Australian Immigration Policies Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Australian Immigration Policies - Essay Example Within the party, his evident energetic commitment to public service and his active loyalty to Labour Party principles and political precepts contributed to both his growing popularity within Labour Party circles and ever-increasing public visibility. It was thus that in 1931 he became the President of the Victorian Labour Party and, in 1940, the MP for Melbourne in the Australian House of Representatives. During the war years, he served as Minister of Information in Curtin’s government and, from 1945 to 1949, the Minister of Immigration in Chifley’s government. As may be deduced from the foregoing biographical information, Calwell was a consummate politician, as evidenced in his elected to Victorian Labour Party presidency, his election to the House of Representatives and, importantly, in his appointment to ministerial positions in two consecutive governments. More importantly, he was a consummate politician of strong beliefs, largely evidenced in his staunch commitmen t to Roman Catholicism. The importance of the above-cited biographical information lies in its exposition of Calwell’s political temperament and the clues it provides to his visions of and for Australian society. As some scholars have pointed out, amongst whom one may mention Albinski, Ozdowski, and Jupp, Caldwell’s background immediately informed his political temperament and, thus, his immigration policies.... from the foregoing biographical information, Calwell was a consummate politician, as evidenced in his elected to Victorian Labour Party presidency, his election to the House of Representatives and, importantly, in his appointment to ministerial positions in two consecutive governments. More importantly, he was a consummate politician of strong beliefs, largely evidenced in his staunch commitment to Roman Catholicism. The importance of the above-cited biographical information lies in its exposition of Calwell's political temperament and the clues it provides to his visions of and for Australian society. As some scholars have pointed out, amongst whom one may mention Albinski,4 Ozdowski5 and Jupp,6 Caldwell's background immediately informed his political temperament and, thus, his immigration policies. As the descendant of immigrants to Australia, he was staunchly pro-immigration. As an Anglo-Saxon Catholic, however, whose loyalties were to Western Christian heritage and culture, he was unequivocally pro-White European immigration to Australia, and not immigration per se.7 In essence, he advocated European immigration to Australia, as opposed to Asian, for example, because he saw in European immigration the fortification and solidification of Australia's Western and Christian cultural heritage and Anglo-Saxon Caucasian ethnic majority. In other words, Calwell advocated a selective immigration policy which would constructively contribute to the populating of Australia, without undermining the nation's hegemonic culture or introducing challen ges to its Anglo-Saxon Christian ethnic majority. Informed and influenced by Calwell's background and political temperament, Australia's post-World War II immigration policies was a highly selective one.