2. Migration and the Formation of Modern Australia

Australia as a Migrant Nation

2.1Modern Australia is indelibly a migrant nation and migration has been central to Australia’s national story.[1] Australia has among the highest levels of net migration in the world and half the population was either born overseas or has at least one parent who was born overseas. Proportionally, Australia takes far more migrants than the UK or the USA and even more than comparable countries like Canada and New Zealand. Only countries that rely heavily on guestworkers, such as Singapore and the Gulf States, take more immigrants, but the vast majority of these people inevitably return to their countries of origin at the end of their working sojourn (Figure 2.1). Reflecting this situation, while Australia accounts for 0.3 per cent of the world’s population, 2.8 per cent of the world’s immigrants live here.[2]

Source: The Migration Hub at ANU, Submission 70, p. 5.

2.2As Noel Pearson has pointed out, modern Australia comprises three great parts that form one indissoluble commonwealth: the ancient heritage of Australia’s Indigenous peoples, the British legacy of our social and governmental structures, and our modern multicultural society that brings together people and cultures from across the world.[3] While the former has ancient origins, the latter two components are outcomes of modern migration flows.

2.3Thus, while Australia’s First Nations’ people have deep and enduring connections to Country from time immemorial, the modern nation-state of the Commonwealth of Australia is one founded on migration.[4] Flows of migrants and policy settings affecting the nature and scale of these have profoundly shaped and reshaped the character of Australian culture and society over its modern history.

2.4This chapter provides a historical overview of migration into Australian, from the earliest movement of humans into the continent, through the population explosion of the Gold Rush era and the restrictive policies of the ‘White Australia’ period, to the establishment of a universal and non-discriminatory migration program and the formation of our modern multicultural policies. It traces how Australia’s national and cultural identities are inextricably tied to migration and serves to provide background to later discussions on our current migration settings and how these can serve as a core component in nation building into the future.

First Nations’ Migrations into Australia

2.5Current archaeological, genetic, and linguistic evidence suggests that the first migrations of humans into what would become Australia occurred between 50,000 to 65,000 years ago. This migration into the ancient continent of Sahul, combining New Guinea, mainland Australia and Tasmania during the latter stages of the last ice age when sea levels were lower, represented one of the earliest and furthest movements of modern humans out of Africa.[5]

2.6Genetic analysis suggests that all First Nations Australians can claim common descent from this first wave of migration into the continent, meaning that Indigenous Australians are one of the world’s oldest continuing ethnolinguistic populations outside of Africa and have effectively occupied Australia since before the continent took its present form.[6]

2.7Once arriving in northern Australia, around the Kimberley region, the ancestors of Australia’s First Nations peoples quickly spread around the east and west coasts and into the continent’s interior, reaching Tasmania via a land bridge approximately 40,000 years ago.[7]

2.8Some archaeological and genetic evidence further suggests that there were subsequent migrations of peoples from South Asia into northern Australia around 4,000 years ago, with these populations’ genetic, linguistic, and technological features becoming absorbed and distributed through Australia’s existing First Nations’ peoples. This research also suggests that these later arrivals may have also been accompanied by the ancestors of Australia’s native dog, the dingo.[8]

2.9Prior to the arrival of Europeans into Australia, it is estimated that the Indigenous population numbered between 300,000 to 1.2 million, with some estimates much higher, at 3 million.[9] These groups were separated into around 500-600 distinct tribes, speaking around 200 different languages, who generated unique ways of living and cultures and helped shape the continent’s land, vegetation, and waterways over millennia.[10]

Migrations to Colonial Australia

Convicts and Free Settlers

2.10The arrival of the First Fleet on 18 January 1788 ushered in the next major wave of migrants into Australia, when 11 ships carrying over 1,400 convicts, sailors, marines, and civil officers arrived in Botany Bay. A week later, on 26 January, Port Jackson was established as Britain’s first penal colony in Australia, after Botany Bay was deemed unsuitable for settlement.

2.11The bonded transportation of convicts was an integral part of the UK’s penal system and had been imposed as an alternative punishment to execution since the early 17th century in England and Wales. The practice became regulated and more common following the passing of the Transportation Act 1717 by the UK Parliament, which established a seven-year sentence for convictions for non-capital offences and 14 years for capital offences that had been commuted. The death penalty was imposed for those who returned prior to the completion of their sentence. Over 50,000 convicts were sent to Britain’s colonies in the Americas by 1775.[11]

2.12The American War of Independence closed the Americas off to further convict transportation from Britian from 1776. Facing social upheaval at home, with massive agricultural and industrial changes and a rapidly growing prison population, Britian sought an alternative outlet for the bonded transportation of convicts. The British government initially considered Africa and the Caribbean as sites for transportation but found them to be unsuitable.[12] James Cook had surveyed the eastern coast of Australia in 1770, and in 1783 the site of Cook’s first landing, Botany Bay, was proposed as a suitable location for the establishment of a penal colony. In 1785 the British government agreed to this proposal.[13]

2.13More ships and convicts followed the First Fleet’s arrival in 1788, with the first free settlers arriving in Port Jackson in 1793—five men and two families. A second penal colony was established at Sullivans Cove, Van Diemen’s Land (later Tasmania), in 1803.[14]

2.14Changes in the 1820s and 1830s resulted in great increases in the numbers of convicts and free settlers arriving in Australia. For one, demobilisation of the British army and navy following the end of the Napoleonic Wars (1815), and economic disruptions and increased unemployment in Britian resulted in a rise in conviction rates and the number of convicts being transported. Illustrative of this, between 1805 and 1842, while the population of Great Britian doubled in size the number of prosecutions increased by 600 per cent.[15]

2.15Secondly, in an effort to reduce administrative costs, the British government introduced a system of land grants for wealthy immigrants to Australia and the provision of convict labourers to service the land without fee. A settler was entitled to the use of one convict per one hundred acres of land received via grant. In exchange, these settlers were responsible for clothing, housing, and feeding their convict labourers.[16]

2.16As well as leading to an increase in the number of free settlers and reducing administrative costs, this policy was designed to reduce Britian’s reliance on continental Europe for the provision of wool for the British textiles industry. And while this policy of large-scale land grants to settlers led to a flourishing economy based on wool exports, it was also based on the flawed legal principle of terra nullius, that declared all land in Australia as Crown Land, and led to the widescale dispossession of the continent’s Indigenous peoples.[17]

2.17Finally, a process of law reform in the 1820s and 1830s saw the number of capital offences dramatically reduced in favour of transportation. This resulted in a massive increase in the number of convicts being transported to Australia.[18]

2.18Convict transportation peaked in 1833 when 7,000 prisoners were sent to Australia. By 1868, when the system came to an end, around 160,000 convicts had been transported to the Australian penal colonies—80,000 to NSW (1788–1840), 70,000 to Tasmania (1803–1853), and 10,000 to Western Australia (1850–1868). Of these, 130,000 were transported after the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815. These convicts were mainly English, Welsh, Irish, and Scots together with a small number from other parts of the British Empire.[19]

2.19The vast majority of convicts were men, with only 15 per cent being women, resulting in a majorly imbalanced sex-ratio within the settler population of the nascent colonies. The British government attempted to redress the imbalance by promoting the migration of more free women to Australia. While these efforts did increase the number of women settling in Australia, these numbers were again matched by an increase in the number of free men migrating, resulting in a persistent gender imbalance.[20]

2.20In 1831, the policy of land grants ceased and was replaced with a new system based on the sale of land to fund thousands of assisted migrants from Britian and Ireland to move to Australia. In 1832, Britian’s Colonial Office established the Land and Emigration Commission to further increase the number of free settlers relocating to the Australian colonies, in particular skilled labourers, families, and single women. By the latter part of the 1830s, the number of free settlers arriving outstripped that of the number of convicts being transported. By 1850, the Commission had assisted in the passage of 127,000 emigrants, or about 70 per cent of the total of all immigration during that period.[21]

Migrations during the Gold Rushes

2.21The discovery of gold at Ophir near Orange, New South Wales, in 1851, and subsequent finds in Victoria and the other Australian colonies, profoundly changed the nature and scale of migration to Australia—seeing a massive increase in the numbers of migrants and a diversification of source countries.

