Australian Immigration Policy Analysis

Good morning/afternoon.

Migrants, refugees, immigration and multiculturalism are all components of a highly significant and hot topic that endures both in Australia, and across the globe, comprising a rich and complex history that continues to have far ranging implications. In the 1970s it was then Prime Minister, Malcolm Fraser, pushing Australians to accept the arrival of non-European refugees into Australia, and in recent times, the controversial Pauline Hanson is leading a political party whose main agenda is to keep as many refugees out as possible. No matter whose perspective you align yourself, be it either Fraser or Hanson’s more recent xenophobic campaign, what is clear is that the subject of immigration remains a parliamentary
Today I will be discussing elements of Australia’s immigration policies from the latter part of the 20th century with respect to the influx of migrants after World War 2. In particular, my presentation will delve into the area of why Australia’s immigration policies changed during the decades of the 1960s and 1970s. This era was historically paramount to Australia becoming the diverse and multicultural society that we know today, and warrants focus because it shaped the development of modern Australia. In view of this, I will review Australia’s migrant experiences from an exploratory and historically objective perspective, highlighting specific patterns, the development and implementation of relevant policies, and, how these factors ultimately impacted upon on individuals and citizen groups in our nation during this timeframe. It is therefore specifically hypothesized that, as a direct result of emerging immigration policies in Australia during the 1960s and 1970s, the population base would change substantially due to new cultural ethnicities living amongst us, revealing that Australia was on the precipice of
Based on this position, by 1973 there was an end to the ‘While Australia Policy’ and, subsequently, new international agreements relating to immigration were negotiated with several Asian countries (Lopez, 2000). Here it is evident that this served to remove any remaining barriers for people wanting to apply to migrate to Australia from non-European countries (Museums Victoria, 2013). Further, there is no doubt that all these changes lead to a profound increase in the number of foreigners relocating to Australia (Lopez, 2000). Consequently, with a push from newly elected Prime Minister, Malcolm Fraser who first mentioned the term ‘multiculturalism’, these developments resulted in the Commonwealth Parliament's enactment of the Racial Discrimination Act in 1975 - the aim of which was to implement Australia's obligations under the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (1969) by prohibiting racial and other forms of discrimination (Parliament of Australia, 2010; National Archives of Australia, 2016). An important example related to the fall of Saigon in 1975, during the late stages of the Vietnam War. This event had a profound impact on the beginning of migration waves from Indochina to Australia. In