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Thomas Flexer

Dr. Jessica O’Hara

CAS 137H

22/11/2023

The Evolution of Australian Immigration Policy

Consider the words “immigration” or “racism.” The average American might think about

the many recent challenges that the country saw in recent years, whether that be the border crisis,

the increase of police brutality, and the milieu of injustices that minority groups faced. However,

in Australia, immigrants faced some of the most racist laws and attitudes that occurred in a

Western country due to the White Australia Policy, which existed in law from Australia’s

founding to the mid-20th century (“White Australia Policy”). Through this policy, Australia

hoped to create a new Britain in the Pacific, and accomplishing this goal meant deporting Asians

and other minorities, committing mass atrocities against its Aboriginal population, and

developing exclusionary sentiments among its white population (Nairn 16). Australian

immigration policy has seen a radical shift from barring all non-white foreigners to them having

one of the largest immigrant populations in the world with the majority of them being Asian in

origin.

The origins of anti-immigration attitudes in Australia can be seen since it’s early

colonization in the 18th century. Unlike many other British colonies during this time, Australia, or

more specifically, New South Wales, was established as a penal colony, an outpost to send
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criminals on the edge of the known world (Sewell). Starting in 1788, over 150,000 convicts and

their close families would be transported on a four-month long journey from Britain to Australia,

until Britain ended the transportation of prisoners to Australia in the mid-19th century (“Journeys

to Australia”). While the population of Australia was largely involuntary for most of its colonial

period, the initial settlers had a much different attitude towards their mother country than other

colonies that were established during the beginning of the British Empire’s imperial domination,

such as the United States, who went through great lengths to become free of their rulers across

the sea. Many of these settlers considered themselves still to be British citizens regardless of

their status and location, and this was only heightened by the immigration of free British peoples

at the height of the Australian Gold Rush in the 1850s (Nairn 22). However, the Gold Rush era

also attracted migrants from other areas of the world, notably China and other Southeast Asian

countries, who sought riches in the undeveloped lands of Australia. Many Chinese immigrants

did accomplish their goals, but unfortunately, they faced extreme prejudice from the Australian

settlers for being in competition with European settlers once the Chinese settled down

themselves. As stated in The Chinese Question in Australia, “‘Nothing, we submit, can be more

unreasonable, unjust, or undeserved, than the clamour which has been raised against the Chinese

by a portion of the people of this colony; for we refuse to believe that that clamour expresses the

opinions and feelings of the great bulk of the community’” (qtd. in Macgregor 51). This

“clamour” would form the basis of many of the exclusionary policies that all immigrants, not just

the Chinese would face once Australia gained its independence.

Additionally, during this time period, there was an increase in aggravation towards the

Aboriginal Australians, Torres Strait Islanders, and “kanakas,” who were brought to Australia

from other South Pacific islands. As Jared Diamond recounts in his book “Upheaval,”
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“…European settlers simply took Aboriginal land without negotiation or payment.” (p. 260-261).

This was largely due to attitudes that reflected the European concept of Social Darwinism, in

which many scholars believed that the white race was superior to colored ones because of

biological factors (“Social Darwinism - Definition, Examples, Imperialism”). The same process

occurred in other British colonies, but unlike colonies like America, where the native population

could often fight back in some way, the Aboriginal peoples of Australia were nomadic and still

primarily used stone tools. Instead of battles, the indigenous peoples were massacred at sites like

Myall Creek (Palmer and Pocock 51), and these atrocities were often supported by the Australian

people, as stated by Diamond (p. 261). Another group that the Australians discriminated against

were the “Kanakas,” or South Pacific Islanders that were kidnapped from their home to perform

demanding labor for low wages, essentially a slave-like condition. This whole process was

known as “blackbirding” (Higginbotham). Kanaka labor was vehemently opposed by the

Australian population, but not because they were colored, but for a reason similar to the

opposition of Asians: they were taking possible jobs for the white population (“White Australia

Policy”). These two native groups demonstrate that White Australia applied not only to the

incoming groups, but also for groups that had been in the region for millennia before the

Europeans arrived in the 17th century. The past treatment of Aboriginal Australians still remains a

divisive issue in Australia to this day, and many people remain ignorant about Aboriginal culture

to this day, but at this point in the essay, it is the turn of the century, and White Australia has only

just begun.