2.22No Australia colony felt the impacts of the gold rushes more than Victoria. Between 1851 and 1861 the population of Victoria jumped from 77,345 to 538,628 as people rushed to stake claims in the Victorian goldfields from other parts of Australia and from overseas. Of these new international arrivals, 170,000 came from England, 87,000 from Ireland, 61,000 from Scotland, and 10,000 from Germany. Significantly, not all were from Europe, with 25,000 Chinese migrants also arriving during this time.[22] At the time, Victoria accounted for around half the total Australian population.

2.23Despite an image that the gold rushes were a magnet for attracting large numbers of Europeans fleeing poverty, most gold seekers were self-funded, skilled, and well educated; tradespeople such as blacksmiths, carpenters, masons, and skilled workers such as miners. And while a majority were single men, many were also accompanied by female relatives, wives, and children—that is, families—and contributed to the formation of enduring communities and the establishment of Victoria’s great inland cities.[23]

2.24In total, between 1851 and 1861, more than 600,000 people arrived in the Australian colonies. While the majority were from Britain and Ireland (81 per cent—300,000 from England and Wales, 100,000 from Scotland, and 84,000 from Ireland), significant numbers also come from continental Europe (60,000), China (42,000), the United States (10,000), and from New Zealand and the South Pacific (5,000).[24] From a population of 430,000 in 1851, by 1871 this had ballooned to 1.7 million—an increase of almost 300 per cent.[25]

2.25The presence and success of the Chinese miners led to resentment, discrimination, and occasional violence against them from European settlers in Australia. It also saw the introduction of a range of discriminatory legislation in the Australian colonies in an effort to curtail the number of Chinese immigrants arriving. Despite these efforts, significant numbers of Chinese settlers remained in Australia after the gold rushes subsided, working as merchants, grocers, launderers, gardeners, tailors, hawkers, furniture makers, and cooks, becoming a small but integral part of the Australian community.[26]

2.26The lasting significance of the gold-rush migrations were not population increase and diversification alone. As well as increasing the general level of education and skills of the population, and buttressing some of the highest living standards in the world at the time, the new arrivals brought new political ideals and activism as well. The civil unrest that culminated in the Eureka Rebellion in 1854, when miners revolted against government licensing fees and for greater political rights, is believed by many to have laid the foundations of Australian democracy. The upswell of public opinion following the rebellion led to the establishment of manhood suffrage for ‘British subjects’ in the Australian colonies prior to the United Kingdom (1854 in South Australia and 1857 in Victoria, 1858 for New South Wales, 1859 for Queensland)[27] and led to other world-leading social experiments such as the secret ballot and the eight-hour day.[28]

2.27In addition to the migrants attracted by the prospect of striking it rich in the goldfields, from the early 1860s, a steady stream of Pacific Islanders arrived in Australia as indentured labourers, primarily for work in the Queensland agriculture sector, particularly in the sugar industry. Between 1863 and 1904, over 62,000 Pacific Islanders arrived in Queensland on short and medium-term indenture. While most of these workers had come voluntarily, thousands had been forcefully recruited by so-called ‘blackbirders’. From a population of 2,500 in 1871, the number of Pacific Islanders in Australia had increased to 9,500 by 1891. Similar to the Chinese miners, the presence of a population of a comparatively low-paid, subservient indentured labourers caused resentment and concerns around deteriorating labour standards among the White population.[29]

2.28Assisted migration to Australia also continued on a large scale following the discovery of gold, with 230,000 migrants arriving during the 1850s mainly from the United Kingdom and Ireland. Following the peak of migration during the gold rushes, a combination of high fertility and a steady stream of migration, both assisted and unassisted and mainly from Britian, resulted in a gradually increasing non-Indigenous population in Australia. From a total population of 1.7 million in 1871, Australia recorded a population of nearly 3.8 million by the time of Federation in 1901.[30]

Migration Post-Federation

The ‘White Australia’ Policy

2.29The six Australian colonies federated on 1 January 1901 to form the new nation-state of the Commonwealth of Australia. The popular resentments that arose towards Chinese and Pacific Islander workers on the goldfields and sugarcane plantations took various forms in colonial laws restricting the entry of non-Europeans, was soon to be reflected in the migration laws at the federal level.

2.30In some of its first significant legislative acts, the new federal parliament put in place several pieces of legislation designed to restrict non-British, and more generally non-European, immigrants from settling in Australia—what is referred to as the ‘White Australia’ policy. As pointed out by Professor Joy Damousi, Dr Rachel Stevens, and Dr Mary Tomsic, the ‘White Australia’ policy was one ‘that throughout the twentieth century celebrated a homogenous white British culture’ as the basis of Australian national identity.[31]

2.31The central pieces of legislation underpinning this policy were the Immigration Restriction Act 1901, the Pacific Islanders Labourers Act 1901, and section 15 of the Post and Telegraph Act 1901, and later, the Naturalization Act 1903. The latter three laws served, respectively, to

1restrict the entry of Pacific Islanders into, and facilitate their removal from, Australia;

2require that ships carrying Australian mail employ only White labourers; and

3restrict ‘aboriginal native[s] of Asia, Africa or the Pacific Islands’ from becoming citizens (or, more accurately, ‘British subjects’).

2.32The former law (the Immigration Restriction Act) provided government officials with a powerful mechanism to selectively restrict ‘undesirable’ migrants from entering and settling—a ‘dictation test’ that was based on a model used in South Africa.[32]

2.33Under the ‘dictation test’, a prospective immigrant was required to write down not less than 50 words in any European (and from 1905, any ‘prescribed’) language as determined by the customs officer. The test was deliberately designed to be failed, a fact acknowledged by the then Prime Minister, Alfred Deakin, who informed the House of Representatives in December 1905 that ‘the object of applying the language test is, not to allow persons to enter the Commonwealth, but to keep them out’.[33]

2.34This restrictive principle was also made explicit in a Home and Territories Department circular to customs officials in March 1927 on the application of the dictation test. The circular made clear that the intent of the test was to act ‘as an absolute bar’ to entry for ‘undesirable’ potential migrants and that officers should therefore select ‘a language with which the immigrant is not sufficiently acquainted’.[34]

2.35The effect of the restrictive nature of the ‘dictation test’ was that pass rates were miniscule: of the 805 times the test was administered between 1902 and 1903 only 46 people passed, of the 554 times it was administered between 1904 and 1909, only six people passed, and after 1909 no one passed.[35] From 1901, non-Europeans could only enter Australia temporarily under strict conditions.[36]

2.36The Immigration Restriction Act made no reference to race or ethnicity, but in application it was designed to restrict the immigration of non-Whites into Australia, and more specifically, non-British and non-Irish. In time, the impact of the ‘White Australia’ policy became reflected in Australia’s demographics, with significant decreases in the proportion of the population not originating from the British Isles, and particularly those of Asian heritage. By 1947, only 2.7 per cent of Australia’s population was born outside of Australia, the United Kingdom or Ireland. And while in 1901, people of Asian descent made up 1.25 per cent of the population, by the late 1940s, they only made up around 0.21 per cent. In 1947, the total non-European population of Australia was a mere 0.25 per cent.[37]

Migrations under the ‘White Australia’ Policy

2.37Between Federation and World War I, the Australian states managed various programs promoting the transport and settlement of new arrivals to Australia. Between 1905 and 1914 around 390,000 migrants arrived, and while the vast majority of these were from Britian, thousands come from other parts of Europe, such as France and Italy, and New Zealand. At the time of the outbreak of the World War I, when immigration virtually ceased, Australia’s population was almost 5 million.[38]

2.38In 1921, the Commonwealth took responsibility for immigration under the Joint Commonwealth and States Scheme. In 1922, the UK Parliament passed the Empire Settlement Act which provided for UK Government funds to support the emigration and settlement of British subjects from the British Isles to the Dominions and for the development projects associated with assisted migrants, such as providing subsidies for land settlement and the establishment of farmland. Over the 1920s, Australia absorbed a net migration intake of 340,000, two-thirds of which were assisted migrants. Also during this time, 23,000 Italians arrived, many escaping economic hardships resulting from the World War I, as did 8,000 Yugoslavs (80 per cent of whom were Croats) who were mainly peasants who took up unskilled labour upon arrival.[39]

