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

Australian Immigration Policies - Essay pillow slipWithin the party, his evident energetic commitment to public service and his active loyalty to Labour ships company principles and policy-making 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 support of Representatives. During the state of war years, he served as Minister of Information in Curtins government and, from 1945 to 1949, the Minister of Immigration in Chifleys government. As may be deduced from the foregoing biographic information, Calwell was a discharge politician, as manifest 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, more often than not evidenced in his staunch commitment to Roman Catholicism. The importance of the above-cited biographical information lies in its translation of Calwells political temperament and the clues it provides to his visions of and for Australian society. As some scholars have pointed out, amongst whom sensation may book of facts Albinski, Ozdowski, and Jupp, Caldwells 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 e xposition of Calwells 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 Caldwells background immediately informed his political temperament and, thus, his immigration policies. As the descendent of immigrants to Australia, he was staunchly pro-immigration. As an Anglo-Saxon Catholic, however, whose loyalties were to Western Christian hereditary pattern 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 Australias 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 Au stralia, without undermining the nations hegemonic culture or introducing challenges to its Anglo-Saxon Christian ethnic majority. Informed and influenced by Calwells background and political temperament, Australias post-World War II immigration policies was a highly selective one.