Thread: India Australia Relations

Originally Posted by surfgun

I see our Aussie friends have the same issues as the US in this regard. A lot of immigrants wondering what freebies that they can get from their host country. Good grief! Heaven forbid, that after gaining a good education that some of them may return home to better their countryman's lot.

There is a big difference between immigrants and international students. The "good education" we pay big time for. Infact, the Canucks have already squeezed almost $100k from me, and much more to come. ) I'd be a little offended if the Canucks thought they were doing me a favour.

And as for immigrants, I don't know what freebies you're talking of, but stop equating them with international students! There's a big difference. And secondly, a great deal of the students go back, and the ones that stay, stay because the government needs their skills. Just imagine, you're getting a person who paid for his whole education and the government did not need to give him/her loans or subsidize his education. Than there are the companies who hire these students, I know of some who were hired in the US but their company decided to send them to work in the company's branch in India. Its a win-win for both. But I'm aware there are others who come pretending to get an education, and their motive is migration. Well, in that case, it is entirely up to the government to put in place laws which will prevent them from migrating, and it can be easily done.

Originally Posted by Boks

If you ask me - Are Aussies racist? I’ll say some are (some of the dinner table convs while I was waiting tables were quite off the charts) but I also met several normal everyday people who weren't and I would suggest majority is not. You need to keep in mind the following while passing judgement. Australia changed their all white immigration policy in 1975. So assuming some lag, that is just about 25 odd years of immigration the society has experienced till now. Any assimilation process is generally long term and often takes atleast a generation. One visit to the Sydney CBD would indicate that there have been massive changes in population mix in a short period and that’s a lot to get used to. I think a more fair assessment of Australia’s ability to deal with immigration is that the last 25 years have gone relatively peacefully without any major instances of race riots or (barring recent Indian cases) racist incidents. This should be appreciated and encouraged, instead of blowing the whole issue out of proportion and forcing Australians to batten down the hatches. Caveat - This is not to belittle anything Indians might have faced in recent incidents, just providing my two bits based on the time I spent there.

Boks,

Good post. Thanks for your observations. Just a few minor points on the 'White Australia Policy' - a policy I completely disagree with (or would have if I had been old enough to at the time).

First, it ended in 1973.

Second, it was gradually relaxed post-WW2. A policy that had once attempted to limit migration to northern European types changed dramatically. Smaller numbers of Sth Europeans had been allowed in, but they were more likely to be refused. In the 25 years before the policy was abolished huge numbers of Greeks & italians came to Australia. Smaller numbers of Turks, Maltese & lebanese also came. Indeed, the two largest Maltese cities in the world by population are Sydney & Melbourne (both more than twice the size of Valetta). At the time these people were not considered 'white' in the same way as anglo-celtic Australians, though now they are.

There were also small but significant changes on the issue of non-Europeans (see below).

My point here is not that Australia was not possessed of both broad & deep racism at the time, but that we were not a monolithically 'white' society before 1973. Attitudes were undergoing a significant change even before then. It saddens me that some of these attitudes persist in Australia, but the nasty stuff is now limited to a fairly small minority.

From Wiki:

Australian policy began to shift towards significantly increasing immigration. Legislative changes over the next few decades continuously opened up immigration in Australia.[10]

1947 The Australian Government relaxed the Immigration Restriction Act allowing Non-Europeans the right to settle permanently in Australia for business reasons.

1950 Colombo Plan, students from Asian countries were admitted to study at Australian universities.

1957 Non-Europeans with 15 years' residence in Australia were allowed to become citizens.

1958 The Revised Migration Act of 1958 abolished the dictation test and introduced a simpler system for entry.

1959 Australians were permitted to sponsor Asian spouses for citizenship.

1964 Conditions of entry for people of Non-European stock were relaxed.
After a review of the European policy in March 1966, Immigration Minister Hubert Opperman announced applications for migration would be accepted from well-qualified people on the basis of their suitability as settlers, their ability to integrate readily and their possession of qualifications positively useful to Australia. At the same time, the Holt Liberal government decided a number of "temporary resident" non-Europeans, who were not required to leave Australia, could become permanent residents and citizens after five years (the same as for Europeans).

As a result, annual non-European settler arrivals rose from 746 in 1966 to 2,696 in 1971, while annual part-European settler arrivals rose from 1,498 to 6,054.[11]