2.39With the Wall Street Crash of 1929 and the onset of the Great Depression, immigration to Australia drastically reduced again, as the unemployment rate rose to above 30 per cent. The assisted migration program was suspended until 1938.[40]

2.40In the nation’s first formal international commitment to take in refugees, in 1938, the Australian Government agreed to accept 15,000 Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi persecution. By 1939, over 5,000 had arrived in Australia prior to migration out of Europe becoming impossible. The failure to bring in the full complement of Jewish refugees was important background for the later establishment of the Department of Immigration to more effectively and efficiently manage the migration process.[41]

2.41By the time World War II broke out, Australia’s population had reached around 7 million. A central driver of this population increase was migration, particularly assisted migration. Between 1901 and 1940, around 425,000 assisted migrants arrived in Australia, accounting for about half of all arrivals. Reflecting Australia’s continuing connection to the British Empire at the time and the Australian government’s concern to maintain the ‘Britishness’ of the Australian population, virtually all of these migrants were from the UK and Ireland.[42]

‘Populate or Perish’ and the Establishment of the Department of Immigration

2.42While the onset of World War II virtually shut down migration into Australia, the spectre of invasion by a foreign power during the War caused widespread belief that the country must increase its population or face the threat of destruction. This idea was referred to as ‘populate or perish’. Reflecting this belief, in 1944, Prime Minister Curtin proposed that Australia implement a post-war migration program to counter the country’s isolation and vulnerability, suggesting that a population of at least 30 million was needed. Under this vision, the Australian Government committed to increasing the population by two per cent per annum—one per cent though natural increase and one per cent though immigration.[43]

2.43With the end of the War approaching, the Chifley Government began considering strategies to increase the population through large-scale migration from Britian. On 13 July 1945, the Department of Immigration was first formally established with Arthur Calwell appointed as Australia’s inaugural Minister for Immigration. In August of that year, Minister Calwell informed the Parliament that:

If Australians have learned one lesson from the Pacific war … it is surely that we cannot continue to hold our island continent for ourselves and our descendants unless we greatly increase our numbers.[44]

2.44In line with the Australian Government’s long-held concern to maintain and promote the ‘Britishness’ of Australia’s national character, Calwell initially sought out much greater immigration from the UK to meet Australia’s migration needs. From 1945, the Department of Immigration managed a range of assisted passage schemes to encourage British immigration to Australia, including the general Assisted Passage Migration Scheme. Participants of this scheme were colloquially referred to as ‘Ten Pound Poms’, as the price of passage was £10 per adult, so long as the person was under 45 years of age and in good health. Children travelled for free. The only condition applying to this scheme was that participants remain in Australia for at least two years.[45]

2.45The UK government also contributed to these schemes. In 1946 and 1947, Australia entered into agreements with the UK government to co-fund the passage of British ex-servicemen and other selected civilians and their dependants to Australia as assisted migrants. These schemes were immensely popular with the British public, with an estimated 650,000 applications submitted by March 1947.[46]

2.46While popular with the British public, the assisted passage schemes were less popular among Britian’s leadership, who emphasised the need for people to remain in the UK to help rebuild in the wake of the War and amid domestic labour shortages. The UK government successively reduced its financial contribution to the schemes over the first half of the 1950s, although it maintained a modest contribution until 1972. The Australian Government increased its contributions over this time to cover the shortfall.[47]

2.47Despite the popularity of assisted passage, it soon became clear that Britian could only provide about 50 per cent of Australia’s demand for migrants—through both the assisted passage schemes and the unrestricted entry of other UK citizens into Australia. This fact forced the Australian Government to look further afield for potential new Australians. Irrespective of this, immigration from the UK would remain the core of Australia’s intake until the 1980s.[48]

2.48In addition to migration from Britian, the Australian Government committed to accepting large numbers of displaced persons from continental Europe from the early post-war period. This was facilitated by cooperation with the International Refugee Organization (the precursor to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees [UNHCR]), which had been established to resettle the approximately 11 million survivors of Nazi atrocities and other displaced by the War. The first group arrived in November 1947 from the Baltic states—839 migrants from Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia.[49]

2.49This group of migrants would become known as ‘Calwell’s beautiful Balts’ and played a significant role in popularising the idea of large-scale migration among the Australian population. For this cohort, Department officials were required to select individuals who were young, strong, and physically attractive. Calwell later commented that ‘[t]he men were handsome and the women beautiful. It was not hard to sell immigration to the Australian people once the press published photographs of that group’. This was the first move by the government away from a focus exclusively on Britain as a source of permanent migration.[50]

2.50Between 1947 and when the scheme ceased in 1954, Australia settled more than 170,000 migrants from Eastern and Western Europe through the Displaced Person Scheme.[51] These migrants were assisted with a range of supports prior to departure from Europe, during transit on passenger ships, and following arrival in Australia. These supports included English language classes, temporary housing up to one year after arrival, and employment services.[52] An additional 11,512 refugees arrived independently of the Australian Government during this time, mainly Jewish refugees assisted by various Jewish agencies.[53]

2.51Australia benefitted greatly from the Displaced Person Scheme. For one, government officials could select refugees based on skills needed for Australian industry. Secondly, the United Nations arranged for shipping of the refugees. And thirdly, the refugees were required to remain in jobs selected by the Australian Government for a minimum of two years, helping to boost vital industry sectors at a time of labour shortage and economic boom.[54]

2.52From 1951, Australia entered into treaties with a number of countries to facilitate the settlement of migrants to Australia. These agreements allowed the government to more selectively choose prospective migrants based on occupational categories and skill levels needed for primary and secondary industries in Australia. The first of such treaties were with the Netherlands in February and Italy in March of 1951. Subsequent treaties were signed with Austria, Belgium, West Germany, Greece, and Spain in 1952 and the United States, Switzerland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Finland in 1954. Due to the flows of migration resulting from these treaties, by the end of the decade, two thirds of all migrants settling in Australia were non-British.[55]

2.53This inflow of migrants from a diverse range of European source countries from the late 1940s played a major role in Australia’s post-war nation building infrastructure projects, central among which was the Snowy Mountain Hydro-electric Scheme. The Scheme commenced in August 1949, took 25 years to complete, and employed over 100,000 workers from 30 different countries over its duration. At its peak, the Scheme employed around 10,000 workers and was the largest and most ambitious infrastructure project in Australian history.[56]

Dismantling the ‘White Australia Policy’

2.54The large-scale migrations from non-British sources from the 1940s and 1950s, particularly from Southern Europe, helped fundamentally shift popular thinking towards non-British migration and eventually Australia’s sense of national identity. On this background, through the late 1940s and into the 1960s, there were a range of gradual legislative and policy shifts that undermined and eventual overthrew the foundations of the White Australia policy.

2.55In 1952, in one of the first governmental acts demonstrating this gradual shift in policy thinking towards non-European migrants, the Japanese wives of Australian servicemen who had served in the Pacific War were allowed to settle permanently in Australia, together with another 800 non-European refugees.[57]

2.56In addition to the changing composition of Australian society which resulted in increased acceptance of ethnic diversity within the population, there were international factors at play. In the post-colonial international environment of the late 1940s and 1950s, the existence of the White Australia policy was criticised as an international embarrassment that inhibited Australia in forging good relations with the emerging independent Asian states in the region. From the 1950s, the arrival of international students from Asia under the Colombo Plan played a major factor in undermining opposition to the presence of non-European migrants and eroding the popular sentiment underpinning the White Australia policy.[58]

2.57In 1958, one of the key legislative centrepieces of the White Australia policy, the Immigration Restriction Act 1901,was repealed and replaced with the Migration Act 1958. At the time of the Second Reading speech for the bill that would become the Act, the then Minister for Immigration, Alexander Russell Downer, informed the House of Representatives that the bill was a ‘technical document’ ‘to consolidate and amend Australia’s immigration statues’ that had ‘nothing to do with the Government’s current immigration policy’. Despite this, the Act served to abolish the Dictation Test, which in Minister Downer’s words was ‘an archaic, heavy-handed piece of machinery, in the category of those singularly ugly museum pieces of the Victorian age’ that had ‘evoked much resentment outside Australia, and has tarnished our good name in the eyes of the word’.[59]

2.58The next major shift occurred in 1966. In that year, the government of Prime Minister Harlod Holt initiated a major review of the ‘restrictive aspects of our immigration policy’. According to Holt, Australia’s growing involvement in ‘Asian developments’, the rapid growth in trade between Australia and its Asian neighbours, the growth of tourism from Asia to Australia, the considerable number of international students from Asia studying in Australia (‘well over 12,000’), and the growing scale of diplomatic relations between Australia and countries in the Asian region, made ‘such a review desirable in our eyes’.[60]

2.59Under the new policy introduced by the Holt Government, all potential migrants were subject to the same visa application process and became eligible for Australian citizenship after the same five-year waiting period (down from 15 years for non-European migrants). From now on, race or nationality would not factor into requirements for visa eligibility. Rather, would-be migrants would be judged on their skills and potential to contribute to Australian society.[61]

2.60The change in policy was soon also reflected in Australia’s international relations. In 1967, Australia entered into an immigration agreement with the Republic of Türkiye. By 1971, almost 10,000 Turkish immigrants had arrived in Australia, representing the first substantial migration of Muslims into the country.[62]

Multicultural Australia

2.61Just as the mass migrations during the Gold Rushes had profound demographic impacts on the country, the post-war migration boom and loosening of the White Australia policy soon became reflected in Australia’s population figures.

