White Australia policy

The White Australia Policy was the name given to laws that stopped non-white immigrants from coming to live in Australia. The laws were put in place in 1901 and were repealed from the 1950s to the 1970s.

Overview

In 1901, 98% of people living in Australia were of European background, with "clean" (white) skin and with British laws and customs.[1] The government wanted to keep Australia that way, which influenced on the type of people living in Australia. In 2001, many Australians claimed to have fathers from Europe. About 6% were Asian, and about 2% were Aboriginals. In 2018, overall, about 76% of Australians were of European descent, though about 95% of the countries leaders were of European descent.[2]

In the 1850s many Chinese people, mainly men, came to Australia to search for gold, which led to anti-Chinese riots on the goldfields at Lambing Flat in New South Wales and at the Buckland River diggings in Victoria.[3] The Victorian government tried to stop more Chinese from arriving, by charging a special tax of £10 for every Chinese person who came on a ship to Victoria.[4] In 1861, New South Wales passed laws to stop Chinese people coming, followed by Queensland in 1877 and Western Australia in 1886.[5] Later ,men from the Pacific Islands, called "kanakas", were brought to Australia to work on the sugarcane farms in Queensland. That also caused problems because they worked for much lower wages than other people.[3] The new federal government acted in 1901 to stop certain types of people coming to work or live in Australia.

Immigration Restriction Act

The Immigration Restriction Act (1901) listed who could come to Australia and who would not be allowed into the country.[3] The following types of people were not allowed:[3]

Immigration

This test was made to keep out anyone the Australian government did not want to allow into rge country without being seen to be racist.[6] Anyone who wanted to come to Australia had to be literate (able to read and write). That would be proved with a dictation test.[7] A person had to write down something read to them in a European language by a government official. It did not have to be in a language that they understood. At first, the test was to be given in English, but the government then thought that American negroes and Japanese people would be able to pass the test.[8] For example, to keep out people from Malta, they were given the test in Dutch.[6] One person who spoke several languages was given the test in Gaelic.[6]

The test could also be given to people in the first year that they were living in Australia. In 1932, that was changed to the first five years, and it could be given many times. From 1902 to 1909, the test was given to 1359 people, and only 52 passed.[8] After 1909, no person passed the test.[8] Anyone who failed the test was forced to leave Australia.[8] This law was used until 1958.[8]

End of policy

After World War II, the Australian government wanted to attract migrants. Labor Prime Minister Ben Chifley started the Snowy Mountains Scheme, which needed a large population of labourers. Australians worried less than before about taking people from different cultures. In the 1950s, many Southern and Eastern European refugees resettled in Australia and left Europe, which was still recovering from World War II and ws partly under the communist Eastern Bloc.

Liberal Prime Minister Robert Menzies brought in the Colombo Plan, which brought students from Asia to Australian universities to help the continent's development. In 1958, the government ended the "dictation test" and the Government said well qualified non-Europeans would be suitable. Other laws made it easier to bring non-Europeans to Australia. Labor Prime Minister Harold Holt's Migration Act, 1966 effectively ended the White Australian Policy so that migrants from different parts of the world could come to Australia such as refugees from the Vietnam War.[9] In 1973, Labor Pime Minister Gough Whitlam finally passed a law that Australian immigration officers should "totally disregard race" in considering migrants, but Whitlam took in less migrants in total, and the number of migrants from outside Europe did not increase until Liberal Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser.

  • Racism
  • Racism in Australia
  • White people in Australia

Other websites

References

  1. ↑ "White Australia Game c.1920's". Objects Through Time. NSW Migration Heritage Centre. Retrieved 2018-09-22.
  2. ↑ Damien Cave (April 10, 2020). "In a Proudly Diverse Australia, White People Still Run Almost Everything". New York Times. Retrieved July 23, 2020.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 "Abolition of the 'White Australia' Policy". Fact Sheet 8. Department of Immigration and Citizenship. 2009. Archived from the original on 2006-09-01. Retrieved 2010-03-11.
  4. ↑ "Restrictive immigration Acts". Gold. SBS. Retrieved 2010-03-11.
  5. ↑ "Lambing Flat riots". Explore the Harvest of Endurance scroll. National Museum of Australia. Archived from the original on 2010-06-20. Retrieved 2010-03-11.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 "The Dictation Test". Customs History. Old Customs House Immigration Museum. Archived from the original on 2009-10-30. Retrieved 2010-03-11.
  7. ↑ "The White Australia policy". From Mississippi to Melbourne via Natal: the invention of the literacy test as a technology of racial exclusion. Australian National University. Retrieved 2010-03-11.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 "Immigrartion Restricion Act 1901". Documenting Democracy. National Archives of Australia. Archived from the original on 2011-06-01. Retrieved 2010-03-11.
  9. ↑ corporateName=National Archives of Australia; address=Queen Victoria Terrace, Parkes. "In office - Harold Holt (26 January 1966 – 19 December 1967) and Zara Holt". primeministers.naa.gov.au. Archived from the original on 15 March 2011. Retrieved 24 May 2011.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
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