Importing Conflict/Importing Culture: Attitudes to Immigration at the End of White Australia and After.

Paul McCormack, English, UQ

p.mccormack@mailbox.uq.edu.au

One particular theme has frequently recurred in the continuing public debate about whom and how many should be allowed to immigrate to Australia. It is characterised by an exploration of the likely effects of the importation of identifiably different peoples with a diverse range of social and cultural backgrounds on a putative Australian culture, identity and value system. In a number of cases this theme has been drawn upon in justifying the advocacy of restricted and discriminatory immigration policies; policies which carry an emphasis on assimilation into a pre-existing and supposedly immutable Australian way of life. Various dramatic claims have been made along this line, for example, about the relationship between socio-political stability and harmony on the one hand, and the racial and cultural homogeneity of the national population on the other. The notion recurs that certain immigrants carry unwanted and destructive socio-cultural baggage with them, which will inevitably become a catalyst for internecine conflict at a national level. On the other hand, the theme has also facilitated justifications for the advocacy of non-discriminatory immigration policies with an emphasis on multiculturalism as a new paradigm for Australian society. The potential for the enrichment of Australia by means of an easy exposure to a range of alternative cultures comes into play a good deal here. My paper will chart the development of this theme, and of the attitudes to immigration it has inscribed, in Letters to the Editor since the ending of the 'White Australia' policy.