2.62By 1971, Australia had a total population of nearly 13 million, compared to 7.4 million in 1947. Between 1947 and 1971, the migration program had been responsible for 59 per cent of this growth. One in three people in Australia were either a post-war migrant or a child of a migrant and, moreover, 12 per cent of the population were born outside of Australia and the UK (compared to only three per cent in 1947), with a total of 1.5 million migrants arriving from countries other than Britain between 1945 and 1976.

2.63From 1966, there was also a steady increase in migration from Asian countries, with 750 arriving that year and over 2,700 in 1971.[63] Table 2.1 highlights the changing composition of Australia’s migration figures between 1947 and 1974.

Source: Geoffrey Sherington, Australia's Immigrants: 1788-1988, Second Edition, Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 1990, p. 223.

2.64The evolving face of Australian society demanded shifts in policy that better reflected these demographic changes and prepared the country for the future. The final vestiges of the White Australia policy were removed in 1973 by the new government of Gough Whitlam. In its place, a new policy and philosophy for Australian society was articulated and implemented—multiculturalism.

2.65The first policy statement outlining multiculturalism in Australia came from the Minister for Immigration in the Whitlam Government, Al Grassby, in a 1973 address: ‘A Multi-cultural Society for the Future’. Grassby employed the concept of the ‘family of the nation’ to theoretically describe the principles of multiculturalism. This concept, he argued,

…ought to convey an immediate and concrete image to all. In a family the overall attachment to the common good need not impose a sameness on the outlook or activity of each member, nor need these members deny their individuality and distinctiveness in order to seek a superficial and unnatural conformity. The important thing is that all are committed to the good of all.[64]

2.66This statement was echoed by the then Opposition Spokesperson for Labour and Immigration, Malcolm Fraser, in April 1974, when he proclaimed that there:

…is a need to overcome the complex problems confronting migrants, especially non-English speaking migrants, who already live in the multi-cultural society of today’s Australia.[65]

2.67The first major legislative manifestation of the new policy of multiculturalism came with the enactment of the Racial Discrimination Act 1975. The Act implemented Australia’s obligations under the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (1969). Through this, racial and other forms of discrimination became prohibited under Australian law.[66]

2.68With the election of the Fraser Government in 1975, the policy of multiculturalism gained bipartisan support. In 1977, the Fraser-appointed Australian Ethnic Council produced the first official definition of multiculturalism in Australia, which it described as ‘cultural pluralism’ based on social cohesion, equality of opportunity, and cultural identity. The Council stated:

In our view, an acceptance of the multicultural nature of Australian society implies that government and established institutions acknowledge the validity of ethnic cultures and respond in terms of ethnic beliefs, values and customs ... What we believe Australia should be working towards is not a oneness, but a unity, not a similarity, but a composite, not a melting pot but a voluntary bond of dissimilar people sharing a common political and institutional structure.[67]

2.69The foundations of Australia’s multicultural policy were given concrete substance with the release of the Galbally Report (Review of Post-Arrival Services and Programs)in 1978. In 1977, Prime Minister Fraser had tasked Frank Galbally to review post-arrival programs and services for migrants. The resulting report is viewed as a watershed in the development of Australia’s multiculturalism, as it highlighted that every Australian should be allowed to maintain their cultural identity without prejudice or disadvantage and should be encouraged to understand and embrace other cultures, and it identified the need to provide special services and programs for migrants to ensure equality of access to government services available to the whole community.[68]

2.70Following the Galbally Report, in 1979, the Fraser Government established the Australian Institute of Multicultural Affairs (AIMA) to raise awareness of cultural diversity and promote social cohesion, understanding, and tolerance.[69] As a tangible outcome of the multicultural policies adopted by the Fraser Government, between 1975 and 1982, around 200,000 migrants arrived from Asian countries.[70]

2.71With the governments of Prime Ministers Bob Hawke and Paul Keating, between 1986 and 1996, multicultural programs were reformed and expanded at both the federal and state and territory levels and efforts were made to place multiculturalism as central to an Australian national identity based on tolerance and cultural diversity.

2.72The Office of Multicultural Affairs (OMA) was established in 1987 within the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, replacing the AIMA, as a central coordinating body for multicultural policy, as was the Bureau of Immigration, Multicultural and Population Research (BIMPR) in 1989 to conduct research to inform policy, and the National Multicultural Advisory Council (NMAC) in 1994 to advise on multicultural matters.[71]

2.73While the government of Prime Minister John Howard, from 1996, wound back some of the central institutional supports of multicultural policy, such as disbanding the OMA and the BIMPR, it also re-affirmed the key principles of Australian multiculturalism through the A New Agenda for Multicultural Australia policy statement in 1999 and the creation of the Council for Multicultural Australia for the promotion of social harmony and the benefits of cultural diversity in 1998.[72]

2.74As well as committing to furthering the policy of Australian multiculturalism, the Howard Government also enacted a shift in the composition of the permanent migration program that remains relevant today. From 1996, the focus of the program was shifted towards skilled migrants away from family migration. The proportion of skilled migrants has remained relatively high versus family migration since that time.[73] Figure 2.2 below shows the distribution of Skill and Family visa streams from 1985 to 2022, including the planning levels for 2022-23.

Source: Department of Home Affairs, ‘The Administration of the Immigration and Citizenship Programs’, 11th Edition, May 2023, p. 23.

2.75The central tenets of Australian multiculturalism were affirmed again by the government of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, with the creation of the Australian Multicultural Advisory Council (AMAC) in 2008, which was tasked with providing the government with advice on steps to promote cohesion, overcoming racism and intolerance, and fostering positive engagement with diversity.

2.76In 2010, the AMAC presented advice and recommendations to government on promoting cultural diversity through The People of Australia statement. This led, in February 2011, to the launching of The People of Australia – Australia’s Multicultural Policy by the government of Prime Minister Julia Gillard endorsing the AMAC’s statement.[74] The policy addressed ‘the importance of the economic and social benefits of diversity, as well as our need to balance the rights and obligations of all who live here’ and reaffirmed the government’s ‘unwavering support for a culturally diverse and socially cohesive nation’. The policy also announced the creation of new independent multicultural advisory body, the Australian Multicultural Council to replace the AMAC.[75]

2.77At the same time as the People of Australia multicultural policy was released, the Parliamentary Joint Standing Committee on Migration (JSCM) was referred an inquiry into ‘the economic, social and cultural impacts of migration in Australia’, including the role of multiculturalism and social inclusion, settlement services, and the contribution of migration to ‘Australia’s long term productivity’.[76] The Committee made 32 recommendations focussed on, among other things, supporting multiculturalism and diversity, social inclusion, settlement and participation, and research.[77]

2.78In its response to the JSCM’s recommendations, the government of Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull asserted that it was ‘unwavering in its commitment to a multicultural Australia: one which celebrates and acknowledges the benefits that diversity brings—socially, economically and culturally’ and supported or supported in principle an overwhelming majority of the Committee’s recommendations. In its response, the Turnbull Government also referred to its 2017 multicultural statement: Multicultural Australia: United, Strong, Successful.[78]

2.79In a submission to the current inquiry, Dr Andrew Theophanous summarised the central characteristics and key principles of Australian multiculturalism in the following way:

Multiculturalism is a policy for managing the fact of cultural diversity in the interests of all. There are two aspects: it is a policy which guarantees rights and responsibilities.

