Australia is known globally as a multicultural nation, however Australia’s government has gone through a lot of changes in its policies to be where it is today as a nation. World events and global catastrophes have shaped these policies that had been implemented in both positive and negative ways. 1945 was the year in Australia’s history that migration started to become a prominent part of politics and how Australia was as a nation. Some well-known policies that were introduced were The White Australia Policy and the ‘Populate or Perish’ Policy. From 1945 to present day Australia’s immigration policies have changed and shaped Australia as one nation and it is still changing today. These policies changed and are changing by the government assessing …show more content…
This meant that even though Australia had accepted multiculturalism they would put any asylum seekers arriving in Australia without a valid visa into detention centres where they would undergo assessments and checks. The aim of these detentions and this policy was that although Australia was trying to increase its population the government did not want people arriving in Australia thinking they would be just let into the country. This policy has changed from when it was introduced to present day as it although we still do have detention centres we have ever-changing ways of thinking of solutions like Tony Abbott’s strategy of just stopping the ‘boat people’ all …show more content…
Australia still has the Policy of multiculturalism and it has not changed very significantly since it was introduced in 1973. Australia’s immigration policies have changed as a result of communism also as Australia did not want to have ties with communist China as the Australian government had a fear of the domino effect where the whole world would become communist. However Australia had to overcome that as China is now one of Australia’s largest traders. Australia has gone through many policies to get where it is today, a multicultural
During world war two Australia came close to being invaded, the Japanese in Sydney Harbor were a huge fright to many Australians. After world war two it seemed Australia needed to populate or perish. So the government made a big push to fill Australia. Many children were born due to this new idea. They were called the 'Baby boomers'. The baby boomers were being born at huge rates and inflating Australians population. The white Australia policy was pretty much abandoned as migrants flooded into Australia. White Australians still felt that they were superior but they needed these immigrants to populate Australia.
The National Multicultural Advisory Council, chair Neville Roach is a firm believer in continued immigration: “Australia is a multicultural society, he said. Our cultural diversity has been a strength and an asset in our development as a nation.”
Throughout the world, in history and in present day, injustice has affected all of us. Whether it is racial, sexist, discriminatory, being left disadvantaged or worse, injustice surrounds us. Australia is a country that has been plagued by injustice since the day our British ancestors first set foot on Australian soil and claimed the land as theirs. We’ve killed off many of the Indigenous Aboriginal people, and also took Aboriginal children away from their families; this is known as the stolen generation. On the day Australia became a federation in 1901, the first Prime Minister of Australia, Edmund Barton, created the White Australia Policy. This only let people of white skin colour migrate to the country. Even though Australia was the first country to let women vote, women didn’t stand in Parliament until 1943 as many of us didn’t support female candidates, this was 40 years after they passed the law in Australian Parliament for women to stand in elections. After the events of World War Two, we have made an effort to make a stop to these issues here in Australia.
So what does this mean about our Government? Are they scared of the intake of Refugees? If so, what are they scared of? This contradicts the whole purpose of the Government, aren’t Australians meant to put our trust in leaders to make great decisions, hence we have a Government in the first place? Doctrines such as the Just War Doctrine a Catholic based Law, states that the Government should hold the responsibility for the common good. Yet not every country experiences this, and many Refugees have to flee in order for their freedom and to escape from persecution of their own beliefs, religions and human
Indigenous Australians have faced many changes to their original life style, with numerous policies being brought in. These policies had an incredible affect on how the indigenous Australians lived. The policies inflicted on the indigenous Australians varied widely and had numerous impacts. The policies of assimilation, protection and integration had mainly negative impacts on the community, causing loss of identity, language and religion. The policies of self-determination and reconciliation, had mostly positive effects to the indigenous Australian community, creating a stronger bond between black and white Australians, encouraging the concept of closing the gap between indigenous Australians and non-indigenous Australians. These policies had an incredible influence on the indigenous Australians life, changing many ways they lived. The policies changed the path of history for all Australians.
Though Australia is perceived as a democratic country whose government is open to public scrutiny, this belief is erroneous. The Australian Government’s apathy towards asylum seekers is neglectful of the fundamental human right to liberty and a sense of safety. Australia will need to overturn these inhumane laws to move forward as a country. If you believe Australia is a country of equality and acceptance then you are deluding yourself.
