cont'd ...

Australia's immigration experience has been a broad one.
Originally it was Anglo-Celtic but after the war
immigrants came increasingly from Europe. In more recent
times, Vietnamese, Chinese, African, immigrants have grown
considerably in numbers. And all these immigrant communities
have made successful contributions to Australian life
thanks also to the policies and programs of our various
governments om both sides of politics.

As a result our country has been described as a successful
multicultural society. One in which people from all
different backgrounds have found a home. One to which
many people still want to come. We are a lucky country.
We should count our blessings.

Mr Opinion asked what I see as the political and economic bases for the introduction of multiculturalism in Australia.

One can look up the subject and find:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiculturalism_in_Australia

“According to the National Agenda for a Multicultural Australia, the Australian government is concerned with three broad policy areas: cultural identity, social justice, and economic efficiency.”

In my opinion the policy of multiculturalism added fairness to what was already a multicultural society. I see social justice and cultural identity as the main political impetus. Australia has been a multicultural society since the first fleet. ttbn is right in that, but it was also a very unfair society. Bishop Frame in his book “Church and State” mentions that, in the few years of Australian history the only clerics recognized were Church of English chaplains attached to the royal armed forces. However, the convicts had various religious and cultural identities which were suppressed. I don’t know all the backgrounds of the convicts, but I know there were Irish Catholics and Jewish Londoners among them. In present day Australia Catholics and Jews are free to express their religious attachments and even to head or have important positions in our political parties.

Two decent men, Gough Whitlam and Malcolm Fraser, from Australia’s two main parties implemented the policy.

Multiculturalism has brought tensions. Some Australians such as John Howard miss the old days of a stratified society. Some Australians such as Pauline Hanson exploit those tensions. Australia will never return to the old days, and some will continue to miss them. As far as I am concerned the Australia we live in at present is better than it ever has been.

An indication of early multiculturalism;
there were so many Irish and Scots in the Colony who did not speak English as a first language that making Gaelic a second official language was seriously considered.
http://coveredrachel.wordpress.com/2013/05/15/a-brief-history-of-gaelic-in-australia-and-new-zealand/

"THEY CAME FROM MANY LANDS
JANUARY 22, 2016 BY CHERYL TIMBURY
Amongst the peoples of the First Fleet were many nationalities. These people embarked as convicts, able seamen, cooks, marines, officers and children. They are collectively known as Non English First Fleeters. You might ask, who were they?

BLACKS – There were twelve black Africans, Americans or West Indians that sailed on the First Fleet. Eleven were convicts with cook George Nelson, off the Prince of Wales, who drowned in the harbour at Port Jackson on 16 February 1788.

CHANNEL ISLANDERS – There were two that sailed as crew.

IRISH – There were one hundred and forty one known First Fleeters having been born in Ireland or whose surnames suggest they may have been Irish or of Irish extraction. They made up nearly all of the First Fleet people.

JEWISH– There were certainly nine Jews that sailed with the Fleet. Some publications have suggested another nine Jews were board.
NORTH AMERICANS – At least fourteen North Americans are known to have sailed with the First Fleet. Laurence Lebogue from Nova Scotia, deserted before the Fleet left Portsmouth.

OTHER NATIONALISTS – Eight black convicts whose origins are uncertain were probably from America, the West Indies or Africa. Other seamen listed were from Madagascar, Germany, Norway, France, Sweden, Portugal and Holland.

SCOTTISH – It has been established that there were thirty-three Scottish First Fleeters (a number of others bore surnames of probable Scottish derivation)."
http://firstfleetfellowship.org.au/convicts/they-came-from-many-lands/

The blacks settled, married, had children and have now just about disappeared in the general population, who knows how many of you might have a black convict ancestor?

Dear David,

Thank You for your summation.

Just to add a bit more:

The government of Australia realized
that it was important to Australia to hold on
to its settlers not just get them here.

Therefore in the 1970s, the need for more English classes for
migrants, special help for school students and counseling and
translation services became an accepted fact.

The question was not whether this sort of help was needed, but
how much they would spend to provide it.

The seventies saw tremendous changes in attitudes towards
migrants. Ethnic radio (radio programmes broadcasting in many
foreign languages), bilingual education, and a new respect for
individuality, made migrants feel more like Australians and
less like outsiders.

The migrants of the seventies came mainly from Malta, Italy,
Greece, Turkey, Chile, Argentina, and Peru. Europeans from
north and central Europe were arriving in smaller numbers.

Although many migrants expected to find life easy in
Australia, some found that job opportunities they had hoped
for were not always there. Some migrants, having done well
for themselves, returned to their homelands.

Therefore
Australia had to look more carefully than before at
catering to migrants'needs.

The White Australia policy of the past became a symbol of shame
in those times. When in 1972, the South African Rugby Team came
to play against Australia, demonstrations in all the states
where they were to play showed the politicians that many people
were opposed to playing sport with a country that treated
its "coloured" residents badly.

The Australian community began to realize that if they objected
to bad treatment of "coloured" peoples elsewhere, they too had
to change their own laws and become less prejudiced. In the
last decades, Asians, South Americans, Africans, and the
peoples of the many continents of our world have made their homes
here.

Can I suggest the Jews & Arabs & Chinese show us the way to multiculturalism ?