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| An Act to place certain restrictions on Immigration and to provide for the removal from the Commonwealth of prohibited Immigrants |
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| Parchment, cotton and wax. Dimensions: 400mm long x 320mm wide. |
Commonwealth Government of Australia. (1901). Immigration Restrictions Act 1901, 2011, from http://vrroom.naa.gov.au/records/?ID=19096
During the gold rush of the 1800’s, Chinese immigration reached a peak and the Australian government sought to restrict economic competition. Therefore post-federation, this Immigration Policy was enacted to cement this goal.
This Act represents the fear Australians had at the turn of the century toward races other than European. The fear was immigrants from other races would provide cheap labour, limiting the available employment to existing British citizens and for those more desirable European races.
Horkheimer and Adorno (1972) espouse the notions of cultural industry through creating a perceived need. The Act addresses that need by allowing legal racism under the guise of the protection of a pure Australia.
“European culture defined itself by placing itself at the top of a scale against which all other societies or groups within a society were judged." (Kumaravadivelu, 2008, p.17) This viewpoint clearly highlights the discourse of intercultural communication as endorsed by Edward Hall, surviving generations of interculturalists. (Kumaravadivelu, 2008)
In the multicultural Australia of today, it would be difficult for students to imagine an Australia so opposed to cultures other than European, that historical artefacts such as this are necessary to construct the knowledge required to empathise with this era. Students reading this Act in today’s culture would be horrified at such terms adopted such as “any idiot or insane person” (Commonwealth of Australia, 1901), which is in juxtaposition to contemporary politically correct terminology.
