Issue In Australia For Many Years example essay topic

AUSTRALIA A MULTICULTURAL NATION THE TOP 2 O COUNTRIES FROM WHICH PEOPLE HAVE MIGRATED TO AUSTRALIA, plus THE PERCENTAGE OF THE AUSTRALIAN POPULATION IN JANUARY 1988. England 44% Ireland 17% Scotland 12% Italy 4% Germany 4% Greece 2% Netherlands 1.5% China 1.2% Croatia 1% Poland 0.8% Malta 0.8% Lebanon 0.7% Spain 0.6% Sri Lanka 0.6% Vietnam 0.5% France 0.5% Yugoslavia 0.5% Denmark 0.4% India 0.4% Hungary 0.3% see graph and world map on following pages. ITALIAN AUSTRALIANS There are more than 1 million people of Italian background in Australia. Italian Australians are the now the third largest ethic group in Australia. Italians have been migrating to Australia for 200 years.

The largest number came in the years following World War II. SPECIAL FESTIVALS. Most Italians are Roman Catholics and many festivals are linked to religious events. Christmas, Easter and Lent are important festivals for Catholics. Lent is 40 days of self-denial with one final indulgence of food and partying, Carnivale. Many Italians are named after saints, and people celebrate their saint's day as well as their birthday's.

The Italians are famous for having very close families. One festival they take very seriously is Festa dei Mort i, a day when they pay their respects to any of their relatives who have died. Other main events in the Italian community are weddings, christenings and funerals. The celebrations at a wedding included a lavish meal of several courses, with different wines.

The tradition was to invite the whole town but costs have become too great. Farming families would also get together to make wine, salami, pasta and bread. Another custom was to get together to distil a spirit known as grappa. Thousands of people from Sydney and different parts of New South Wales attend the Brookvale annual festival of Italian song and entertainment.

Every year, an Italian festival is held in Lyon Street, Carlton, Melbourne. Along this street, there are Italian restaurants. A street procession is held, along with all-night pavement parties. TRADITIONAL FOODS.

Italian immigrants were among the pioneers of irrigation, grape, sugar and tobacco growing and the fishing industry. They are major producers of fruit and vegetables in Australia. They introduced new crops such as olives. Italian food is very popular in Australia. When Australians eat at a restaurant, the dish they most commonly order is pasta.

There are many kinds of pasta, including spaghetti, fettuccine, vermicelli, lasagne and cannelloni. Another famous Italian food is pizza. Pizza originally came from Naples, in the south of Italy. Nearly every town in Australia has a caf'e that sells pizza. The Italians brought espresso coffee to Australia. Caf " es everywhere serve Italian-style coffees.

These include cappuccino, caffe latte and macchiato. Cappuccino is the most popular non-alcoholic drink in Australia. Gelato is a kind of ice-cream with fruit or nut flavouring. This is another Italian food that is now an Australian food. MULTICULTURALISM In Australia, immigration has largely been encouraged as a means of expanding our economy and population. The numbers rise and fall depending on whether or not we think the economy can cope with the increased numbers.

Immigration has been an issue in Australia for many years. It was one of the main reasons put forward in favour of Federation. It was hoped that a federal government would control immigration, so 'undesirable' immigrants could not enter Australia. An 'undesirable immigrant was any person not of the 'British race'. This meant that only white people were welcome in Australia, and that those white people should come from the British Isles or some other British colony or ex-colony. There were three reasons for this preference.

The first was the concern that 'coloured' immigrants would work for lower wages than people in Australia, and so would take all the jobs. Secondly, it was feared that the existence of another large racial group would lead to violence. The third reason was pure racism - prejudice based on the belief that one race of people is superior to another. A hundred years ago it was not considered wrong to think of your own race as superior to others, or to think of other people as inferior simply because of their skin colour. The 'White Australian Policy' was the term used to describe the Australian immigration policy. To be eligible to migrate to Australia people had to pass a language test.

Those consider 'undesirable' were given a test in a language they couldn't speak. This term 'White Australia' was used for many years and was not officially abandoned until 1974. In our society today, these ideas are cruel and wrong. Now people of many races, cultures and religions are accepted as Australians.

After wold war II, many refugees and displaced persons migrated to Australia from Europe and other places, where they had endured great hardship and suffering. They, and the migrants who came after them, wanted to make a better life in a new country. After the war, Australia needed more workers, for example on the Snowy Mountains Hydro Electric Scheme. To provide the workers needed, the government aimed to bring in 70 000 migrants a year, mainly from the United Kingdom and other European counties. In the 30 years after world war II, Australia's population doubled to 14 million. Immigrants and their children made up much of the increase.

In the 1970's, refugees again began coming to Australia, this time from South East Asia. The Vietnam War ended in 1975. Between 1975 and 1982, almost 2 million Indochinese people fled their countries. During these years, almost 65 000 Indochinese refugees arrived in Australia. By 1973, the Australian population consisted of about 200 different ethnicities, in addition to the Australian Aboriginal peoples. In that year, the Australian Government officially recognised the contributions made by all the different cultures to Australian society, and began to encourage all Australians to be proud of their origins.

This belief that it is good for Australian society to be made up of many different cultures is called multiculturalism. In the early 1990's there was an increased emphasis on immigration and refugees from Asia. There has always been some controversy about accepting refugees. However, it was not until the arrival of 'boat people', refugees from Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, and more recently asylum seekers from Afghanistan, that the Australia's refugee program came under the 'national and international eye'.

As a member of the United Nations, Australia has an obligation to accept a reasonable number of refugees under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The birthplace of overseas-born residents gives some indication of the diversity of ethnicity of a population. When Australian born residents with one or both parents born overseas are combined with overseas born a fuller picture of cultural diversity emerges. The following data is derived from the 1996 Census. 22% of Australians were born overseas. 19.1% of Australians have at least one parent born overseas.

Around 70% of Australian born people with a least one parent born overseas live in NSW and Victoria. Over 70% of Australian born people had both parents born in Australia. Over 20% of Australian born people had at least one parent born in a non-English speaking country. The major birthplaces of the overseas born population in 1996 were England, New Zealand, Italy, Vietnam, Scotland, Greece, China, Germany, Philippines, and Netherlands. The United Kingdom and Ireland account for about 78% of the overseas born population in 1911 and only 23% in 1996. Nearly three quarters of the children of migrants (people born in Australia with one or both immigrant parents) marry people of different cultural background to themselves.

One in six families in Australia involves a marriage between an overseas-born and an Australian-born partner. Everyone is entitled to an opinion on immigration, but it should be remembered that there are equally good arguments on all sides of debate. What is important is that people's arguments are based on reason and fact, not simply on emotions. I am for the continuation of immigration for those who are unable to live in their country safely. There is probably no longer a need to increase Australia's population and expand the economy, But there is a humanitarian need to provide a stable home for people who, if they stay in their own homeland will die. Detention camps are an unsatisfactory way to treat refugees, but I believe something similar is necessary in order to ascertain who is genuine.

Australia is a large country with much open space. We should be able to think globally and creatively to accommodate people in need. This is a problem that will only get worse with the looming war in Iraq. Many Australians have little idea of life in a war torn country or living in a undemocratic society. But if we ask ourselves the question, would we want another country to help us if we could no longer live safely in Australia? Wouldn't our answer be yes!