Australian Immigration
Australia has a rich migration history starting with the first migrants being convicts transported from Britain between 1788 and 1840. Free immigrants began arriving in the 1790’s (Walsh: 2001) The Industrial revolution which caused wide spread poverty and unemployment in Britain, as well as the demand for workers in the wool industry in Australia enticed more free settlers to Australia, followed by the Gold rush in the 1850’s of which the largest group of immigrants were the Chinese. The bringing in of Polynesian labourers to work in the sugar plantations of Queensland also contributed to the population numbers swell. From 1851 to 1861 just over 600,000 people had migrated to Australia from many varied backgrounds and culture. By the time of federation the total population was close to 4 million people. (Walsh: 2001). Today Australia has a population close to 22,400,000 people of which one in four people come from a culturally diverse and linguistic background (Dept of Immigration and Citizenship, 2009).
This essay will explore the social issues of immigration in Australian society especially in relation to refugees. It will give an overview of the history of immigration in Australia. It will then go on to explore refugees and discuss the perceptions of refugees, settlement issues of refugees and then go on to look at the practice of mandatory detention of refugees in Australia.
One of the first pieces of legislation to be passed after federation was the Immigration Restriction Act 1901 or what was to be known as the white Australia policy it was a policy based on race not nationality. (Holmes, Hughes, Julien 2007). This was driven by the ‘white miners resentment towards the Chinese diggers which culminated in violence at Lambing flat NSW, the fear that imported Polynesian workers would take jobs from white Australians was instrumental in the decision by politicians’ to warn “there was no place in Australia for “Asiatic's and coloureds” (Dept Of
This essay will explore the social issues of immigration in Australian society especially in relation to refugees. It will give an overview of the history of immigration in Australia. It will then go on to explore refugees and discuss the perceptions of refugees, settlement issues of refugees and then go on to look at the practice of mandatory detention of refugees in Australia.
One of the first pieces of legislation to be passed after federation was the Immigration Restriction Act 1901 or what was to be known as the white Australia policy it was a policy based on race not nationality. (Holmes, Hughes, Julien 2007). This was driven by the ‘white miners resentment towards the Chinese diggers which culminated in violence at Lambing flat NSW, the fear that imported Polynesian workers would take jobs from white Australians was instrumental in the decision by politicians’ to warn “there was no place in Australia for “Asiatic's and coloureds” (Dept Of
References: Feller, E, (2005) ‘Refugees are not migrants’, Refugee Survey Quarterly,(24) 4, 27- 35 Gale, P (2004), the Refugee Crisis and Fear Populist politics and media discourse, Journal of Sociology, 40(4) 321-340 Holmes, D., Hughes, K., & Julien R., (2007) Australian sociology: A changing society (2nd ed.), Sydney: Pearson Education HREOC, (2004) Jayaraman, R. (2000), Inclusion and exclusion: An analysis of Australian Immigration History and ethnic relations, Journal of Popular Culture, 34(1) 135-155. Walsh K, (2001), The Changing Face of Australia: A century of Immigration 1901-2000, Sydney, Allen&Unwin.