Presentation subtitle White Australia’s Demise and Post Vietnam Refugee Crisis Prof Richard Broome...

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.