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Australian Citizenship in a Changing Nation and World

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Citizenship in Transnational Perspective

Part of the book series: Politics of Citizenship and Migration ((POCM))

Abstract

The chapter examines the main features of Australian citizenship, and the way it has changed from an older Australia that was predominantly White and British, to be more diverse and pluralistic, infused by decades of multicultural migration. The chapter is organised in sections to highlight aspects of the changing character of Australian citizenship: the development of citizenship institutions from British subject to Australian citizen, the Founders’ views on real citizenship that underlay formal subject status, White Australia that shaped nation and citizenship until the early 1970s, Aboriginal exclusion as citizens without rights, citizenship and multiculturalism, and some concluding remarks on citizenship in modern Australia. These are all large topics that are only briefly and selectively referred to in highlighting aspects of Australia’s changing citizenship institutions and culture.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Australian Citizenship Act 2007, Preamble.

  2. 2.

    Brian Galligan, Martina Boese, and Melissa Phillips, Becoming Australian: Migration, Settlement, Citizenship (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 2014), 171.

  3. 3.

    For more extensive treatment by the author, see Galligan et al., Becoming Australian; Brian Galligan and Winsome Roberts, Australian Citizenship (Carlton, Vic.: Melbourne University Press, 2004); John Chesterman and Brian Galligan, Citizens Without Rights: Aborigines and Australian Citizenship (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997); John Chesterman and Brian Galligan, eds. Defining Australian Citizenship: Selected Documents (Melbourne: University of Melbourne Press, 1999).

  4. 4.

    Les Haylen, Federal Labor Opposition spokesman to the Australian Citizenship Convention in 1954, quoted in Galligan and Roberts, Australian Citizenship, 47.

  5. 5.

    Quoted in Galligan and Roberts, Australian Citizenship, 64.

  6. 6.

    Commonwealth Parliamentary Debates, Representatives, vol.198, September 30, 1948, 1062.

  7. 7.

    Chesterman and Galligan, Defining Australian Citizenship, 30–31.

  8. 8.

    For detailed treatment see Brian Galligan, A Federal Republic: Australia’s Constitutional System of Government (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995).

  9. 9.

    Street v. Queensland Bar Association, 168 CLR461, 1989.

  10. 10.

    The following discussion and quotations from the Founders in the Federation Conventions that drafted the Constitution in the last decade of the nineteenth century are taken from Galligan and Roberts, Australian Citizenship, 21–26.

  11. 11.

    Helen Irving, “Citizenship” in Australian Feminism, ed. Barbara Caine (Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1998), 26.

  12. 12.

    For a somewhat exaggerated critique of its character and continuation, Laksiri Jayasuriya, Transforming a “White Australia”—Issues of Racism and Immigration (New Delhi: SSS Publications, 2012).

  13. 13.

    Keith Hancock, Australia (Brisbane: Jacaranda, 1961 [first published 1930]), 38.

  14. 14.

    Alfred Deakin, Federated Australia: Selections from Letters to the Morning Post 1900–1910, ed. J.A. La Nauze (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1968), 77.

  15. 15.

    Alfred Deakin, quoted in Hancock, Australia, 61.

  16. 16.

    John Stuart Mill, Utilitarianism, On Liberty, and Considerations on Representative Democracy, ed. H.B. Acton (London: J.M. Dent & Sons, 1972 [first published 1861]), 361.

  17. 17.

    Deakin, Federated Australia, 186.

  18. 18.

    Hancock, Australia, 59.

  19. 19.

    Gwenda Tavan, The Long, Slow Death of White Australia (Melbourne: Scribe Publishing, 2005).

  20. 20.

    Mabo v. Queensland (No. 2), 175 CLR 1, 1992; for extensive discussion Peter H. Russell, Recognizing Aboriginal Title: The Mabo Case and Indigenous Resistance to English-Settler Colonialism (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2005).

  21. 21.

    Wik Peoples v Queensland, 187 CLR 1, 1996.

  22. 22.

    Lisa Ford, Settler Sovereignty: Jurisdiction and Indigenous People in America and Australia, 1788–1836 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2010).

  23. 23.

    Chesterman and Galligan, Citizens Without Rights.

  24. 24.

    Quoted in Chesterman and Galligan, Citizens Without Rights, 70.

  25. 25.

    Recognising Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples in the Constitution: Report of the Expert Panel (Canberra: Commonwealth of Australia, 2012).

  26. 26.

    Chesterman and Galligan, Defining Australian Citizenship, 96. For a more extensive account see Chesterman and Galligan, Citizens Without Rights, 85–90.

