- Title: AUSTRALIA: SPECIAL REPORT: AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT IMMIGRATION POLICY UNDER ATTACK
- Date: 25th March 1988
- Summary: PANASNIKOM ISLAND, THAILAND, 1981 ( 4412/81) (REUTERS - GARY BURNS ) GVs, SVs & TRACKING SHOT Entrance to camp. Australian government official arrives by helicopter. Huts In camp, refugees queueing. Feeding centre. (6 SHOTS)
- Embargoed: 9th April 1988 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: VARIOUS LOCATIONS
- Country: Australia
- Topics: International Relations
- Reuters ID: LVACSSGQWLGWXBTGRMMKYIFIHLD1
- Story Text: Reports of Mafia-style gangs operating within the Asian community in Australia have recently prompted calls for strict limits on Oriental immigration. Australia's population has doubled to 16 million since 1945, and today more than 20 per cent are foreign-born. It was in the 1970s that the country's frontiers were opened to Asian and Third World migrants. They came to join hundreds of thousands of Europeans who had settled there in previous decades. Now, the Labour government allows some 110,000 immigrants to settle in Australia every year, and a third of them are Asian. Opposition Liberal leaders say the policy fails to meet the current demand for skilled labour, while Aborigines say they face unfair competition for scarce jobs from growing numbers of Asian immigrants, many of whom are unskilled.
SYNOPSIS: Scenes like this were familiar ones in the 1960s, as Australia welcomed immigrants from Europe. In 1947, when the period of post-war immigration began, Australia's population was 7.6 million. More than 90 per cent were born in Australia. Seven per cent had come from Britain and Ireland, and under one per cent from Asia, Africa and the United States. A policy of blocking non-European immigration was abandoned in 1973, and today Australia is home to people from more than 120 countries.
In the late 1970s, the Australian government supervised the resettlement of thousands of Vietnamese who had sought refuge in Thailand. The authorities in Thailand, Japan, Indonesia and the Philippines took a tough line against Boat People. Yet, many of them were prepared to pay huge sums -- in gold - to find a new home.
By 1980, more than 13,000 refugees from Kampuchea, Vietnam and Laos had been airlifted to Australia, with direct supervision from government officials. Many were processed from camps such as this one, with special attention given to reuniting families. Canada, France and New Zealand were the other main contributors to the resettlement programme.
Today, many Asian immigrants live in poor conditions on the outskirts of big cities. Cabramatta, a suburb of Sydney, has a large Vietnamese population ... Police are now trying to improve their image with the Vietnamese population following media reports of alleged gangland killings in Cabramatta, which is often referred to as 'Vietnamatta'. The reports have triggered controversial calls for a ban on further Asian immigration. Yet, according to Ngat Giang, owner and editor of Sunrise, one of three Vietnamese newspapers, Asian crime figures have been blown out of proportion by the media.
In fact, although unemployment has now reached 33 per cent -- four times the national average - figures for 1986 showed the Asian population had the lowest crime rate in the country .... but the tide of prejudice runs deep among Cabramatta's white minority:
Australia's 225,000 Aborigines say they are second class citizens in their own land, taken over by white settlers after 1788. Their most prominent leader is the Head of the Federal Department for Aboriginal Affairs, Charles Perkins. He has publicly attacked the immigration programme, arguing the influx of unskilled Asians makes it harder for Aborigines to get jobs. Traditionally, Aborigines have fared badly in terms of education, health, housing and employment:
Last July, Labour Prime Minister Bob Hawke defeated Liberal opposition leader John Howard and won an historic third term in office. His electoral pledge was to unite the country. His Liberal Party opponents say his current immigration programme is having the opposite effect: - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
- Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2011. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
- Usage Terms/Restrictions: None