After once trying to keep its population white and predominantly British, Australia reversed course. Since 1947 it has absorbed five million immigrants from some 240 countries and places around the globe, with increasing numbers from Asian nations. In time, the country developed a multicultural outlook that encourages immigrants as well as indigenous people to retain their traditional cultures while also becoming loyal Australians.
This book examines Australia past and present to show why immigration policies changed, the conflicts the new policies caused and the benefits they brought. The last chapters view Australia in relation to world events: the economic rise of China, the impact of the Bali bombing in 2002 and the arrival of boat refugees from Middle Eastern nations. The result is a thorough and thoughtful consideration of Australia as a multiethnic society, including current challenges and the nation’s potential to play a larger role in its Asia Pacific region.

Writer Celeste Lipow MacLeod lives in Berkeley, California.

Celeste Lipow MacLeod
Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 238
Bibliographic Info: 20 photos, maps, notes, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2006
pISBN: 978-0-7864-2522-8
Imprint: McFarland

Acknowledgments      ix

A Note to the Reader      xii

Introduction      1

Prologue      5

1. Before the British      11

2. Convicts and Colonists      18

3. Class Conflicts with Unexpected Outcomes      32

4. Spreading Across the Land      48

5. Dispossessed: The Indigenous People      66

6. A Place in Two Cultures      79

7. Immigrants and “White Australia”      97

8. A Multiethnic Nation      113

9. Diversity and Dissent      128

10 Embedded Legacies      139

11. Turbulent Times      153

12. Asian Connections      166

13. Which Way Ahead?      185

Chapter Notes      203

Selected Bibliography      217

Index      221

“anyone interested in knowing how Australia was settled, grew, prospered and came to accept a multicultural identity can benefit from consulting this slender and spritely volume…. Recommended”—Choice; “a concise yet highly detailed social history of Australia…relates, in crisp prose, the dynamic story of this ethnic change”—The Institute for Historical Study Newsletter; “Does a great job in putting migration and ethnicity at the centre…a very good and readable book. I recommend it highly”—Dr. James Jupp, Australian National University.