introduced to the United Kingdom, principally affecting Jews. (see also Komagata Maru, and the Red Summer of 1919). Australian soldiers were involved in the assaults on the Black British community in Cardiff, Wales in 1919.

In the same year, the government also passed the Pacific Island Labourers Act 1901. The result of this legislation was that 7,500 Pacific Islanders working in Australia were deported.

The Paris Peace Conference At the Paris Peace Conference, 1919 following World War I, Japan attended the conference with the explicit intention of having a racial equality proposal included in the League of Nations Charter. Japanese policy reflected their desire to remove or to ease the immigration restrictions against Chinese and Japanese (especially in America and Canada) which Japan regarded as a humiliation and affront to its prestige. Emperor Showa (Hirohito) was later to suggest that this was one of the reasons for the Greater East Asia War in the Pacific (Pacific Theatre of World War II).

Australia was one of few countries which had race as a dominant political ideology at the time. Australian Prime Minister Billy Hughes vehemently opposed the proposition. Hughes recognised that such a clause would be a threat to White Australia and made it clear to Lloyd George that he would leave the conference if the clause was adopted. When the proposal failed Hughes reported in the Australian parliament:"The White Australia is yours. You may do with it what you please, but at any rate, the soldiers have achieved the victory and my colleagues and I have brought that great principle back to you from the conference, as safe as it was on the day when it was first adopted."{{cite web], 2001| title = 100 Years: The Australia Story. Episode 2: Rise And Fall Of White Australia| format =HTML| publisher =Australian Broadcasting Commission| accessdate =2007-01-29-->

Abolition of the Policy World War II Between the Great Depression, starting in 1929 and the commencement of World War II in 1939, global economic pressures kept immigration to very low levels.{{cite web] (Australian Labor Party) reinforced the message of the White Australia Policy by saying: "This country shall remain forever the home of the descendants of those people who came here in peace in order to establish in the South Seas an outpost of the British race."{{cite web|url= http://www.immi.gov.au/media/fact-sheets/08abolition.htm| last =| first =| date =| title = Abolition of the 'White Australia' Policy| format =HTML| publisher = Australian Department of Immigration| accessdate =2006-06-14-->

However, by the end of World War II, Australia's vulnerability during the war in the Pacific and small population led to policies summarised by the slogan "Populate or Perish". During the war, many non-white refugees, including Malays, Indonesians and Filipinos, had settled in Australia. Immigration Minister Arthur Calwell, controversially sought to have them all deported. In 1949 Harold Holt allowed the remaining 800 non-white refugees to apply for residency, and also allowed Japanese "war brides" to settle in Australia.

Relaxation of restrictions Australian policy began to shift towards significantly increasing immigration. Legislative changes over the next few decades continuously opened up immigration in Australia.

• 1947 The Australian Government relaxed the Immigration Restriction Act allowing Non-Europeans the right to settle permanently in Australia for business reasons.
• 1950 Colombo Plan, students from Asian countries were admitted to study at Australian universities.
• 1957 Non-Europeans with 15 years' residence in Australia were allowed to become citizens.
• 1958 The Migration Act, 1958 abolished the dictation test and introduced a simpler system for entry.
• 1959 Australians were permitted to sponsor Asian spouses for citizenship.
• 1964 Conditions of entry for people of Non-European stock were relaxed.

After a review of the European policy in March 1966, Immigration Minister Hubert Opperman announced applications for migration would be accepted from well-qualified people on the basis of their suitability as settlers, their ability to integrate readily and their possession of qualifications positively useful to Australia. At the same time, the Harold Holt Liberal government decided a number of "temporary resident" non-Europeans, who were not required to leave Australia, could become permanent residents and citizens after five years (the same as for Europeans).

As a result, annual non-European settler arrivals rose from 746 in 1966 to 2,696 in 1971, while annual part-European settler arrivals rose from 1,498 to 6054.

End of the White Australia Policy The effective end of the White Australia policy is usually dated to 1973, when the Gough Whitlam Labor government implemented a series of amendments preventing the enforcement of racial aspects of the immigration law. These amendments legislated that:

• All migrants, of whatever origin, be eligible to obtain citizenship after three years of permanent residence.
• Ratified all international agreements relating to immigration and race.
• Issued policy to totally disregard race as a factor in selecting migrants.

The 1975 Racial Discrimination Act 1975 made the use of racial criteria for any official purpose illegal.

