Abstract
Australia is a country of migrants, with a very small proportion of the population being Indigenous. Historically it has been diversity-averse, with policies designed to exclude non-white migrants and to assimilate the Indigenous peoples into a ‘White Australia’. But since the early 1970s, policy settings have oriented towards multiculturalism and a growing Indigenous rights movement, both (to some extent) recognizing and celebrating diversity. Perhaps ironically, this environment has meant that policy makers are wary of collecting race-based statistics. Thus the question of how aspects of globalization, particularly immigration, are affecting the mixed race make-up of Australia’s population is difficult to answer. In this chapter we argue for the value of at least attempting to collect race-based data in the Australian context. Focusing on Census enumeration, after noting that most official documents measure a single racial category (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander), if anything, we discuss the move from racial to ethnic categories in the Australian Census, and from exclusive to more inclusive and open options. We consider the various proxies for race that scholars use, and their limitations, and implications for understanding and measuring racial (and ethnic) mixedness. The current situation sees those of European, Asian, or African backgrounds collapsed within the non-Indigenous category, leaving researchers to use country of birth and the problematic category of ancestry as proxies for race. This, together with the fact that mixed Indigenous people tend to identify as Indigenous, means racial mixedness in Australia is difficult to ascertain. We argue that the boundaries and meanings of racial categories require scrutiny, to ensure demographic change can be tracked, allowing racially structured experiences and identities understood.
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Notes
- 1.
‘Mixedness’ is used as shorthand to refer to mixed race. As well as being less grammatically awkward in some constructions, it adds a level of casualness to the discussion, moving away from debates about the existence of ‘race’, and enabling a recognition that mixedness often includes mixing of cultures and mixing that is not single generational.
- 2.
It is unclear whether any validation studies have been undertaken to determine how respondents interpret the question, and at publication we had yet to receive confirmation from the ABS of this. With such a fuzzy meaning, including ‘claims of association’, it would be difficult to determine the ‘validity’ of responses to the ancestry question. In 1993/1994 validation work was done on the 1986 ethnic origin question, which led to the decision to drop the ancestry question, as noted above. An Ancestry Consultative Committee was established in the run-up to the 2001 Census, when the ancestry question was reintroduced. A similar consultative committee met in 2003, recommending that the 2001 question be retained, but there is little literature beyond this period about the methods used or validity tests conducted. Khoo and Lucas (2004) found with reference to the 2001 Census that while third and later generation Australians were most likely to indicate solely Australian ancestry, hyphenated-Australian mixed ancestry responses were most common among second generation Australians. They suggest (ibid., p. 69) that Australian ancestry may be seen as ‘an outcome of the mixing of different ethnicities in Australia’ as these individuals are likely to be the children of mixed partnerships, but also acknowledge that some may be non-mixed people of migrant background for whom ‘Australian’ ancestry is an indication of their shifting cultural affiliation. Khoo’s (2006) analysis of 1986 and 2001 ancestry responses shows that the two response limit resulted in some ancestries being undercounted, particularly Western European ancestries with high rates of intermarriage. The question design also had a significant effect on claims to Aboriginal ancestry. For example, in 1986 ‘Aboriginal’ was specified as an example on the form, whereas in 2001 ‘Aboriginal’ was not listed, while Australian ancestry was. The result was a sixfold increase in Indigenous respondents (identified through the ATSI question) stating Australian ancestry. At the level of anecdote, the first author’s three children all give different responses to the ancestry question, despite sharing the same parents (and therefore ancestors), suggesting a high level of subjectivity in response to the question of ancestry. It is also unclear whether there have been any attempts by the ABS to determine consistency of responses over time.
- 3.
We wish to thank Peter Aspinall for this observation.
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Fozdar, F., Stevens, C. (2020). Measuring Mixedness in Australia. In: Rocha, Z.L., Aspinall, P.J. (eds) The Palgrave International Handbook of Mixed Racial and Ethnic Classification. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-22874-3_32
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