Post on 01-Apr-2015
transcript
Presentation subtitle
White Australia’s Demise and Post Vietnam Refugee Crisis
Prof Richard Broome La Trobe University
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1: Background Understanding
• 19thC Racism• Origins of White
Australia Policy• Connections of
whiteness and nationality
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Anti-Chinese Sentiment Re-emerges in 1870s
• Tolerance ends • Workers’ anxiety• Maritime Strike 1878 • Anti-Chinese
Immigration Act 1881• Chinese in Melbourne
furniture trade • Extends to migration
morals & nationalism
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Anti-Chinese Campaign
• Anxieties re. Chinese Commissioners’ Visit 1887
• ‘Afghan’ Crisis 1888• Legislation in NSW>
all colonies • Racism underpins
these moves• stereotyping
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Bulletin: Anti-Chinese Campaign
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Late 19thC. Invasion Novels
• International genre• Anxiety re national
strength, unity, race fitness
• William Lane’s White or Yellow (1888)
• Critique of Brit.capitalism• Of urban masculinity• Lane and the labour
movement• Creation ‘New Australia’
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Discourse of Asia Rising
• Charles Pearson:reformer• His National Life and
Character (1893)• Influential: why?• His views of white and
other races • Challenged racial
determinism• Transnational influence
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3: Alfred Deakin & Immigration Act
• Brilliant rise - MP @ 24• Most eminent colonial• Cosmopolitan man• American influences 1888• Race hierarchy-whiteness• Nation & homogeneity• Mississippi/Natal test• Immig Restrict’n Act 1901• London Morning Post• Rationale‘New Protection’
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Achieving Whiteness
• Pacific Islanders Expulsion Act 1906
• Aust. Constitution ignores Aboriginal presence
• State Aboriginal Acts• Non-white decline• Diplomatic exceptions
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Sydney 1908: Burns v. Johnson
• 1900c:Colour line in US-controlled boxing
• Not in UK – Peter Jackson’s bouts
• Or Australia• Whiteman’s counties
not exact replicas• But race dominant
Western discourse
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Australia’s Tri-level of Identity
• 1: Australian nationalism
• 2: British patriotism• 3: Race patriotism• Hancock (1930):
‘Independent Australian Britons’
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Paris Peace Conference 1918-1919
• Pres. Wilson idealism • Japan seeks racial
equality• Diplomatic struggles • Dominions dominate• Hughes outspoken • Japan’s humiliation• Treaty’s legacy -
Whiteness & Japanese militarism Prime Minister Billy Hughes Aust Nat
Lib pic an 12266389
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Deportation Controversies 1946-9
• Malaysian seamen• International & local
disapproval• Not just Asians > pic. • O’Keefe case 1949• Calwell’s opposition• WAP dented
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Modifications in the 1950s
• Special cases cause difficulty: Chinese nationals; Eurasians and the 50% rule; war brides and Cherry Parker case
• Asian students
• Asian engagement and the Columbo Plan
• Holt’s 1956 administrative refinements
• Migration Act 1958: end of dictation test
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1960s Policy Debate: For Change
• Principle: academics, churches & NGOs
• Cosmopolitanism: students & elites
• Pragmatism: Foreign Affairs Dept
• Immigration Reform Group: Mackie, Rivett
• Peter Heydon, Secretary Immigration Dept
• Hubert Opperman, Minister of Immigration
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1960s Policy Debate: For Status Quo
• Inertia: Many officers of Immigration Dept.• Tradition: Most unions• Defence/Cold War fears: RSL• 60-70% of public opinion- racial world-view• Arthur Calwell Leader of Opposition • Prime Minister Robert Menzies
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Shifts within Labor Party
• 1966 Whitlam replaces Calwell as leader –seeks to modernise ALP
• 1971 ALP National Conf’ence: 3 principles
• 1972 win: immigration no election issue:
• But WAP ended + reduced targets
• 1973: Aust Citizenship Act –ends British preference
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Consequences of New Policy
• Al Grassby tours Asia to bury WAP
• Dept of Immigration reformed
• Lower annual targets: change minimised
• 1973 changes: evolutionary from 1956+
• Acceptable responses to a changing context - sig. public acceptance
• 1975 Racial Discrimination Act
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Rise of Multiculturalism
• Aim of the Whitlam Govt: integration within non–discriminatory Australian society
• Aust. Reality: poly-ethnic by 1971
• Labor govt focussed on migrant problems
• Al Grassby introduced new paradigm and shifted the debate - ‘family of the nation’
• Subsequent Govts adopt - Frazer
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The end of ‘White Australia’ tested by Asian Refugee Crisis 1976-82
• End of Vietnam War April 1975• Aust. accepts few at fall of Saigon• Vietnam’s internal problems & war with
Kampuchea, China create mass exodus• Two million displaced in Indo-China• Flee by land and in boats• 1 M+ seek refuge overseas; 0.4 m in 1979 alone• Malaysia & Thailand’s solution• Boat people arrive in Australia April 1976+
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Australia’s Strategies
• Stem flow and introduce orderly arrival
• Internationalise the issue- internat. law
• Geneva Conferences 1978, 1979
• Australia’s intake 1976-82: 176K
• Comparative international intake –largest
• Success: internal divisions ameliorated
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Yet: 1984 Immigration Debate
• Blainey claims: minority driving the policy• West: ‘Asianisation of Australia’, misread?• Protests from Blainey’s colleagues • Blainey’s All for Australia (1984): ‘the
secret room’ & conspiracy of elites theory• Surrender Australia? (1985)• First modern History War
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John Howard & ‘One Australia’
• 1985 becomes Opposition Leader
• 1988 rejects Aboriginal treaty & guilt
• 1989 Attacks multiculturalism ‘One Australia’
• Immigration: opposes family reunion & large-scale Asian immigration (//s Blainey)
• 1989 Howard ousted
• Lazarus rises 1994, Hanson 1996
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Bibliography
• Lake Marilyn & Reynolds. Henry, Drawing the Global Colour Line, MUP, 2008.
• Markus, Andrew. Fear & Hatred. Purifying Australia and California, 1850-1901, H & I, 1979.
• Walker, David. Anxious Nation. Australia and the Rise of Asia 1850-1939, UQP, 1999.
• Broome, Richard, ‘The Australian Reaction to Jack Johnson’, R. Cashman & M. McKernan, Sport in History, UQP 1979.
• Tavan, Gwenda. The Long Slow Death of White Australia, Scribe, Melb. 2005
• Viviani, Nancy. The Long Journey. Vietnamese Migration and Settlement in Australia, Melbourne University Press, Melb. 1984.