Living With Racism In Australia By Alice Pung Summary

Culture is always changing. Beliefs, behaviours and presentation, religion and language all form part of what is an individual’s or community’s culture. (Bowes, Grace, & Hodge, 2012, p.75 & 77). Due to its intrinsic nature, when people migrate to Australia, they bring their culture with them. As migrants come from all over the world, and not the one place, their

Since World War 2 and the Vietnam War, Australia has become a multicultural country. Before the Vietnam War, though, the Australian government tried their best to keep Australia ‘white’. After the fear of communism from Vietnam, the government thought it would be in the country’s best interest to try and build up the population in Australia, but only allowing ‘white’ Europeans and British people to come. What is included in this report, is to discover how and why the migrants from non-European countries manage to change the face of modern Australia.

The author’s first argument highlight’s his contention with its message of the values immigrants bring to Australia regardless of their education. Karapanagiotidis utilises emotive language very heavily when relaying the ‘sacrifices’ and ‘grief’ his grandma and parents endured when immigrating and settling in Australia to evoke a sense of sympathy for them specifically from the audience. The use of a personal story is used almost as evidence to support his contention, and the audience takes it as so. To then evoke respect for his relatives, Karapanagiotidis talks of how his parents were viewed as ‘uneducated’, yet insists they had ‘resilience, love of community, principles, sacrifice, entrepreneurship, selflessness and courage’, which the

Migrants and immigrants are from a whole different world, although many authors in Growing up Asian in Australia were born in Australia and while their customs and traditions are seen as the norm to them they are seen as different by many Australians. These cultural traditions and practices are far from what the majority are used to and so are neither known nor understood. This result usually in people misunderstanding migrant’s individuality and can cause unfair exclusion. Governed was horrified when the school bully accused her of wiping her “butt with her hands” on the terms of her Indian background and as a result had to deal with constant teasing and taunts

Leunig begins by stating that he “arrived in Australia in 1945,” before clarifying that he was, in fact, born there, and did not immigrate as otherwise suggested by his choice of language. He likens his ‘arrival’ to one an immigrant might face through referring to his birth as “disembarking from [his] mother’s womb.” His choice of language suggests he is desperate to establish himself as a misnomer amongst other Australian-borns; implying that he has a strong prejudice against Australians and Australian society. Leunig claims he had “resisted such assimilation with all [his] heart and soul,” clearly contradicting himself, as earlier he stated he “was becoming fluent in the basic language,” and “had also made a few connections and was getting the lie of the land.” These are all smaller forms of assimilation. Adopting a country’s most-spoken language is assimilation. Making new friends and acquaintances in a new society is also assimilation. Leunig’s statement that he did not assimilate into Australian society is thus a flawed one. Furthermore, this proves to the reader that assimilation is in fact a vital tool for functioning in society. Assimilation is not solely about stripping down creativity and becoming empty husks of human beings. The dictionary defines assimilation as “the process by which a person or persons acquire the social and psychological characteristics of a group.” This includes adopting a language and making new friends. Assimilation is not the opposite to being an individual, as Leunig would have his audience believe. “Assimilation means you become like a regular Australian,” Leunig speculates, before concluding with his thought that “that could be a personal disaster,” completely ignoring the fact that ‘regular Australians’ are creative, intelligent people. Australia is not known for having a rigid work ethic, unlike countries such as China

Reports from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (2003a, 2003b, as cited in Ashman & Elkins, 2009, p. 7) show 25% of the Australian population is currently made up of migrants from around 200 countries. This fact demonstrates Australia, on the whole, has a tolerant and inclusive society. A society can be identified as a collection of people who live together in a relatively ordered community (Ashman & Elkins, 2009, p. 7). It could be said, Australia has one of the most inclusive societies on the planet; however, this was not always the case.

