Abstract
This chapter discusses the impact of the implementation of Australian immigration policies from 1997 to 2007 on Australia’s bilateral relations with Indonesia. Australian immigration policies have long been considered as racist. The first immigration policy was adopted by Australia in 1901 under the name Immigration Restriction Act. The policy is based on a racist policy called the White Australia Policy. The link between immigration policy and racism policy continues to occur until Prime Minister John Howard’s era. The issue of Australian immigration which directly impacted Indonesia causes these two countries to be involved in the same problem. However, these two countries have different policies in dealing with immigration problems. This chapter focused on immigration policy issued by the Australian government. From 1997 to 2007, Australia’s immigration policy was suspected to have racist elements from politics run by Prime Minister John Howard who was supported by a racist party called the One Nation Party. The full support from that party made the immigration policy issued by John Howard as a racist immigration policy and led to allegations that Howard’s government was a racist government, so the issue of racism once again shook Australia. The discussion in this chapter is different from previous studies that looked at the influence of Australian immigration policy on its foreign relations without racism. The discussion in this chapter focuses on the element of racism in Australian immigration policy, which has an impact on Australia’s foreign relations with Indonesia, especially in cooperative relations of the two countries. This paper is the result of historical research that uses four stages of historical methodology; heuristics, criticism, interpretation, and historiography. The data on this research are taken from contemporary newspapers, books on the history of Australian immigration and racism, and official websites that are criticized and interpreted to obtain important information which is then processed and poured into discussion.
Original language | English |
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Title of host publication | Dissecting History and Problematizing the Past in Indonesia |
Publisher | Nova Science Publishers, Inc. |
Pages | 213-226 |
Number of pages | 14 |
ISBN (Electronic) | 9781536193992 |
Publication status | Published - 1 Jan 2021 |
Keywords
- Australia-indonesia relations
- Australian immigration policy
- John howard
- One nation party
- Racism politics