The first recorded presence of Chinese in Australia was of a few domestic servants and labourers that began to arrive in 1827 to satisfy labour shortages during the second quarter of the 19th century (Australia Censuses).
The Gold Rush Migration
The first group of migration in the 19th century that to Australia after white settlement were the Chinese. Many of the Chinese people came to Australia during the gold rush in the 1850s. The White Australians were unfriendly towards them and sometimes there were disturbances on the goldfields. The white people also murdered some Chinese gold miners. The White Australian people said that they didn't like the Chinese migrants because they were taking all their mining jobs away. (Skwirk).
There was a law passed by the Victorian Government so that fewer Chinese people could come to Australia. (Skwirk).
These are some early examples of what later became recognised as the 'White Australia' policy. This meant that Australian governments wanted Australian to just be white people.
At the time of the gold rush there were also a lots of other from other countries migrating to Australia, like Europe, Britain and America. The Chinese community were even willing to be employed for a smaller amount money and to work in poorer conditions. (Skwirk).
The Australian people were worried because they thought if a lot of Chinese people came to Australia, they wouldn't be able to mainly white policy anymore. The Australians felt isolated because of Australia being so far away from other white nations, it also didn't help them having such a small population in contrast with their Asian neighbours (Skwirk).
Support from the Australian Labour Movement
At the same moment that the white Australians were concerned about the Chinese population taking their jobs away from them, they were transporting people from other countries to work forced labour. These people were from nearby islands in the Pacific, there were called 'kanakas' at the time. The 'kanakas' were brought into Queensland to work in the sugar cane industry (Skwirk).
The 'Kanakas' had no choice, not like other immigrants who chose to come to Australia. They were trapped into coming, some of the 'kanakas' were even kidnapped. "A newspaper story from 1872 describes how Australians shot and wounded kanakas and sank their canoes, then took them on board their ships back to Australia. This was called 'blackbirding'" (Skwirk).
The trade union movement commenced a series of protests against foreign labour, during the 1870's and 1880's. The trade unions main argument was that the Asians and Chinese, were stealing jobs away from the white men, they worked for "substandard" wages, lowered working conditions and refused unionisation. (Wikipedia)
From Federation to World War ll
Immigration Restriction Act 1901
This Act was the basis of the 'white Australia' policy for over fifty years. Rather than focus on particular nationalities as the anti-Chinese legislation had done in the nineteenth century, it prohibited all those who failed to pass a dictation test of fifty words in a European language. After 1905, any prescribed language could be used although this change was never implemented. The use of the test by immigration officers was discretionary and aimed to exclude all those who looked 'coloured'. The Act also prohibited those who had criminal records, were mentally ill, considered immoral, had contagious diseases, were unable to support themselves, and, until 1905, manual labourers under contract. The Dictation Test was abolished under the Migration Act 1958; the 'white Australia' policy officially came to an end in 1966 (National Achives of Australia).
Pacific Island Labourers Act
The Pacific Island Labourers Bill was also introduced by the Commonwealth government in 1901. Whilst the Immigration Restriction Act was intended to stop coloured races from entering Australia, legislation was required for those immigrants who were in Australia prior to the legislation. The Pacific Island Labourers Bill dealt with accomplishing the deportation of the group that were a major concern. Although supporting the growth and wealth of Queensland's rapidly developing sugarcane industry, a lot of people believed that the Pacific Islanders would have a harmful impact on the wages and working circumstances of the white population (Skwirk).
the Governor-General of Australia passed The Pacific Island Labourers Act on the 17th of December 1901. It provided for the deportation of the 10 000 Pacific Islanders that had worked on the sugarcane plantations in Queensland and New South Wales. A number of Pacific Islanders contested the Act on the basis that they had started a new life in Australia. The government altered the act till 1906 to allow some exemptions. The final deportation for the 'kanakas was between the end of 1906 and the middle of 1908. In total 1654 Pacific Islanders were given permission to remain in Australia (Skwirk).
The Paris Peace Conference
At the Paris Peace Conference in 1919 after World War 1, Japan wanted the Covenant of the League of Nations to contain a racial equality clause. The Japanese policy reflected their desire to keep the racial equality clause. The immigration restrictions against Japanese (especially in the United States and Canada), Japan regarded this as a disgrace and a insult to its prestige (Wikipedia).
The prospect of Japanese expansion in the Pacific was already worrying Hughes. During the early stages of the War, Australia, Japan and New Zealand had seized the German colonial empire's territories in the Pacific but Hughes was concerned to keep German New Guinea as essential to the defence of Australia (Wikipedia) (Australian - Japan Research Project). The Australia a League of Nations eventually granted the Mandate by the Treaty over German New Guinea and Japan. Australian and Japanese are to share the border. This situation was only altered by Japan's invasion of New Guinea in World War II (Wikipedia).
Australian Prime Minister William Hughes strongly opposed Japan's racial equality proposal. Hughes recognised that White Australia Policy would be threatened if such a clause was approved; he made it clear to the British Prime Minister David Lloyd George that if the clause was approved he would leave the conference (Wikipedia).