Australia in terms of immigration, has had a poor history of dealing with people travelling into the country, shown in the beginning of hand picking the majority of Australia 's population. However as the decades have rolled on, whether it be forced or by choice, Australia has become looser and more free in access and treatment within the country and importantly, less discriminatory. In order to see these improvements, the start must be shown, in which is generally summarised by the White Australia Policy.

The concept of being a ‘nation of immigrants’ is at the center of Australian identity.

This paper is divided into two parts. In the first part the concepts or race, ethnicity, prejudice and racism are defined and how they are connected is discussed. Part 2 of the paper looks at the ‘White Australia’ policy and why it was introduced. The impact of such a racist immigration history on contemporary Australia is also discussed in terms of attitudes and behaviours of the population. Following is a brief discussion on how successive government polic

Although there are various organizations like Racism Noway, Stand Against Racism and All Together Now, who are working to combat racism in schools and communities. They also aim to prevent racism from being in Australia’s future by educating our next generation on the issue. But despite any of these organisation’s achievements and successes, their efforts only partially reduce racism and not extinguish it. For racism to be extinguished from our country and culture it will take the effort of the whole nation. But this is impossible as racism is so deeply imbedded into our culture, for a revolutionary event like this to happen it will be at the consequence of Australia’s image as there are bound to be disagreements and revolts, suggested by our history. Without any racial reduction, there will be unfortunate outcomes for Australia’s future and culture, because essentially without our multicultural identity Australia is no longer the ‘fair’ nation we sing

Within the first episode they visit an Iraq group and an African family. The Iraq group had different religions among them and it is hard for them to practice their religion in Australia. The Africans ate their food traditionally which meant they were not allowed to consume alcohol and they had to eat with their hands; no knifes or forks are to be used. When they would eat in public, people would stare and make the Africans feel like they were being judged. Just like Alices family from “Unpolished gem”, they decided to assimilate as well. Although the Iraqis and the Africans could both speak English, you can instantly tell that English isn’t their first language and that is something people discriminate against. Constantly being looked down upon and judged for their cultural differences in comparison to Australians, immigrants suffer further once they have safely arrived in

The backbone of Australia’s ideals is a fair go culture but has less clarity, thus, not giving Australians an actual culture of their own. Unfortunately, in the last few years, Australians have become less of a fair go culture due to other ethnic religions wanting to change our laidback way of life and Australians get insulted and angry when situations such as that arise. People of Australia value and respect all cultures, but we expect them to treat us the same way, they should integrate without any trouble as immigrants, the same as the Vietnamese and many other migrants such as those have done in the past. Nguyen and her family had innumerable hardships to face, but they pulled together, became Australian at the same time retaining their

Racism refers to a belief that inherit dissimilarities amongst the different human ethnic groups determines cultural or individual success, typically involving the concept that one’s race is superior and has the right to dominate others. In Australia, 1 in 5 school students experience daily. The negative influence that racism has on an individual’s life is extreme and the community can have an impact on them mentally, physically and socially. An anti- campaign will be utilised to convey the message. The campaign that I have selected to use is “Racism.

Migration to Australia has been a problem for a lot longer than I have been alive, Chinese migration has been around for almost 200 years. In 2006 a census was taken and that 221,995 people (5.39%) in Sydney reported Mandarin or Cantonese as the language they used at home.  Today Chinese communities form a vibrant and important part of Sydney 's character. Since the 1990’s the rate of Chinese immigration has risen to become the third largest group among our immigrants. Since the mid-1990s, migration has become less permanent than it used to

Australia is a country that is diverse, multicultural and unique. Our geography and cultural history are different to anywhere else, which has definitely captured the attention of the rest of the world. For migrants from diasporic communities, assimilating to the Western identity while trying to maintain the cultural heritage is not an easy task, especially during the 20th century, where racial discrimination played a large role in impeding multiculturalism. I believe my childhood experiences is an example of global framework where race, class and gender are the factors that made not only me, but mostly every other coloured child living in Australia felt like we were ‘second-class citizens’. But because of such upbringings, my familial tie with my external family became more strong and made me who I am today.