It was not until the Malcolm Fraser Liberal government's review of immigration law in 1978 that all selection of prospective migrants based on country of origin was entirely removed from official policy. Currently, a large number of Australia's immigrants are from countries such as China and India, though the United Kingdom and New Zealand respectively remain the two largest single sources of immigrants.

The last selective immigration policy, offering relocation assistance to British nationals, was finally removed in 1982.

Legacy Contemporary demographics The 2001 Australian census results indicate that a majority of Australians claim some European heritage: English 37%, Irish 11%, Italian 5%, German 4.3%, Scottish 3%, Greek 2%, Dutch 1.5%, Polish 0.9%. Non-European origin forms a significant but still relatively small part of the population: Chinese 3.2%, Lebanese 0.9%, Indian 0.9%, Vietnamese 0.9%. 2.2% identified themselves as Indigenous Australians. 39% of the population gave their ancestry as "Australian". In Australian society, although the identification of 'white' is always opinion based, it primarily pertains to people of Anglo-Celtic and Northern European origin and/or appearance, sometimes excluding Mediterranean Europeans. (Note that subjects were permitted to select more than one answer for this census question.){{cite web|url= http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/7d12b0f6763c78caca257061001cc588/af5129cb50e07099ca2570eb0082e462!OpenDocument| last =| first =| date =| title = Population characteristics: Ancestry of Australia's population| format =HTML| publisher = Australian Bureau of Statistics| accessdate =2006-06-14-->

15 percent of the population now speaks a language other than English at home.{{cite web|url= http://www.migrationinformation.org/Feature/display.cfm?ID=72| last = Inglis| first = Christine| date = 2002-12-01| title = Australia's Increasing Ethnic and Religious Diversity| format =HTML| publisher = Migration Policy Institute| accessdate =2006-06-14--> The most commonly spoken languages are Italian, Greek, Cantonese and Arabic.

Political and social legacy Discrimination on the basis of race or ethnicity has been illegal in Australia since 1975. Australia's official policy on racial diversity is: "to build on our success as a culturally diverse, accepting and open society, united through a shared future".{{cite web|url= http://www.immi.gov.au/multicultural/_inc/pdf_doc/united_diversity/united_diversity.pdf| last =| first =| date =| title = MULTICULTURAL AUSTRALIA: UNITED IN DIVERSITY (SOCIAL ENGINEERING AND THE ENFORCEMENT OF DIVERSITY)| format = PDF| publisher = The Australian Department of Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs| accessdate =2006-06-14--> The White Australia Policy continues to be mentioned in modern contexts, although few politicians ever mention the policy, except when denouncing their opposition. John Howard argued for restricting immigration in 1988, later admitting that his comments cost him his job at the time:

{{cquote] party received 9% of the national election vote.{{cite web|url= http://psephos.adam-carr.net/countries/a/australia/index1998.shtml| last = Carr| first = Adam| date =| title = Federal Election of 3 October 1998 was widely accused of taking Australia back to the days of the White Australia Policy, particularly through reference to [Arthur Calwell, one of the policy's strongest supporters:

{{cquote] in her maiden speech to parliament-->

Topics related to racism and immigration in Australia are still regularly connected by the Mass media to the White Australia Policy. Some examples of issues and events where this connection has been made include:Indigenous Australians; Mandatory detention in Australia; the 2005 Cronulla riots. Former opposition Labor party leader Mark Latham, in his book The Latham Diaries, described the ANZUS alliance as a legacy of the White Australia policy.

In 2007, the Howard Government introduced a citizenship test to include a tougher English language test, and a test on "Australian" values. The actual questions of such citizenship test have not been publicly released.

Though the White Australia policy, which had segregated Indigenous Australians, no longer exists, their poor socio-economic conditions typically leave them segregated from the rest of Australian society. The situation in 1997 led one activist to suggest that the country could be led "back to apartheid".http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/24/054.html In fact, Australian government policy from earlier years is viewed by some as the original impetus for the Apartheid system in South Africa.http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/24/177.html http://www.jcu.edu.au/aff/history/articles/limb.htm

See also

• First white child
• Racism
• Head tax (New Zealand)
• Settler colonialism
• South Sea Islanders
• Sinophobia
• Yellow peril
• Europeans in Oceania

References Further reading

• Wulf D. Hund (2006): White Australia oder der Krieg der Historiker. In: Blätter für deutsche und internationale Politik, 3.
• Laksiri Jayasuriya, David Walker, Jan Gothard (Eds.) (2003): Legacies of White Australia. Crawley, University of Western Australia Press.
• (old but still very useful)

External links

• (scan of the Act and information)
• The Mabel Freer Case

White Australia policy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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