QUOTES FROM IMMIGRATION NATION DOCUMENTARY

QUOTES FROM IMMIGRATION NATION DOCUMENTARY



Site: Immigration Nation Documentary


BLUE = ANALYSIS


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White Australia:

  • “This was the objective”

    • The goal was to have an all white Australia

  • “Turned an ally into an enemy”

  • “Designing a country unlike any other” / “would learn from the mistakes of other countries and would create a society which was much better”

    • Demonstrates how Australia wanted to be innovative and more socially advanced than the current countries

    • Free of the ills of the old world

  • “The most progressive and democratic society the world has ever seen”

  • “Will be at the forefront of democratic, technological and social advance”

    • Settlers saw a new country, and thus an opportunity to create a new and better system than had existed before

  • “Create a utopia”

    • Perfect world

  • “Plans to safeguard equality, democracy and freedom for once race and one race alone”

    • Highlights the way in which all policies in Australia were put in place to protect only the white population

    • Certain demographics were omitted from such progress (Indigenous people, immigrants, women, etc)

  • “There’s no place in this brave new world for Aboriginal Australians”

    • The settlers didn’t believe that the Aboriginal Austreralians could further/better their new society. They don’t know if they are capable of civilisation

  • “Start their brave new democracy… through exclusion”

  • “They would have no future in this brave new working man's democracy”

  • “Smooth the pillow of the dying race”

    • Make it as comfortable for them as possible while 

  • “Marking the birth of Australia”

  • “Even a small minority are a big problem”

    • Demonstrates the degree to which settlers went to ensure Australian society consisted solely of those of European/white descent

  • “Threatens the dream of creating a white working man's paradise”

    • Because they thought the Indigenous Australians would halt civilisation


  • “Based on a paradox of democratic equality and racial exclusion”



Immigration Restriction Act 1901:

  • “The day will come when black and yellow races will not be under tutelage” 

  • “Fear non-europeans will destroy the new democracy”

  • “Is he capable even of civilisation”

    • They saw the “primitive” ways which the Indigenous Australians lived off the land and were not technologically advanced and questioned whether they would be able to contribute to this new society

    • Eventually it was thought that they could not 

  • “Keeps out anyone who isn’t white”

  • ‘There would be no one in Australia other than members of the white race’

    • Emphasises strong desire to remain a white ‘monoethnic’ society

  • “Outright ban on anyone who isn't white”

  • “Racial contamination”

    • They wanted a ‘pure’ white nation, one race only

  • “Prohibiting the importation of a single coloured alien”

    • Blunt racism

  • The settlers views them as “alien” as they were so different 

  • “He won’t support an outright ban based on colour or race”

  • “Will imperil the relations with the empire” 

    • England did not support the proposed law

  • “What will become known as the White Australia Policy is enshrined in law”

  • “Indelible stain on its reputation around the world”

    • Australia wanted only to be seen as a white nation because they believed this would earn them respect from other nations which were their allies (western european states and England)

  • “Why should Australia be discriminatory to its own people?”

    • There was already a strong chinese and japanese population in Australia, who now have no place in the new Australia




Pacific Island Labourers Act 1901:

  • “There’s no place for them in this new Australia”

    • The new Australia was intended to be socially, politically and technologically progressive, and it was thought that these groups of people were not capable of contributing to this society

    • White Australia ≠ people of colour or other foreign immigrants

  • “What started as slavery became settlement”

    • Initially settlers brought Asian people to Australia as workers, and as a result the communities of these workers began to grow

  • “They were putting down roots in white Australia”

    • Emphasises the growing population of people of Asian descent in Australia

    • Highlights the increased difficulty to remove these people from Australia, as they had growing communities 

  • “It was a ruthless form of ethnic cleansing”

    • Demonstrates how blatant the racism was in Australia at the time of Federation

  • “The so called survival races need to be stopped from coming in the first place”

    • Thus the birth of the Immigration restriction Act 1901

  • ‘Calls for the immediate deportation of the sugarcane workers’