Sociology

Australian Society: Were the Sydney Cronulla riots a product of Multiculturalism or Racism?

Australian Society: Were the Sydney Cronulla riots a product of Multiculturalism or Racism?

Introduction

Episodes of the beach of Cronulla (Sydney) in December 2005 have revealed some of the core issues that underpin the debate on multiculturalism in Australia. Such events and riots pose a challenge to sociologists in addressing and analysing the determinants and root causes of episodes of collective violence. Today, Australia has been transformed into a country with individuals belonging to multiple demographic, economic, social and cultural roots. This process has been possible due to a strong migration policy. Therefore it is important to closely study the events of Cronulla to identify the Australian socio-political, historical, and a broader context. Some possible explanation and conditions that have been offered from social investigation pertains to the Australian migration processes and consequences that can result.

Discussion

For the first 50 years of federation Australia, this country was a monoculture 'British' society. Most migrants came from Britain. Since the late 1940s, more people from different countries immigrate to Australia. Most of them are European migrants after World War II. This phenomenon triggered defensive reactions by the previous dominant of Anglo-Australians (Webb & Enstice 1998, pp. 65 - 78).

After the start of federation of Australia in 1901, the government utilized White Australia Policy to all Australians, preventing anyone to enter Australia unless they were from Britain and trying to make this country into an English-speaking, Anglo-Australian cultural one.

The White Australia Policy failed to last for a long time as long as more immigrants' arrival. Because the war caused 39,700 deaths, about 8,000 of whom died as prisoners of the Japanese, Australia had to populate for survival to resist the power from China, Japan, or Indonesia, which countries are over populated. As mentioned earlier, the immigration policy before the World War II was very conservative. It resisted most non-white people coming into this land. Most people in this land were from Britain, so this policy worked to some extent. After WWII, policy became a little radical to solve the problem of shortage of population (Vasta & Castles 1996, pp. 10 - 34).

As a result, the Australian government started to change its immigration policy from the White Australia Policy to a multicultural one. They dedicated their work for the purpose of making the country towards an equal and multicultural Australia. The culture has since been changed into a more relaxed one. The new policy used the word “integration”, meaning that new immigrants should be accepted into the local community without any prejudice and they should preserve their culture and traditions if they want.

To sum up, until the 80's, immigration was fuelled primarily through the concept of "assisted passage", advertising and promotion of the con- recruitment of labour. Formerly, all British "white" (including Irish) had free access, and were only controlled on suspicion of criminality or security reasons. On the other hand, "not British" foreigners were admitted into the country but could be subject to restrictions ...