At the turn of the 20th century, Britain decided to grant Australia its independence and

become a member of the British Commonwealth, a coalition of former colonies who pledged

allegiance to the crown but were not ruled politically by the United Kingdom. With this decision
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came the necessity to devise new laws in order to keep order within the country, and in 1901,

they passed their 17th law: the Immigration Restriction Act. While this law does not mention race

explicitly within the text, it establishes the dictation test, which would become the bane of

immigrants coming into the country (“Immigration Restriction Act 1901”). Even though

Australia’s most widely spoken language would have been English, the dictation test could be

given in any European language of the officers choosing, which includes more obscure

languages like Finnish or Gaelic. The direct result of this test was only 52 people passing the test

in its history with none of those that passed migrating into the country after 1909 (“Journeys”).

The unanimous decision to pass this law was the first steppingstone in a de jure White Australia,

not only to preserve the Anglophilic nature of the newfound country, but also to protect

Australia’s economic and patriotic interests (Nairn 30). Accompanying the Immigration

Restriction Act were two other laws: the Pacific Island Labourers Act and the Post and Telegraph

Act, which ended the importation of South Pacific Labourers and made the postal service a white

exclusive job, respectively (“White Australia Policy”). Despite the end of Kanaka labor being a

good thing in the long run, the law demonstrated that even a lucrative practice would be ended if

it threatened to ruin the “white utopia” that the new government was trying to create.

Furthermore, the legislative actions of Australia would even make their way back to mother

country and adjusted to fit the goals of the British government in the Aliens Act of 1905. This act

tightened the requirements to immigrate to Britain and gave preference to British citizens from

their colonial territories, especially if they were white (Smith et al. 1357). All of these laws

reflected the current sentiments of Australian citizens who wished to keep Australia free of

minority groups and would leave a lasting impact on Australian demographics throughout the

early 20th century.

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The interwar period serves as an interesting turn of events that leads into the dismantling

of the White Australia Policy under the governments of Holt and Whitlam. Despite World War I

being seemingly unimportant in the grand scheme of Australian history, it sets the backdrop for

the about face of public attitudes towards Britain due to a singular event: the Gallipoli campaign.

Though Australia had no stake in the Great War, many Australians volunteered to help in the war

effort as part of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC), and they were sent to

fight against the Ottomans, seeking to gain control of their capital (Diamond 270 – 271).

However, the result of the mission was far from successful with the British commanders

eventually ordering a retreat and the ANZAC troops suffering 9000 deaths with 28000 wounded

(Hammer). As Diamond continues in “Upheaval,” it seems senseless that Australia should

celebrate the “slaughter of its young men” under poor British leadership, but today, ANZAC Day

is one of the largest holidays, equating almost to the American 4th of July (p. 271). While the

effects of disillusionment would not be seen immediately with the Gallipoli Campaign, it lays the

groundwork for the openness of Australian citizens towards Asian immigrants during the

following war.

Until the Second World War, Australia had seen little violence in the region other than the

occasional Aboriginal massacre or outlaw like Ned Kelly, but the expansion of the Empire of the

Sun into the South Pacific created a real threat to the Australian way of life. Not only was

Australia itself bombed during WWII in the city of Darwin (“Bombing of Darwin”), but most of

their help also came from the United States instead of their previous supporter Britain, as they

considered the European theater to be of more importance and could not expend the resources to

help in the Pacific (Diamond 275). In order to help keep the country afloat during the war, border

restrictions were relaxed in order to help fill military positions and production jobs, as the current
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immigration policy was not satisfactory (“White Australia Policy”). Australia still chose to focus

on immigration from Europe, but even Asian immigrants, like Indonesians and Malaysians, were

allowed to enter the country, often to escape the dangers of the war. As these new immigrants

became accustomed to their new lives, many Australians decided to start families with them,

showing the change in attitudes towards their neighboring countries. However, the government

policy did not reflect this shift, and after the war, the notoriously racist Minister of Immigration,

Arthur Calwell, forced the deportation of many of the immigrant families to their home

countries, leaving lasting impacts through the separation of families for generations (The Untold

Generational Trauma From The “White Australia Policy” | The Exiles - Part 2/2).