1The rights include those of cultural identity—the right to express and share individual cultural heritage, including language and religion. The right to share social justice—the right of every Australian to equality of treatment and opportunity, regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, language, gender or place of birth.

2The responsibilities might be summarised as follows: that the first loyalty of all Australians must be to Australia, to its interests and its future; that all Australians must accept the basic principles of Australian society, including the Constitution and the rule of law, parliamentary democracy, freedom of speech and religion, English as the national language, equality of the sexes and the right of every Australian to express his or her views and values.[79]

2.80Dr Theophanous also pointed to the fundamental role migration and Australia’s multicultural policies have played, and will continue to play, in shaping our national identity and our future nation building endeavours:

Immigration together with multiculturalism has led to the process of building a new national identity for Australia, based on important human rights and social justice values. Such a national identity is critical in future nation building.[80]

2.81Dr Theophanous stated the opinion that under Australia’s model of multiculturalism, recognition and respect are paid to all cultures making up Australia’s population. So long as individual members of any cultural community comply with the civic responsibilities of all Australian citizens, as described above by Dr Theophanous, they are free to practice and celebrate their cultural traditions. Where disagreement arises in relation to the legitimacy of any particular aspect of a cultural tradition, the legal management of this is subject to democratic debate and legislation, like other aspects of culture.[81]

2.82On this point, Dr Theophanous informed the Committee that in a democratic society, such as Australia, ‘respect for human dignity and social justice must not be overthrown by an idea that we must respect the worth of every aspect of every culture,’ such as the practice of the death penalty or Female Genital Mutilation, that are abhorrent to modern Australian cultural standards.[82] The state, through its democratic organs, therefore, plays a role in setting the universal legal framework within which our multiculturalism thrives.

COVID-19 Pandemic

2.83On 20 January 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the COVID-19 outbreak that started in Wuhan, China, in late 2019 a Public Health Emergency of International Concern.[83] On 11 March 2020, the WHO announced that the outbreak was a pandemic.[84]

2.84In Australia, the first confirmed case of COVID-19 occurred on 25 January 2020. Following a range of measures by the Australian Government to contain the spread within Australia, including travel restrictions on people entering Australia from COVID-19 hotspots and the declaration of a human biosecurity emergency under the Biosecurity Act 2015, on 20 March 2020, Australia’s borders were closed to all non-citizens and non-residents.[85]

2.85As anticipated, the closing of the borders led to a sharp decline in Net Overseas Migration (NOM). For the first time since World War II, NOM became negative, with more people leaving Australia than arriving.[86] In 2020-21, for example, there was a net outflow of 88,000 people from Australia. This contrasts to 2018-19, before the outbreak of the pandemic, when Australia received a net migration gain of 241,300 people.[87]

2.86Historically, Australia has relied on oversea migration as its key driver of population growth. The decline in arrivals during the COVID-19 period caused a slowing in population growth between 2019-20, 2020-21, and 2021-22.[88] For 2020-21, for example Australia recorded population growth of a mere 0.2 per cent.[89]

2.87Figure 2.3 below shows the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Australia’s net migration intake.

Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics, 'Overseas Migration', https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/population/overseas-migration/latest-release

2.88Since the record low levels of NOM during the COVID-19 period, Australia’s NOM has continued to recover, primarily though the return of international students and other temporary migrants, such as Working Holiday visa holders. With this, Australia’s population growth has also recovered, increasing from 1.3 per cent in 2021-22, 2.4 per cent in 2022-23, and 1.9 per cent in 2023-24. Australia’s population is forecast to grown from 26 million as at 30 June 2022 to around 30.9 million by 30 June 2034.[90]

2.89The loss of workers during the COVID-19 period exacerbated labour force shortages in Australia. As noted by the Migrant Workers Centre:

After the exodus of migrant workers on temporary visas, the post-pandemic job market recorded a historically low unemployment rate. In July 2022, the Australian Bureau of Statistics reported a record low… 3.4%... unemployment rate with job vacancies more than double the number recorded at the beginning of the pandemic.[91]

2.90As noted by the Grattan Institute, however, the impact of the COVID-19 border restrictions have not been uniform across all industries. They note:

The closure of Australia’s international borders at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic has intensified employer demand for new visa pathways for less-skilled workers. Employers are struggling to find workers in almost all sectors due to the strong economic recovery from COVID-19, and the lagging impact of COVID-19 border closures in particular sectors that have historically relied on temporary visa-holders.[92]

2.91The Grattan Institute emphasised, moreover, that ‘fewer migrants [resulting from COVID-19 border restrictions] largely reduced both the demand for and supply of labour in Australia, and is likely to have little impact on the employment prospects and wages of Australian workers at the aggregate.’[93]

2.92Just as the COVID-19 pandemic exposed the reliance of some sectors of the economy on temporary visa holders, according to Multicultural Australia, it also ‘highlighted the isolation and vulnerability of international students and temporary migrants in Australia, exacerbated by their exclusion from settlement supports.’[94]

2.93The plight of temporary visa holders during the pandemic was accentuated by their large numbers. As pointed out by the Grattan Institute, pre-COVID Australia had seen a growing number of temporary migrants, with fewer of these transitioning to permanent residency. Additionally, transitions from temporary to permanent status has been taking longer than in the past.[95]

2.94As noted by Rafael Azeredo, the percentage of temporary visa holders contributing to Australia’s NOM intake had grown from 55 per cent in 2004 to 75 per cent in 2019.[96] Figure 2.4 indicates the growing proportion of temporary visa holders contributing to Australia’s NOM.

Source: Rafael Azeredo, Submission 21, p. 4.

2.95According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the results of the most recent census indicate that in August 2021 there were 1,638,800 temporary residents in Australia, including 25,300 overseas visitors.[97] Due to the large numbers of this cohort and the tendency for many people on temporary visas to jump from one type of temporary visa to another over time, sometimes for a long as a decade, there has emerge a situation where many people are ‘permanently temporary’, or in a state of ‘protracted temporariness’.[98]

2.96In evidence to the Committee, Rafael Azeredo recounted a case study to illustrate this type of ‘protracted temporariness’ (Box 2.1).

2.97This issue has been raised in the Migration Strategy as an area of concern:

… while Australians don’t want a nation of ‘permanently temporary’ residents, migration settings have led to a reliance on temporary migration over our traditional emphasis on permanent migration. This is not a recipe for building stronger communities or maintaining social cohesion, and it is not a pathway to strengthening the confidence Australians have in our migration system.[100]

Reflecting on Australia’s History of Migration

2.98Reflecting on the broad trends in the history of migration in post-war Australia in their submission to the inquiry, Professor Joy Damousi, Dr Rachel Stevens and Dr Mary Tomsic observed that:

The history of permanent migration to Australia after the Second World War provides a compelling and irrefutable case of how migration can significantly and profoundly make a…contribution to nation building, cultural diversity and social cohesion.[101]

2.99Further, recognising the immense place migration has played in the history of Australia, Professor Damousi, Dr Stevens, and Dr Tomsic made the following recommendation to the inquiry:

Develop and deliver an education program with curriculum aligned materials for school students and teachers to learn about the significance and value of Australia’s history and future.[102]

2.100Further to this point, Professor Damousi asserted the ‘transformative power of education in challenging and helping to eradicate racism and racial vilifications in communities.’ Given this, she suggested that governments should undertake a ‘sustained commitment to highlighting in our schools the past and current contribution of migrants that is fully embedded within all levels of our education system,’ implemented in tandem with a ‘successful migration policy’.[103]

Committee Comment

2.101The Committee sees migration as one of the central elements to Australia’s national story and believes that migration will continue to be a significant factor in shaping Australia’s national character into the future. Importantly, the Committee believes that it has been permanent migration that has been the backbone of this national story, and the Committee welcomes the emphasis the Migration Strategy places on the permanent migration as an engine for nation building. The Committee believes that Australia’s rich migration history and our distinctive form of multiculturalism should be promoted and celebrated in the Australian Curriculum and through our national cultural institutions.

