好好好忙！！！ 今個禮拜過得超快！！！ 忙到抽筋... history assessment 已經搞到我癲！！ 今日第三堂做左history assessment... 要係45 分鐘寫出最少3 pages!! 變態... 雖然話早就比左題目比我地.. 我琴晚趕頭趕命咁寫左1千字.... 跟住背左佢.... 本來就諗住記住d points 到時候先就地寫... 不過得45分鐘.... 時間好緊... 所以就決定背左佢.... =.= 今朝緊張到6 點就醒左...... in conclusion, 澳洲歷史好難頂

During 1850s and 1860s, Australia was closely connected to Britain. Australia was proud of the British Empire and Australian saw themselves as superior race and feared the Asian migrants, believing that they would swamp civilisation, polluting the ‘purity’ of the race. Hence, the White Australia Policy was formed in 1901, and the Immigration and Restriction Act was introduced the first half of the nineteen century.

The White Australian Policy ensured that only white people were allowed in Australia and would have much more rights and privileges than the non-white people. The Immigration and Restriction Act was applied as part of the immigration process. Under the Act, the immigrants were needed to write a passage from a nominated European language and read it out loud and got certified by the immigration officers before they could be granted resident status in Australia.

After the Second World War, Australia realised that they needed to increase their population. Firstly, we wanted an increase of labour; secondly, we wanted more defence for the country; and finally we wanted to provide home for refugees so that Australia could be part of the international forces. As a result, Australia assisted migration of Eastern-Europeans to meet the requirements of the White Australia Policy.

The boom of the 1950s and 1960s illustrated the economic benefits of immigration, because of the increase of labour led to the development of local markets and infrastructure. However, as Australia’s market rose, the British market also rose. In other words, not many British wanted to migrate to Australia. Slowly, the White Australia Policy faded away and the idea of assimilation took over.

Communism and Nazism also led to the influx of Italian immigrants to Australia under the assisted immigration scheme. The Italian migrants gradually formed into a lot of ghettos; they maintained their culture through clubs, religion, sports and festivals.

From 1949 to 1972, Australia’s government spent one million on the Snowy Mountain Scheme. The Scheme was a major infrastructure project to prevent the Snowy Mountain River running into the Pacific Ocean, thus making its water available for irrigation and electricity. It is obvious that the project would not be as successful without the contribution by the migrants. During the period, migrants were also a major labour source used in Queensland to work on sugar plantation and Murray River irrigation.

Even at this time, white Australia policy was still popular, which caused the failure of Assimilation Policy.

It was after the Vietnam War, when an influx of Vietnamese refugees into Australia, either legally or illegally. During 1975 and 1982, Australia accepted many Vietnam refugees, and 80 per cent of them arrived illegally. When they migrated to Australia, they had very little finance support, and they could only get unskilled jobs and they had no housing. They had no community to support them.

Most non-white immigrants suffered from racial discrimination. The country actually drifted back to the time when Australia first faced with the issue of immigration in the early 1900s. Australia was racially discriminated against the Asians then, and it was hard for the Australians to accept the Asian immigrants once again. The Vietnam immigrants learnt that they have often been cast in terms of racial stereotypes. Just like the Italians immigrants in 1950s, Greeks in 1960s and the Lebanese in 1980s. They also realised that they’ve been classified as all being the same, by their looks, costumes, names or criminal activities. Just like the Italians, the Vietnamese gathered together to form their own social communities. In addition, most of the Vietnamese are Buddhist; their religious difference caused another conflict with the Australia, who are mainly Christian.

During 1970s, Multiculturalism was officially accepted by the Whitlam Labour government. The policy had the support of some academics who believed that Australia’s future lay in the Asia-Pacific region and that Australia needed to cease its independence on Britain and United States and built political relations within this area.

Multiculturalism took over Assimilation because of the second generation of the migrants became richer, talented and increasing in political power in Australia. One of the most positive aspects of multiculturalism has been the protection of minority groups by laws established to give equal access to the workplace and the wider community and to protect people from harassment based on ethnic difference. The main theme of multiculturalism is that all people of different origins can live together harmoniously and with respect for each other.

Until now, Australia is still embracing multiculturalism. However, some Australians still believe in the White Australia Policy. They thought that multiculturalism was divisive of the country. In 1984, Professor Geoffrey Blainey, a respected historian, who was not happy with the immigration policies in the 1970s and 1980s, claiming that Australia was importing too many unemployed and these people in the medium term remain unemployed. The statement itself was not anti-migrant; but was essentially a criticism of politicians who were too nervous of an ethnic backlash if they spoke out the economic fact.

It was clear that some Australians took the opportunities that was presented by Blainey to lash out the Asian migrants and in particularly the recent Vietnamese migrants. Blainey claimed that Australia could not afford such a large influx of Vietnamese into their suburbs, competing for employment. He also insisted that Vietnamese were not contributing to Australia in a way that could justify the social unrest they would have caused. Unfortunately, Blainey’s view were wrongly taken by some people and incidents of violence were reported.

It is obvious that immigrants have contributed enormously to the present day Australia. However, some Australians still blamed the Asians for high unemployment. Some saw it as importing cultures that were too alien from Anglo Australian culture that they believe Australia should have. Many ethnic organisations have been formed to provide the communities knowledge about their culture. With better respect of each other, Australia is moving towards a nation of assimilation and economic growth.

琴日， 係art 同 joy, rizwana, astrid, sarah 做art sculpture ~~ spray paint 我只手都係... 洗5到... =.=

好緊張呀~~ 下個禮拜1， science assessment... 再過個禮拜就trials.... 跟住放假... 到11月就黎真野..... =_=''

我改左選科d科目.... 因爲d timetable 同我d 科目5 啱.... 唯有改....
English - Advance - 2units
Maths - Extention 1 - 3units
Mordern History - 2units
Visual Arts - 2units
Software design and technology - 2units
Information Processing and Technology - 2units
如果讀到日文就5 讀history or IPT
睇下點啦......