Changes to Australian’s Identity

Like any other country, Australia’s identity has changed throughout its history and this can been identified over the last 200 years since Federation and the current struggles between the original inhabitants of the land (Australia’s Aboriginals) and the current generation of inhabitants that have been born here since colonisation from Britain (Costa, 2000). Obviously not all people emigrated from Britain and this can be recognised by historical trends.

Australia’s identity has changed during its history. From the beginning of the Federation of Australia in 1901 until the late 20th century the White Australia Policy was in place, which involved the colonisation of the new continent from Britian (Department of Immigration and Citizenship, 2007). It was a term used to describe a collection of historical legislation and policies which were intended to restrict non-white immigration to Australia, and promoted a population similar to Britain’s (Making Multicultural Australia, 2007). During these times, Australia’s Identity was strongly influenced by the British.

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However, after World War II there was a need to increase Australia’s population and immigration of Europeans increased as British immigrants decreased. Even with a decrease in British immigrant, Australian policy at the time, called for these Europeans to assimilate as British- Australians, which encouraged abandoning the culture of the countries they had come from (Cook, 2004). Thankfully assimilation policy was overtaken by one of integration which promoted migrants to maintain their ethnic diversity but not interfere with their ability to function as a normal citizen. This policy was far from perfect for many migrants of Indochina that migrated to Australian after the Vietnam War in 1975 (Cook, 2004).

Australia’s current cultural climate is one based on multiculturalism, although at times there may be undertones of prejudice based on stereotypes or other areas of conflict between cross- cultural relationships. Australia’s identity has been formed on a diverse range of people from different cultures and backgrounds. Australia, although still part of the Commonwealth does not exhibit strong allegiance to Britain, instead promotes itself as a separate nation which has a unique social identity which is promoted through the diversity of the faces of its people.