2.102The Committee sees Australia’s history of migration as a central and enduring foundation of nation building efforts in Australia. The influx of migration during the Gold Rushes in the 1850s provided a basis for Australia’s world leading standards of living in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The mass migrations of Europeans in the post-war period enabled the building of crucial sovereign capacities through population growth, the importation of essential skills, and the construction of infrastructure projects like the Snowy Mountain Scheme. Our current cultural diversity embodying the multicultural policies of modern Australia provide sound foundations for national success in an age of global interconnectedness and technological innovation. The cultural richness and national strength that migration and multiculturalism have brought Australia should be celebrated, cherished, and further cultivated into the future.

2.103The Committee recommends that the Australian Government works with the state and territory governments through the National Cabinet Education Ministerial Council to promote in the Australian Curriculum the significance and value of migration in Australia’s history and future.

2.104The Committee recommends that the Australian Government promotes and celebrates migration and multiculturalism as central elements in Australia’s national story through our national cultural institutions.

Footnotes

[1]Department of Home Affairs, Submission 127, p. 4.

[2]The Migration Hub at ANU, Submission 70, p. 5; Australian Government, Review of the Migration System, Final Report, March 2023, p. 1.

[3]Noel Pearson, ‘A Rightful Place – Race, recognition and a more complete commonwealth’, Quarterly Essay 55, September 2014; Australian Human Rights Commission, Submission 42, p. [1].

[4]The Migration Hub at ANU, Submission 70, p. 5

[5]Alan Cooper, Alan N Williams, Nigel Spooner, ‘When did Aboriginal people first arrive in Australia?’, The Conversation, 7 August 2018, https://theconversation.com/when-did-aboriginal-people-first-arrive-in-australia-100830, viewed 25 September 2023; Chris Clarkson, Ben Marwick, Lynley Wallis, Richard Law Kelsham Fullagar, Zenobia Jacobs, ‘Buried tools and pigments tell a new history of humans in Australia for 65,000 years’, The Conversation, 20 July 2017, https://theconversation.com/buried-tools-and-pigments-tell-a-new-history-of-humans-in-australia-for-65-000-years-81021, viewed 25 September 2023.

[6]Ed Yong and Nature Magazine, ‘Genomes Show Indians Influx to Australia 4,000 Years Ago’, Scientific American, 14 January 2013, https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/genomes-show-indians-influx-to-australia-4000-years-ago/, viewed 27 September 2023; Rebecca Morelle, ‘Ancient migration: Genes link Australia with India’, BBC News, 14 January 2013, https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-21016700, viewed 27 September 2023; Carl Zimmer, ‘How Did Aboriginal Australians Arrive on the Continent? DNA Helps Solve a Mystery’, New York Times, 8 March 2017, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/08/science/aboriginal-australians-dna-origins-australia.html#:~:text=their%20remarkable%20story.-,All%20living%20Aboriginal%20Australians%20descend%20from%20a%20single%20founding%20population,populations%20remained%20isolated%2C%20rarely%20mixing, viewed 25 September 2023.

[7]Stefani Crabtree, Alan N Williams, Corey J A Bradshaw, Devin White, Frédérik Saltré, Sean Ulm, ‘We mapped the “super-highways” the First Australians used to cross the ancient land’, The Conversation, 30 April 2021, https://theconversation.com/we-mapped-the-super-highways-the-first-australians-used-to-cross-the-ancient-land-154263, viewed 27 September 2023.

[8]Ed Yong, ‘Genomes Show Indians Influx to Australia 4,000 years Ago’, Scientific American, 14 January 2013, https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/genomes-show-indians-influx-to-australia-4000-years-ago/, viewed 26 September 2023.

[9]Alan N Williams, ‘Australia’s colonisation was no accident, say the numbers’, The Conversation, 26 April 2013, https://theconversation.com/australias-colonisation-was-no-accident-say-the-numbers-13730, viewed 25 September 2023; Corey J A Bradshaw, Alan N Williams, Frédérik Saltré, Kasih Norman, Sean Ulm, ‘The First Australians grew to a population of millions, much more than previous estimates’, The Conversation, 30 April 2021, https://theconversation.com/the-first-australians-grew-to-a-population-of-millions-much-more-than-previous-estimates-142371, viewed 25 September 2023.

[10]Louise C. Johnson, Tanja Luckins and David Walker, The Story of Australia: A New History of People and Place, Oxon: Routledge, 2022, p. 9.

[11]National Museum of Australia, ‘Convict transportation peaks’, https://www.nma.gov.au/defining-moments/resources/convict-transportation-peaks, viewed 5 October 2023.

[12]National Museum of Australia, ‘Convict transportation peaks’, https://www.nma.gov.au/defining-moments/resources/convict-transportation-peaks, viewed 5 October 2023.

[13]British Library, ‘Timeline of James Cook’s voyages’, https://www.bl.uk/the-voyages-of-captain-james-cook/timeline#:~:text=19%20April%201770%3A%20The%20east,was%20made%20at%20Botany%20Bay, viewed 5 October 2023; National Museum of Australia, ‘Convict transportation peaks’, https://www.nma.gov.au/defining-moments/resources/convict-transportation-peaks, viewed 5 October 2023; Parliament of New South Wales, ‘1788 to 1810 – Early European Settlement’, https://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/about/Pages/1788-to-1810-Early-European-Settlement.aspx, viewed 6 October 2023.

[14]Hamish Maxwell-Stewart and Deborah Oxley, ‘Convicts and the Colonisation of Australia, 1788-1868’, Digital Panopticon, Digital Panopticon Project, https://www.digitalpanopticon.org/Convicts_and_the_Colonisation_of_Australia,_1788-1868, viewed 5 October 2023; Parliament of New South Wales, ‘1788 to 1810 – Early European Settlement’, https://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/about/Pages/1788-to-1810-Early-European-Settlement.aspx, viewed 6 October 2023.

[15]Geoffrey Sherington, Australia’s Immigrants: 1788-1988, Second Edition, Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 1990, pp. 38-40.

[16]Hamish Maxwell-Stewart and Emma Watkins, ‘Transportation’, Digital Panopticon, Digital Panopticon Project, https://www.digitalpanopticon.org/Transportation, viewed 6 October 2023.

[17]Hamish Maxwell-Stewart and Emma Watkins, ‘Transportation’, Digital Panopticon, Digital Panopticon Project, https://www.digitalpanopticon.org/Transportation, viewed 6 October 2023.

[18]Hamish Maxwell-Stewart and Emma Watkins, ‘Transportation’, Digital Panopticon, Digital Panopticon Project, https://www.digitalpanopticon.org/Transportation, viewed 6 October 2023.

[19]James Jupp, An Immigrant Nation Seeks Cohesion: Australia from 1788, London: Anthem Press, 2018, p. 4; Louise C. Johnson, Tanja Luckins and David Walker, The Story of Australia: A New History of People and Place, Oxon: Routledge, 2022, p. 29.

[20]Hamish Maxwell-Stewart and Deborah Oxley, ‘Convicts and the Colonisation of Australia, 1788-1868’, Digital Panopticon, Digital Panopticon Project, https://www.digitalpanopticon.org/Convicts_and_the_Colonisation_of_Australia,_1788-1868, viewed 5 October 2023.

[21]National Museum of Australia, ‘Assisted migration’, https://www.nma.gov.au/defining-moments/resources/assisted-migration, viewed 6 October 2023.

[22]James Jupp, ‘Gold Rushes (Australia)’, in Bean, F., Brown, S. (eds.), Encyclopedia of Migration, Springer, Dordrecht, 2015.

[23]Geoffrey Sherington, Australia’s Immigrants: 1788-1988, Second Edition, Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 1990, pp. 92-94; Monash University, ‘Migration and the Gold Rush’, and interview with Charles Fahey, June 2011, https://www.latrobe.edu.au/news/articles/2011/podcasts/migration-and-the-gold-rush/transcript, viewed 15 November 2023.

[24]John William Knott, ‘Arrival and Settlement 1851-1880’, in The Australian People: An Encyclopedia of the Nation, Its People and Their Origins, Edited by James Jupp, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001, p. 38; Australian Government, A History of the Department of Immigration: Managing Migration to Australia, Migration Heritage Centre, ‘Australia’s migration history’, https://www.migrationheritage.nsw.gov.au/belongings-home/about-belongings/australias-migration-history/index.html, viewed 6 October 2023.

