Australian Race Relations

The book of my choosing was Australian Race Relations by Andrew Markus, this book gives detailed reasoning on the thinking behind why Great Britain decided to embark upon Australia and the reasoning behind doing so. I plan to discuss some of the similarities and differences regarding three main points that we have both discussed in class and that is presented in Australian Race Relations and they are; the idea of superiority that Europeans had regarding other countries, the racial immigrant segregation seen in the nineteen century Australia, and the ways in which Australia tried to keep themselves white from integration of outside races. Markus starts off his novel by addressing the underlying reason for the British takeover of Austria.

It involved non-European immigrants to Australia in the mid nineteenth century. The comparisons between Markus most notable reasons of immigrant inflation and what we’ve learned from speakers, lecture and reading is very similar. The gold rush of the 1850’s was the underlying reason for such a dramatic increase in the countries increased population, but especially within New South Wales and Victoria. Victoria’s populated nearly increased sevenfold from 80,000 to 540,000 in the ten years between 1851 to 1886. . This gold discovery brought immigrants from all regions of Europe as well a large majority of Chinese. The Chinese were the most distinctive non-English speaking group on the goldfields and within society. The divide between European and Chinese immigrants was a very influential conflict within the later society of Australian history. Comparing the similarities within Australian Race Relations and what we have examined in class, is that the Chinese presence in Australia was not ideal for those European who called Australia home. They were different from European immigrants in so many ways, such as appearance, customs, work methods, and the fact that they were mostly all men. Most Chinese lived in separate communities, showing little to no inclination to adopt local mores; they saw themselves as temporary visitors-and were contrast to remain apart. One of the contrasts that I did pick up on within Markus’s reading that we did not going into much depth about was the difference between post California gold rush Asian immigrants and their economic role versus that of Australia’s. Following the gold rush in California, Chinese immigrants pursued jobs in other fields such as agriculture, construction of railroads or manufacturing plants, these newfound jobs that existed in California post gold rush was not the case in Australia