White Australia through Australian Eyes

George Hicks

This is an edited version of an article published in the first issue of the International House magazine Satadal, published in 1959.

A referendum on Australia’s Restricted Immigration Policy was conducted last June by the students of Melbourne University. Some 2,820, or two-thirds of the full-time students, voted. Of these, 77 per cent, voted in favour of a modification of the present policy so as to allow Asians to become permanent settlers in Australia. Of these 77 per cent., nearly nine-tenths wanted this modification to be achieved by means of a Quota System, and the remainder wanted either no restriction or restriction by ministerial discretion.

Part of the reason for the great interest and decisive views about White Australia in student circles has been their own experiences in living and working with Asian students. This experience shows that not only are alleged racial and cultural incompatibilities a myth, but that we have much to gain from contact with people of other races. These sentiments are not restricted to the Universities but are equally widespread in the Technical Colleges where the majority of Asian students study.

The Minister for Immigration, Mr Downer, in reply to the results of the Referendum, stated that ‘the allocation of small quotas to great Asian countries side by side with our active encouragement and financial assistance to European migrants does not seem to me to offer any real opportunity to refute vicious propaganda about Australia’s alleged colour prejudice. Small quotas would at best be ignored and would perhaps more likely be vilified as discriminating than our existing policy, which at least cannot be held out to be sham or humbug, as small quotas could be.’

Well, America has a quota of 2,990 for Asia and a quota of 149,000 for Europe. Like Australia, Canada has a policy of active encouragement of European migrants, but her quotas for Asian countries total only 450. Why are there no cries of sham, humbug and discrimination in those countries?

The answer is that even with a small quota the Asian would know that the colour of his skin does not automatically exclude him from living in Australia. He would know that in principle Australia accepts him, he is not faced with the barrier of total exclusion, the ‘colour bar’.

There is a world of difference between exclusion on racial grounds or implied inferiority and a quota system which recognises that a limited number from any country may qualify on their merits for assimilation into the Australian community. A quota system means restriction without insult.

True, there has been a considerable liberalising of the rules governing the entry and stay of Asians in the last few years. Certain classes of Asians may now be naturalised. For example, wives and husbands of Australians, war refugees and people who have already been here for 15 years. However, no Asian is accepted as an individual; he has to prove a special case of hardship.

The most important argument in support of the White Australia Policy may be that the admission of Asians would lead to racial friction and racial clashes as in the United Kingdom. In the United Kingdom the West Indian is generally of a lower educational standard and less skilled technically than the average Briton; hence he has been forced into low employment and has come to be regarded as a second-class citizen by his white work-mates. But in our Quota System Asian migrants could be accepted on a basis of educational suitability, so that they could move into the Australian community on a par with John Citizen, and problems from the segregation of the poor and unskilled would be avoided.

It is very pertinent that the proportion of Asians in the Australian community has been declining since the beginning of the century. It is now at its lowest point for over a century, and the addition of 100 or so Asians per year would barely keep the proportion stable.

Mismanagement of our Immigration Policy has left a legacy of bitterness which only a widely publicised change can overcome. The case of Sergeant Gamboa raised feelings to such a height that even today in the Philippines there is considerable anti-Australian feeling over the case. These emotions are hardly less in other countries, and any Australian Government statement defending the policy results in a stream of violent criticism.

There are some administrative problems, such as the difficulty of determining the quotas as between different countries. Should Commonwealth countries have larger quotas or should they be based on population? Such quotas tend to define the status of one country in terms of another, but the success of Canada’s scheme should warn us against exaggerating this difficulty.

There is, in fact, a way to overcome these difficulties. If the Australian Immigration Ministry were to announce publicly that it would administer the policy so as to allow for a quota of permanent Asian settlers and leave the detailed numbers to be admitted and the qualifications for entry to be decided upon in consultation with the respective Ministries of Immigration of the Asian countries, we would score the double diplomatic victory of illustrating to Asia that Australia is not synonymous with colour bigotry and of ensuring success for the scheme because Asian countries would be reluctant to criticise a policy to which they themselves were a party. Consultation between the Asian countries and Australia as to the terms of the quota should result in a decision acceptable to both parties and would give Ministers from the various countries the opportunity for meeting together amicably around a table. Collaterally, we would receive favourable publicity in Asia—something that is non-existent at the time of writing—and the scheme could be so operated that people obviously unacceptable to Australia would be stopped from proceeding any further by the appropriate Government Department in their own country.

There is, moreover, reason to expect that Asian countries would co-operate fully in seeing that only a restricted number of desirable people would come to Australia. In the past Japan voluntarily restricted her emigration to America. Today the West Indies is working out a plan to restrict emigration to the United Kingdom. Asian countries do not want to solve their population problems in Australia; they want to be accepted with respect and equality and would have every incentive to come to an amicable agreement.

Despite the friendship we show and the efforts towards a better understanding, White Australia poisons the atmosphere, raises the spectre of the colour bar and the suspicion that we do not respect Asians as equals. As an immature gesture of nationalism, it is both out of date and out of line with the more liberal sentiments of the nation.

GEorge Hicks, 1959