[25]National Museum of Australia, ‘Gold rushes’, https://www.nma.gov.au/defining-moments/resources/gold-rushes, viewed 16 November 2023.

[26]Louise C. Johnson, Tanja Luckins and David Walker, The Story of Australia: A New History of People and Place, Oxon: Routledge, 2022, pp. 63-64.

[27]Marian Sawer, ‘Inventing the Nation Through the Ballot Box’, based on a paper for the Department of the Senate Occasional Lecture Series, 21 September 2001, Appendix, https://www.aph.gov.au/binaries/senate/pubs/pops/pop37/sawer.pdf, viewed 22 November 2023.

[28]James Jupp, ‘Gold Rushes (Australia)’, in Bean, F., Brown, S. (eds.), Encyclopedia of Migration, Springer, Dordrecht, 2015; Australian Electoral Commission, ‘Australian voting history in action’, 16 September 2020, https://www.aec.gov.au/About_AEC/25/theme1-voting-history.htm, viewed 22 November 2023; National Museum of Australia, ‘Gold rushes’, 8 February 2023, https://www.nma.gov.au/defining-moments/resources/gold-rushes, viewed 22 November 2023.

[29]Kay Saunders, ‘Pacific Islanders’, in James Jupp (ed.), The Australian People: An Encyclopedia of the Nation, Its People and Their Origins, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001, pp. 610-2; Louise C. Johnson, Tanja Luckins and David Walker, The Story of Australia: A New History of People and Place, Oxon: Routledge, 2022, p. 71.

[30]National Museum of Australia, ‘Assisted migration’, https://www.nma.gov.au/defining-moments/resources/assisted-migration#:~:text=In%20the%20early%201830s%20migrants,the%20debt%20to%20be%20repaid, viewed 6 October 2023; Louise C. Johnson, Tanja Luckins and David Walker, The Story of Australia: A New History of People and Place, Oxon: Routledge, 2022, p. 72; Australian Bureau of Statistics, ‘Historical Population’, 18 March 2019, https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/population/historical-population/2016, viewed 30 November 2023.

[31]Professor Joy Damousi, Dr Rachel Stevens, Dr Mary Tomsic, Submission 24, p. 2.

[32]Australian Government, A History of the Department of Immigration: Managing Migration to Australia, 2017, p. 14.

[33]Hon Alfred Deakin MP, Prime Minister, House of Representatives, Official Hansard, 6 December 1905, p. 6341.

[34]National Archives of Australia, ‘Directions for applying the dictation test from the Home and Territories Department’, https://www.naa.gov.au/students-and-teachers/learning-resources/learning-resource-themes/society-and-culture/migration-and-multiculturalism/directions-applying-dictation-test-home-and-territories-department, viewed 7 December 2023.

[35]Museum of Australian Democracy, ‘Immigration Restriction Act 1901’, https://www.foundingdocs.gov.au/item-did-16.html#:~:text=This%20package%20included%20the%20Pacific,should%20employ%20only%20white%20labour, viewed 8 December 2023.

[36]Australian Government, A History of the Department of Immigration: Managing Migration to Australia, 2017, p. 14.

[37]National Museum of Australia, ‘White Australia Policy’, May 2023, https://www.nma.gov.au/defining-moments/resources/white-australia-policy, viewed 8 December 2023; Australian Government, A History of the Department of Immigration: Managing Migration to Australia, 2017, p. 27.

[38]Geoffrey Sherington, ‘Settlement 1881-1914’, in James Jupp (ed.), The Australian People: An Encyclopedia of the Nation, Its People and Their Origins, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001, pp. 49-53; Australian Government, A History of the Department of Immigration: Managing Migration to Australia, 2017, p. 16.

[39]Michale Roe, ‘Inter-War British Migration to Australia’, in James Jupp (ed.), The Australian People: An Encyclopedia of the Nation, Its People and Their Origins, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001, pp. 58-9; Australian Government, A History of the Department of Immigration: Managing Migration to Australia, 2017, pp. 18-9.

[40]Australian Government, A History of the Department of Immigration: Managing Migration to Australia, 2017, p. 18.

[41]The Hon Arthur Calwell MP, Minister for Immigration, Official Hansard, 6 March 1947, pp. 430-435; Australian Government, A History of the Department of Immigration: Managing Migration to Australia, 2017, p. 20.

[42]Reg Appleyard, ‘Post-War British Immigration’, in James Jupp (ed.), The Australian People: An Encyclopedia of the Nation, Its People and Their Origins, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001, p. 62

[43]Reg Appleyard, ‘Post-War British Immigration’, in James Jupp (ed.), The Australian People: An Encyclopedia of the Nation, Its People and Their Origins, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001, p. 62; Australian Government, A History of the Department of Immigration: Managing Migration to Australia, 2017, pp. 21, 2.

[44]The Hon Arthur Calwell MP, Minister for Immigration, House of Representatives, Official Hansard, 2 August 1945, p. 4911.

[45]The Hon Arthur Calwell MP, Minister for Immigration, House of Representatives, Official Hansard, 2 August 1945, pp. 4911-4917; Geoffrey Sherington, Australia’s Immigrants: 1788-1988, Second Edition, Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 1990, p. 190; Australian Government, A History of the Department of Immigration: Managing Migration to Australia, 2017, p. 36.

[46]Australian Government, A History of the Department of Immigration: Managing Migration to Australia, 2017, p. 26.

[47]Geoffrey Sherington, Australia’s Immigrants: 1788-1988, Second Edition, Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 1990, p. 190; Reg Appleyard, ‘Post-War British Immigration’, in James Jupp (ed.), The Australian People: An Encyclopedia of the Nation, Its People and Their Origins, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001, pp. 62-5.

[48]Reg Appleyard, ‘Post-War British Immigration’, in James Jupp (ed.), The Australian People: An Encyclopedia of the Nation, Its People and Their Origins, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001, pp. 62-5.

[49]National Museum of Australia, ‘Postwar Immigration Drive’, 28 September 2022, https://www.nma.gov.au/defining-moments/resources/postwar-immigration-drive, viewed 20 December 2023; National Museum of Australia, ‘End of the White Australia Policy’, https://www.nma.gov.au/defining-moments/resources/end-of-white-australia-policy, viewed 22 December 2023; Ann-Mari Jordens, ‘Post-War non-British Migration’, in James Jupp (ed.), The Australian People: An Encyclopedia of the Nation, Its People and Their Origins, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001, pp. 65-6; Australian Government, A History of the Department of Immigration: Managing Migration to Australia, 2017, p. 28.

[50]National Museum of Australia, ‘Postwar Immigration Drive’, 28 September 2022, https://www.nma.gov.au/defining-moments/resources/postwar-immigration-drive, viewed 20 December 2023; National Museum of Australia, ‘End of the White Australia Policy’, https://www.nma.gov.au/defining-moments/resources/end-of-white-australia-policy, viewed 22 December 2023; Calwell cited in Australian Government, A History of the Department of Immigration: Managing Migration to Australia, 2017, p. 28.

[51]Australian Government, A History of the Department of Immigration: Managing Migration to Australia, 2017, p. 29.

[52]Australian Government, A History of the Department of Immigration: Managing Migration to Australia, 2017, p. 31.

[53]Ann-Mari Jordens, ‘Post-War non-British Migration’, in James Jupp (ed.), The Australian People: An Encyclopedia of the Nation, Its People and Their Origins, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001, p. 66.

[54]Geoffrey Sherington, Australia’s Immigrants: 1788-1988, Second Edition, Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 1990, p. 196.

[55]Ann-Mari Jordens, ‘Post-War non-British Migration’, in James Jupp (ed.), The Australian People: An Encyclopedia of the Nation, Its People and Their Origins, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001, p. 67.

[56]Australian Government, A History of the Department of Immigration: Managing Migration to Australia, 2017, p. 32.

[57]Australian Government, A History of the Department of Immigration: Managing Migration to Australia, 2017, p. 44.

[58]Peter McDonald, ‘Migration to Australia: From Asian Exclusion to Asian Predominance’, Revue européenne des migrations internationales, Vol. 35, No. 2, 2019, p. 89.

