Australia's Immigration Policies After World War Two (1945-1972)

The immigration history of Australia began with the initial human migration to the continent around 50,000 years ago. In the mid of 1800s, the racial contradiction deepened as non-white diggers flooded in, so gradually the Australian government made every effort to restrict non-white immigration, introducing actually the White Australia policy, which was finally terminated by the historical trend after almost a century's implementation. The Second World War is a turning point for Australia's immigration policy adjustment. After the War, although White Australia remained in operation, Canberra incrementally reformed its immigration policy to the benefits of non-whites. How had the White Australia policy been abolished? What were the obstacles and progresses? Why did the Australian government make the wise shift after the War? Focusing on these questions, this paper tries to examine the evolution of Australia's immigration policies in the post war period.As immigration policy is a big and comprehensive issue that an MA thesis may not be able to cover completely, this study is intended to investigate Australia's immigration policies between 1945 and 1973. Chapter one, an introduction, is to give a general idea about the thesis and present the literature review and research methodology. Chapter Two briefly introduces and reviews the pre-war White Australia Policy followed by Chapter Three which explores Australia's immigration policies between 1945 and 1973, and in which it is stated that post-War Australia was compelled to seek more immigrants from Europe and elsewhere to alleviate the labour shortage it faced, resulting gradually in the discontinuity of the White Australia policy. Chapter Four provides a deep exploration of the various reasons leading to the collapse of the White Australia policy from a Chinese perspective. The conclusive chapter, Chapter Five, in reviewing the White Australia policy and its gradual termination, points out that the abolition of White Australia is historically inevitable, and that as an immigration nation Australia is in the position to set a good example in the area of immigration.