Prior to 1901 the Australian colonies had seen a growth in non-White migration, especially during the gold rushes as many migrants arrived to seek their fortune. Reactions of White Australians to this trend were overwhelmingly negative. Immigrants were seen as responsible for lowering wages, as immigrants began leaving the gold rush towns for the cities – although none of the Australian businesspeople lowering those wages seemed to get in trouble.
So in 1901, Australia’s parliamen passed a national Immigration Restriction Act. It strongly limited non-British immigrants through a dictation test and giving immigration officers broad powers to declare a person was “undesirable” for their country of origin, possible criminal record, medical record, or simple “moral unfitness.” The attorney-general stated that the act “… means the prohibition of all alien coloured immigration, and more, it means at the earliest time, by reasonable and just means, the deportation or reduction of the number of aliens now in our midst. The two things go hand in hand, and are the necessary complement of a single policy — the policy of securing a ‘white Australia’.”
The immigration restriction act did what it was supposed to do, with Asian populations dipping from 1.25% in 1901 (yes, it was that low when the law was passed) to 0.21% in the late 1940s. Labor shortages during World War II led to slightly easing of restrictions. Initially, the government began allowing more non-British Europeans to immigrate, because these “Beautiful Balts” still looked like the Australian fantasy of Whiteness. But Australia’s demographic problems continued, and further restrictions were lifted, until in 1975 the full Immigration Restriction Act was eliminated.
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