Hughes reported in the Australian parliament, when the proposal failed:
"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." (Wikipedia) (Australian Broadcasting Commission)
Prime Minister William Hughes also hailed that the White Australia Policy was "the greatest thing we have achieved (Australian Government Department of Immigration and Citerzenship).
Abolition of the 'White Australia Policy'
World War ll
After the outburst of warfare with Japan, Prime Minister John Curtin reinforced the idea of the 'White Australia' policy, 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" (Australian Government Department of Immigration and Citerzenship).
Many non-white refugees entered Australia, during World War II. Most of them left voluntarily at the end of the war, but a lot had married Australians and wanted to settle in Australia. The first immigration minister, Arthur Calwell, sought to transport them, this produces much protest (Australian Government Department of Immigration and Citerzenship).
In 1949, Minister Holt made a decision to allow 800 non-European refugees, and Japanese war brides to be admitted into Australia. This was the first step towards a non-discriminatory immigration policy (Australian Government Department of Immigration and Citerzenship).
Post War Immigration
Following the trauma of World War II, Australia's vulnerability during the Pacific War and its small population led to policies summarised by the slogan, "Populate or Perish". According to author Lachlan Strahan, this was an ethnocentric slogan that in effect was an admonition to fill Australia with Europeans or else risk it be overrun by Asians (Wikipedia).
During the war, many non-white refugees, including Filipinos, Indonesians and Malays, arrived in Australia. But the Minister for Immigration, Arthur Calwell controversially wanted to have them all deported. In 1948, the Iranian Bahá'ís were seeking to immigrate to Australia, but they were classified as "Asiatic" by the policy and were denied entry into Australia. Calwell's successor Harold Holt allowed the remaining 800 non-white refugees to apply for residency, and also allowed Japanese "war brides" to settle in Australia in 1949. In the meantime, Australia admitted large numbers of immigrants from Europe, mostly from, Yugoslavia, Greece, and Italy, as well as its traditional source of the British Isles.
Post-war development projects like the Snowy Mountains Scheme (1949-1972) needed a large labour drive; this could only be sourced by expanding Australia's migrant intake (Wikipedia).
Since 1945, over six million people have come to Australia as new settlers. Australia received more than 900,000 migrants during the 1990s, compared with:
1.6 million between October 1945 and 30 June 1960
1.3 million in the 1960s
960,000 in the 1970s
1.1 million in the 1980s
(Australian Human Rights Commission)
Relaxation of Immigration Restrictions
The Chifley Labor Government relaxed the Immigration Restriction Act in 1947, allowing non-Europeans the right to remain permanently in Australia for business reasons. (Wikipedia)
In 1950 the External Affairs Minister Percy Spender instigated the Colombo Plan. Under this plan students from Asian countries could be admitted to study at Australian universities. (Wikipedia)
In 1957 Non-Europeans were given '15 years' residence in Australia, they were allowed to become full citizens of Australia. (Wikipedia)
In 1958 they revised the Migration Act; they abolished the dictation test and introduced a simpler system for entry. The Immigration Minister, Sir Alexander Downer, announced that 'distinguished and highly qualified Asians' might immigrate. (Wikipedia)
In 1959 Australians were permitted to sponsor Asian spouses for citizenship. (Wikipedia)
Conditions of entry for people of non-European stock were relaxed in 1964. (Wikipedia)
End of the 'White Australia Policy'
During 1965, the two main political groups removed the 'White Australia Policy' from their political program. Prime Minister Harold Holt became convinced that the immigration policy in Australia could no longer be support on the racial exclusion of foreign people (My Place for teachers).
One of Holt's the legislative changes were to allow a number of foreign 'temporary residents' to become stable residents and the Australian citizens according to the same rules that apply to European migrants. This was the start of the end of the White Australia Policy that had shaped Australia's approach to immigration since Federation (My Place for teachers).
Most migration to Australia, during the 1940s and 1950s, some of the countries included British and other European ethnic communities. There were also new communities from countries such as Lebanon, Egypt and Turkey. By the early 1970s, the annual intake of Australia's immigrants was from Asia (more than five per cent) (My Place for teachers).
A Multicultural Australia
Australia is a multicultural nation. In all, since 1945, around seven million people have migrated to Australia. Today, one in four Australia's 22 million people were born overseas. That means that 44 per cent of Australian citizens were born overseas or have a parent who was. Four million Australian citizens speak a language other than English. There are over 260 languages spoken in Australia today. (Australian Government Department of Immigration and Citezenship).
Multiculturalism is in Australia's national interest and speaks to fairness and inclusion. It enhances respect and support for cultural, religious and linguistic diversity. It is about Australia's shared experience and the composition of neighbourhoods. It acknowledges the benefits and potential that cultural diversity brings.
Australia's multicultural policy embraces our shared values and cultural traditions. It also allows those who choose to call Australia home the right to practise and share in their cultural traditions and languages within the law and free from discrimination (Australian Government Department of Immigration and Citezenship).
Some Interesting graphs from Federation till 2000
(Australia Censuses)
(Australia Censuses)
(Australia Censuses)
(Australia Censuses)
(Australian Government Department of Immigration and Citezenship)
