White Australia Research Paper

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The White Australia Policy was made to make Australia a “white haven” for white people that had a number of unforseen consequences. Gold mining and sugar cane farming in Queensland was a major part of Australia's history. Many of these workers were non-white and were feared of making 'impure' babies while also having a large population. These acts lead to the policy contributing to something that could have been avoided hence the White Australia Policy collapsed slowly. The White Australians felt threatened from the non-Europeans and lead to racial violence. In 1850 there was a decline in British prisoners to work as labour so the quick and easy solution was to bring in Chinese workers. The Chinese were originally brought in to work as sheep…show more content…
Not every Australian wanted the White Australia policy. This was shown in 1900-1950 where the Asian culture was respected like in Sydney and Melbourne with their Chinese cookhouses. The major unforeseen consequence was the disintegration of the White Australia Policy. The Policy was slowly taken apart shred by shred over time by numerous governments. Some say it took a lot longer then it should have taken. The Australians needed troops for world war two. Australia asked America for white troops but this was sent back in their face stating that only mixed troops would be sent. Many people sheltered in Australian as refugees to be kept safe in the war, many of these people left after it was ended but many still stayed. Arther Calwell, the first immigration minister for Australia, wanted to remove these settlers but this provoked the Australian people. Minister Holt in 1949 allowed 800 of these non-European refugees to stay. The first strings to be pulled to bring down the White Australia policy was in 1957. This was to let non-Europeans gain an Australian citizenship after 15 years. This allowed from 1966-1970 an average of 6,500 Asians on average to settle per

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