The conditions of Australia’s immigration detention policies have also been cause for concern for probable contraventions of Articles 7 and 10 of the ICCPR. Whilst in Sweden, asylum seekers are afforded free housing whilst their applications are being processed, Australia’s methods are much more callous. Under the Pacific Solution, maritime asylum seekers are sent to impoverished tropical islands with no monitoring by human rights organisations allowed (Hyndman and Mountz, 2008). The UNHCR criticised Australia’s offshore processing centres stating that “significant overcrowding, cramped living quarters, unhygienic conditions, little privacy and harsh tropical climate contribute to the poor conditions of… Nauru and Papua New Guinea” (Morales
2. In 1901 the Australian constitution reflected deep racist ideas and they were presented in three major ways, the preamble to where Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people’s special place in Australian society as the original custodians were not acknowledged, section 25, which specifically allows for the disqualification of any race of people from voting in an Australian election. As well as section
Asylum seeker issue is a complex and continuing struggle between the heart and the head. It will continue to haunt us as long as Australia shines to be an oasis of space, peace and prosperity in a global sea of overcrowding and escalating suffering.
The White Australia policy consisted of both official and unofficial discrimination in Australian history which created bias to favour white European migrants over other races. The origins of the policy can be traced back to mid 19th century but it wasn't until 1901 that the Immigration Restriction Act was passed by the Federal; Government as their first act. The new law created a strict control on who could immigrate to Australia and it was required that any person who identified as a 'prohibited immigrant' would need to undertake a dictation test in any European language, making it extremely hard for people of other backgrounds to immigrate. The policy was still in place when Irmtrau migrated but was completely abolished when the Racial Discrimination Act was passed in 1975.
Canada's immigration policies changed many times after the end of WWII. Before WWII the immigration policies were "picky" on the people who wanted to come to Canada, but after, it was fair and equal to everyone. Canada's immigration policies changed drastically from being discriminative to being fair and equal to everyone, every country and race after WWII. This act to eliminating discrimination was successful because of; the introduction of the Point System, the introduction of New Immigration acts/policies, and finally the changes made in accepting Refugees. These action completely changed the immigration policies.
‘Approximately 1 in 5 people and 7 in 10 teens are victim to racism.’ This is truly alarming and worrying for Australia. Racism has been in Australia from the very first settlement in 1788. Britain claimed Australia as ‘terra nullius’ (empty land) even though they knew that aboriginals existed. The indigenous people of our land were treated more like flora and fauna than citizens of Australia and only were counted in
As the conventions were written for the circumstances of WW2, The UN and the Australian Government could agree upon a regional solution much like the one made during the time of WW2 and the Vietnam War. This would result in settling people at a faster pace, helping the refugees by coordinating with them and other countries leaders and Governments to all join together to minimise the suffering and to ultimately speed up the process. Having this regulated, head on approach, could significantly increase the efficiency and processing that is currently taking place in Australia.
Australia is a multicultural country where immigrants from all over the world immigrate to Australia. This research is focused on Australian’s immigrants who play a big role in this society. Immigration carries significant factors that affect the process of adaptation on an immigrant. The significant factors discussed further on are social factors, economic factors and cultural factors. To understand immigration and immigrant it would be explained the meaning of it and the types of immigrants. Answering the Research question, it would also be explained what an immigrant aims to reach by explaining the factors that help to feel settled in a new country. As I’m an immigrant in Australia I personally know how factors affect directly the process of adaptation. During this research I aim to prove how these factors affect the process of adaption. It is intended to make useful recommendations to the host country and to the immigrants in order to adapt to a new country easily. It must be said that not everyone experience the same process of adaptation because everyone is exposed to different factors. Moreover, immigrants may experience more than one factor as one factor can lead to the development of other factor.
Instead, multiculturalism places a wide range of claims of accommodation such as religion, ethnicity, language, race and nationality (Song, 2010). In the case of Australia, the acceptance of multiculturalism based on such far-flung claims has essentially resulted in the advent of politics of recognition among the minority groups seeking accommodation or integration in Australia. This is shown by Song (2010) who states that key among the claims fronted by Australia’s minority groups is self-government or at least some sort of recognition that affords such communities a form of autonomy. One key comparison is the aboriginal communities of Australia and those of Canada, whereby claims for recognition based on the uniqueness of ethnicity have left a bad taste in the mouth of white