Immigration and Multiculturalism

Abstract

Australia is a society moulded by immigration. Its population is now more constituted by recent immigrants than almost any other in the world. Almost immediately after Australia’s creation as a new nation at the dawn of the 20th century, the first national Parliament promulgated what was effectively a race-based restrictive immigration regime to preserve and enhance an Anglo-Celtic character. This regime was to influence all aspects of Australia’s government and politics for the next 70 years. The Australia of the 21st century, however, is markedly different. It is, within parameters still clearly revealing its British origins, a multicultural country with a significant and growing ethnic, racial and religious diversity.