Migration Pattern in 1960-1975
1960-1975
Report by Jun Yang Sim
Background
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War is considered to be one of the most significant events that influenced Australian immigration policies. From 1962 to 1966, Australia sent more than 50 thousand troops to aid South Vietnam to eradicate communism. Since Australia participated extensively in the war, Australia is obligated to take responsibility for its actions. In other words, refusing to accept refugees was not an option for Australia during that time. Therefore, the Australian government started a program, taking limited numbers of refugees from South East Asia. This number increased in the late 1970s, and marked the official end of the White Australia Policy.
Freedom
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Soon after, the Migration Act 1966 was amended and the restriction of non-Europeans entering Australia was relaxed.
March, 1966 – Abolishment of White Australia Policy
March 1966, was one of the biggest turning points and milestones for Australia’s immigration policies as the White Australia Policy was abolished. As Prime Minister Holt anticipated, the yearly intake of non-European settlers increased dramatically, increasing the migration numbers by almost 400% in 5 years (see graph).
On top of that, Prime Minister Holt saw the need to support the non-Europeans settlers by giving them rights that Europeans settlers might have. These actions included:
Accepting applications for migration based on their ability instead of their race
¡ Non-European ‘temporary residency’ was able to be converted into ‘Permanent residency’ after 5 years and people were eligible to acquire citizenship after 3 years of Permanent Residency
¡ Ratifying policies about immigration and race
¡ Issuing instruction to overseas countries to inform them that Australia accepts all migrantswith the appropriate backgrounds and skills
The Migrants
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The snowy mountain scheme construction mostly in deep underground, many workers had to go through major levels of condition, such as extreme heat and dangerous situation. Furthermore, the construction required to be out of home since it was remote and towns had to be built for the workers to have fair living condition.
View from Australian’s perspective
Although the White Australian Policy was abolished, without doubt, Australians do not treat non-European as an Australian. World War 2 was one of the biggest influences to Australian’s citizen’s perspective towards the migrants and as Japanese were trying to take over Australia, the Australian made themselves a image about the foreigners: Enemies. That is to say, even after declaration of defeat from Japan, Japanese were still a rival to Australia in Australian’s mind at that time.
Furthermore, although non-European was able to settle in Australia, they were restriction for them to prevent them from “sabotaging” Australia. Laws such as requiring foreigners to report to Australia government consistently and preventing foreigners to purchase a vehicle were made for the