[59]Hon Alexander Russell Downer MP, Minister for Immigration, House of Representatives, Official Hansard, 1 May 1958, p. 1396.

[60]Hon Harold Holt MP, Prime Minister, House of Representatives, Official Hansard, 8 March 1966, p. 34.

[61]National Museum of Australia, ‘End of the White Australia policy’, https://www.nma.gov.au/defining-moments/resources/end-of-white-australia-policy, viewed 29 January 2024.

[62]Geoffrey Sherington, Australia’s Immigrants: 1788-1988, Second Edition, Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 1990, p. 223.

[63]Australian Government, A History of the Department of Immigration: Managing Migration to Australia, 2017, pp. 45, 47, 50.

[64]Hon A. J. Grassby, ‘A Multi-cultural Society for the Future’, Immigration Reference Paper, Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service, 1973, p. 5.

[65]Hon Malcolm Fraser MP cited in Elsa Koleth, ‘Multiculturalism: A Review of Australian Policy Statements and Recent Debates in Australia and Overseas’, Parliamentary Library, Research Papers No. 6, 2010-11, October 2010, p. 5.

[66]Elsa Koleth, ‘Multiculturalism: A Review of Australian Policy Statements and Recent Debates in Australia and Overseas’, Parliamentary Library, Research Papers No. 6, 2010-11, October 2010, p. 4.

[67]Australian Ethnic Affairs Council cited in Elsa Koleth, ‘Multiculturalism: A Review of Australian Policy Statements and Recent Debates in Australia and Overseas’, Parliamentary Library, Research Papers No. 6, 2010-11, October 2010, p. 6.

[68]Elsa Koleth, ‘Multiculturalism: A Review of Australian Policy Statements and Recent Debates in Australia and Overseas’, Parliamentary Library, Research Papers No. 6, 2010-11, October 2010, pp. 6-7.

[69]Department of Home Affairs, ‘Our history – Multicultural affairs’, https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/about-us/our-portfolios/multicultural-affairs/about-multicultural-affairs/our-policy-history#:~:text=1979%20%E2%80%93%20an%20Act%20of%20Parliament,social%20cohesion%2C%20understanding%20and%20tolerance, viewed 13 February 2024.

[70]Australian Government, Migration Strategy – Getting migration working for the nation, December 2023, p. 21.

[71]Elsa Koleth, ‘Multiculturalism: A Review of Australian Policy Statements and Recent Debates in Australia and Overseas’, Parliamentary Library, Research Papers No. 6, 2010-11, October 2010, pp. 9-11; Department of Home Affairs, ‘Our history – Multicultural affairs’, https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/about-us/our-portfolios/multicultural-affairs/about-multicultural-affairs/our-policy-history#:~:text=1979%20%E2%80%93%20an%20Act%20of%20Parliament,social%20cohesion%2C%20understanding%20and%20tolerance, viewed 13 February 2024.

[72]Elsa Koleth, ‘Multiculturalism: A Review of Australian Policy Statements and Recent Debates in Australia and Overseas’, Parliamentary Library, Research Papers No. 6, 2010-11, October 2010, pp. 12-15.

[73]Australian Government, A History of the Department of Immigration: Managing Migration to Australia, 2017, p. 71.

[74]Elsa Koleth, ‘Multiculturalism: A Review of Australian Policy Statements and Recent Debates in Australia and Overseas’, Parliamentary Library, Research Papers No. 6, 2010-11, October 2010, pp. 18-19; Department of Home Affairs, ‘Our history – Multicultural affairs’, https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/about-us/our-portfolios/multicultural-affairs/about-multicultural-affairs/our-policy-history#:~:text=1979%20%E2%80%93%20an%20Act%20of%20Parliament,social%20cohesion%2C%20understanding%20and%20tolerance, viewed 13 February 2024.

[75]Australian Government, The People of Australia – Australia’s Multicultural Policy, Hon Chris Bowen MP, Minister for Immigration and Citizenship and Senator Hon Kate Lundy, Parliamentary Secretary for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs, ‘Message’, 2011, p. [3].

[76]Joint Standing Committee on Migration, Inquiry into Migration and Multiculturalism in Australia, March 2013; Susan Love, ‘Multicultural policy since 2010: a quick guide’, Parliamentary Library, Research Paper Series, 2021-22, September 2021, p. 4.

[77]Joint Standing Committee on Migration, Inquiry into Migration and Multiculturalism in Australia, March 2013.

[78]Australian Government, ‘Response to the Joint Standing Committee on Migration Report: Inquiry into Migration and Multiculturalism in Australia, December 2017.

[79]Dr Andrew Theophanous, Submission 61, p. 58.

[80]Dr Andrew Theophanous, Submission 61, p. 2.

[81]Dr Andrew Theophanous, Submission 61.

[82]Dr Andrew Theophanous, Submission 61, p. 47.

[83]World Health Organization, ‘Statement on the second meeting of the International Health Regulation (2005) Emergency Committee regarding the outbreak of the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV)’, 30 January 2020, https://www.who.int/news-room/detail/30-01-2020-statement-on-the-second-meeting-of-the-international-health-regulations-(2005)-emergency-committee-regarding-the-outbreak-of-novel-coronavirus-(2019-ncov), viewed 23 February 2024.

[84]World Health Organization, ‘WHO Director-General’s opening remarks at the media briefing on COVID-19 – 11 March 2020’, 11 March 2020, https://www.who.int/director-general/speeches/detail/who-director-general-s-opening-remarks-at-the-media-briefing-on-covid-19---11-march-2020, viewed 23 February 2024.

[85]Senate Select Committee on COVID-19, Final Report, Appendix 2, p. 107.

[86]Centre for Population, ‘Low Overseas Migration: A Quick Guide to the Potential Impacts on Local Populations’, 2021, p. 1.

[87]Australian Bureau of Statistics, ‘More people emigrated from, than immigrated into, Australian in 2020-21’, Media Release, 17 December 2021, https://www.abs.gov.au/media-centre/media-releases/more-people-emigrated-immigrated-australia-2020-21, viewed 23 February 2024.

[88]Centre for Population, ‘Low Overseas Migration: A Quick Guide to the Potential Impacts on Local Populations’, 2021, p. 1.

[89]Australian Bureau of Statistics, ‘More people emigrated from, than immigrated into, Australian in 2020-21’, Media Release, 17 December 2021, https://www.abs.gov.au/media-centre/media-releases/more-people-emigrated-immigrated-australia-2020-21, viewed 23 February 2024.

[90]Centre for Population, ‘2023 Population Statement’, https://population.gov.au/publications/statements/2023-population-statement#:~:text=Insights%20from%20the%202023%20Population%20Statement&text=Annual%20population%20growth%20is%20forecast,per%20cent%20by%202033%E2%80%9334., viewed 23 February 2024.

[91]Migrant Workers Centre, Submission 78, p. 10.

[92]Grattan Institute, Submission 17, p. 88.

[93]Grattan Institute, Submission 17, p. 30.

[94]Multicultural Australia, Submission 40, p. 18.

[95]Grattan Institute, Submission 17, p. 36.

[96]Rafael Azeredo, Submission 21, p. 3.

[97]Australian Bureau of Statistics, ‘Temporary visa holders in Australia: Characteristics of selected types of temporary visa holders who were present in Australia on Census Night, 10 August 2021’, 28 April 2023, https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/people-and-communities/temporary-visa-holders-australia/latest-release, viewed 25 February 2024.

[98]Rafael Azeredo, Submission 21, pp. 2-3; Human Rights Law Centre, Migrant Workers Centre, Asylum Seeker Resource Centre, Submission 120.

[99]Rafael Azeredo, Submission 21, p. 3.

[100]Australian Government, Migration Strategy – Getting migration working for the nation, December 2023, p. 11.

[101]Prof Joy Damousi, Dr Rachel Stevens, Dr Mary Tomsic, Submission 24, p. 2.

[102]Prof Joy Damousi, Dr Rachel Stevens, Dr Mary Tomsic, Submission 24, p. 2.

[103]Professor Joy Damousi, Director, Research Centre for Refugees, Migration and Humanitarian Studies, Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences, Australian Catholic University, Committee Hansard, Melbourne, 26 April 2023, p. 29.