Immigration Restriction Act 1901

The White Australian Policy, which officially started in 1901, stopped people from a non-European background from entering Australian land, there were several laws that made up the White Australia policy, this was called the Immigration Restriction Act 1901. Was the White Australian Policy racial discrimination towards races that were from a non-European background?

The purpose of the Immigration Restriction Act 1901 or commonly known as The White Australia Policy was that Australian colonies were worried about the number of “coloured” immigrants in Australia, mostly from China. One of the laws from the Act that was surprising was that, Every member of the police force of any State, and every officer, may with any necessary assistance prevent any prohibited immigrant, or person reasonably supposed to be a prohibited immigrant, from entering the Commonwealth, and may take all legal proceedings necessary for the enforcement of this Act. This means

People who had a criminal record, mental condition or political views were considered undesirable, even then if you had none of the three things listed above you had to be European or British decent. In some rare cases they accepted people from Asia but that was only because they possessed the qualities they needed, for example if they were a doctor or chef. The story of the Tong Way family explains the impact of the White Australia policy on Chinese and other non-European residents. The Tong Way family migrated to Australia in the early 20th century, even though they were allowed to migrate, they were given no choice but to change their beliefs and cultural values, for example all members of the family wore Western dresses and were forced to use Christian names, like John, Mary, Joseph, Samuel, Doris and Hedley, this was very common for Chinese families in the 20th century, even after all the restrictions they faced they were still able to survive. Walsh,