Finally, during the late 1960s and early 1970s, the White Australia Policy would be

dismantled through the actions of Prime Ministers Harold Holt and Gough Whitlam. Between the

wartime years and the liberalizing policies of the 1960s, the perspective of Asia as a threat to the

homogeneity of the Australian populace had greatly diminished, and actions taken by Secretary

of Immigration Tasman Heyes and his successor, Peter Heydon, laid the groundwork for more

extreme policy shifts (Jordan 176, 178). By the time that Robert Menzies left the position as

Prime Minister of Australia, Harold Holt was ready to support a new piece of legislation, the

Migration Act of 1966, which would allow for highly qualified, and eventually well-qualified,

Asian immigrants to be let in the country through the same process that European migrants used

(“Harold Holt”). After Holt’s disappearance/possible drowning, there passed three prime

ministers who had little impact on Australian immigration and race policies, until the election of

1972, when Gough Whitlam of the Labor Party was elected (Diamond 283). In the opinion of the

Labor party, 20 years of Liberal control had made the government stale, and they quickly

introduced a number of programs to modernize the government including, but not limited to: the
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end of the draft, various agencies to support the Aboriginal population, improved and expanded

women’s rights, and most notably the Racial Discrimination Act of 1975. This act functioned

similarly to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 in the United States, which banned all forms of

discrimination based on race within the country, ending the White Australia policy once and for

all. (“Gough Whitlam”).

The liberalization of the Australian government’s attitudes towards immigration was

described as Gough Whitlam as “a ‘recognition of what has already happened,’” not necessarily

a sudden change that the government decided to make on a whim (qtd. in Diamond 284). Indeed,

Australian census data shows that around the end of WWII, the proportion of foreign-born

peoples in the country was already rising dramatically from the low of 10% that it was during the

war. Today that number has grown towards a stunning 30% of all Australians being born

overseas. (“Australia’s Population by Country of Birth, 2022”). Compared to the 14% of the

American population that is foreign-born, Australia seems to be more open to immigrants,

especially when taken in context with the ongoing crisis at the southern border (“United States -

Census Bureau Profile”). While British immigrants do constitute the greatest group coming from a

single country, the rest of the top ten countries that immigrants are coming from are located in

Asia, which reflects the changing relationship that Australia had had with Britain over the past

century (“Australia’s Population”). Primarily, this is the result of two factors: Asia as a trade

partner and the United States as a military partner. Today, 65% percent of Australia’s two-way

trade is between themselves and an Asian country, and countries like China and Japan dominate

the Australian imports, as well as exports (“Trade and Investment at a Glance 2021”). Another

major trade partner with Australia is the United States, but their relationship with Australia has

become what the United Kingdom used to be due in large part to the ANZUS Treaty. The treaty
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was created in response to British focus on European interests over their colonial interests, as

shown in World War II, and to remedy the lack of support they would receive, they, along with

New Zealand, signed the ANZUS Treaty to enter a military pact with their transpacific ally

(“ANZUS Treaty”). These two changes in Australian international relations reduced Britain to a

kind of non-entity within Australia, and in 1999, Australia formally recognized the United

Kingdom as a “foreign country,” cutting off their political ties once and for all, as they became a

country in their own eyes (Diamond 285).

Ideas and opinions in Australia have gradually evolved from being extremely racist to

extremely accepting as the country finally chose to be a member of the South Pacific and Asia

instead of an extension of Britian. Despite being founded upon immigration in its early history,

Australians chose to think of the new territory as “white only,” which created extreme anti-Asian

and anti-colored sentiments within the people, leading to the passing of the Immigration

Restriction Act of 1901. The shock of the World Wars would change the public opinion on the

topic, but the government was still controlled by politicians who believed that these racist

policies would benefit their country. However, Harold Holt and Gough Whitlam would bring

about major liberalization in the government and end the White Australia Policy once and for all.

Today, the majority of Australians believe that immigrants are a positive factor on the economy

(“Attitudes to Immigration - Lowy Institute Poll”), and the Australian government has been

making moves towards reconciling their past history with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait

Islander populations (Palmer and Pocock 49). Australia has become a symbol of openness in

regard to immigration and serves as a model of a country that can overcome its past history to

improve itself.
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Works Cited

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