When we think about Australia we think about Kangaroos, Koalas, and accents, but something we don’t think about is their immigration policies. Along with many other countries, Australia has its pros and cons to their immigration policy. How did they get to their current policy? What made them get to this?
Early and Today’s Immigration
Of course there is history behind how Australia got to their current immigration status. Just like any other country the beginning of Australia’s immigrant population came from many refugees fleeing their current country for a better way of life. In the 1970’s a group of Vietnamese men came ashore Australia’s coast, later becoming known as the boat people, starting the trend of “boat people”. According to J. Weston Phippen author of Australia’s Controversial Migration Policy, “Over the next five years, 2,054 more would follow”, the “boat people” trend obviously skyrocketed causing many people to start going to Australia, this later becoming an issue.
“ Unlike a decade before, the Australian government first detained these migrants, then processed them through the courts. The third major wave of boat people came from the Middle East, and by 2001 three-quarters of Australians wanted them turned away,” states Phippen.
Obviously too many immigrants could become a problem, a problem known to Australia. A strategy that Australia has now used to help this problem is by detaining immigrants coming from sea. Detainment is something that we have heard of from the U.S’ own policies, and they are quite similar. They are kept offshore in Papua New Guinea or Nauru. This on its own has become an issue due to the circumstances, many immigrants being detained aren’t given a time frame of how long they will stay or a bail.
Diversity
Immigrants have really helped shape Australia’s current culture. If you were ever to take a trip to Australia you would see a lot of diversity, this is due to the fact that they have migrants coming from all over the world, including, India, China, the UK, etc. According to Ben Doherty and Nick Evershed, authors of The changing shape of Australia’s immigration policy, “ Over two decades, India and China have emerged as, by far, the largest countries of origin for permanent migrants,” this is playing a big role in the country’s culture. China and India already carry so much culture within their country that by immigrants migrating from these countries enriches Australia’s own culture.
Policy
So now being given the background knowledge of Australia’s immigration, what is the policy? Well, Ben Doherty and Nick Evershed state, “ Australia does not have an explicit population policy or minister,” so what does that mean? This means that Australia doesn’t really have a policy set in, with this it contributes so many factors on how Australia is as a country. This is helpful especially in the workforce because just like any other country Australia’s workforce is growing and continues to, and with immigrants coming into their country they don’t need to worry on slowing down.
In conclusion, Australia has its pros and cons to them just like any country, but what separates them from most is the don’t have an immigration policy. Not having an immigration policy isn’t the only thing setting them apart from all the other countries. Take a visit to Australia and find out the many other reasons.