  27. 27.

    For example, see Chesterman and Galligan, Citizens Without Rights, 109–117.

  28. 28.

    Will Kymlicka, Multicultural Citizenship: A Liberal Theory of Minority Rights (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1995), 25–26.

  29. 29.

    Galligan and Roberts, Australian Citizenship, 222.

  30. 30.

    Tim Soutphommasane, The Virtuous Citizen: Patriotism in a Multicultural Society (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012), 205.

  31. 31.

    Review of Post Arrival Programs and Services for Migrants (Frank Galbally, Chair), Migrant Services and Programs: Report of the Review of Post-migration Programs and Services for Migrants (Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service, Canberra, 1978).

  32. 32.

    Committee to Advise on Australia’s Immigration Policies (Stephen Fitzgerald, Chair), Immigration: A Commitment to Australia (Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service, 1988), 10.

  33. 33.

    National Agenda for a Multicultural Australia (Canberra: Department of Immigration and Border Protection, 2013).

  34. 34.

    Geoffrey Levey, “Multiculturalism and Australian National Identity”, in Political Theory and Australian Multiculturalism, ed. Geoffrey Levey (New York: Berghahn Books, 2008) 262.

  35. 35.

    See Galligan, Federal Republic.

  36. 36.

    Department of Immigration and Border Protection, Australia’s 2015–16 Migration Programme. Posted July 9, 2015. Available: http://migrationblog.border.gov.au/2015/07/09/australias-2015–16-migration-programme/

  37. 37.

    Parliamentary Library, Migration to Australia: A quick guide to the statistics (Canberra: Parliamentary Library, 2016).

  38. 38.

    The refugee component has been approximately 14,000 over recent years, but recently increased by 10,000 places for Syrian refugees.

  39. 39.

    Department of Immigration and Border Protection, Facts and statistics: Australian citizenship statistics (Canberra: Department of Immigration and Border Protection, 2016), 1–2. Available: https://www.border.gov.au/Trav/Citi/Lear/Facts-and-statistics

  40. 40.

    Andrew Markus, Australians Today: The Australia @ 2015 Scanlon Foundation Survey (Melbourne: ACJC, Faculty of Arts, Monash University, 2016), 103.

  41. 41.

    Department of Immigration and Border Control, Australia’s Migration Trends 2013–14 (Canberra: Department of Immigration and Border Control, 2014), 7.

  42. 42.

    Galligan, Boese, and Phillips, Becoming Australian, 103.

  43. 43.

    Immigration and Border Control, Australia’s Migration Trends 2013–14, 80–81.

Bibliography

  • Chesterman, John, and Galligan, Brian. Citizens Without Rights: Aborigines and Australian Citizenship. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Chesterman, John, and Galligan, Brian, eds. Defining Australian Citizenship: Selected Documents. Melbourne: University of Melbourne Press, 1999.

    Google Scholar 

  • Deakin, Alfred. Federated Australia: Selections from Letters to the Morning Post 1900–1910, edited by J.A. La Nauze. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1968.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ford, Lisa. Settler Sovereignty: Jurisdiction and Indigenous People in America and Australia, 1788–1836. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2010.

    Google Scholar 

  • Galligan, Brian. A Federal Republic: Australia’s Constitutional System of Government. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Galligan, Brian, Boese, Martina, and Phillips, Melissa. Becoming Australian: Migration, Settlement, Citizenship. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 2014.

    Google Scholar 

  • Galligan, Brian, and Roberts, Winsome. Australian Citizenship. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 2004.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hancock, Keith. Australia. Brisbane: Jacaranda, 1961 [first published 1930].

    Google Scholar 

  • Irving, Helen. “Citizenship”. In Australian Feminism, edited by Barbara Caine, 25–32.Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1998.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jayasuriya, Laksiri. Transforming a “White Australia”—Issues of Racism and Immigration. New Delhi: SSS Publications, 2012.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kymlicka, Will. Multicultural Citizenship: A Liberal Theory of Minority Rights. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1995.

    Google Scholar 

  • Levey, Geoffrey. “Multiculturalism and Australian National Identity.” In Political Theory and Australian Multiculturalism, edited by Geoffrey Levey, 254–276. New York: Berghahn Books, 2008.

    Google Scholar 

  • Markus, Andrew. Australians Today: The Australia @ 2015 Scanlon Foundation Survey. Melbourne: ACJC, Faculty of Arts, Monash University, 2016.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mill, John Stuart. Utilitarianism, On Liberty, and Considerations on Representative Democracy, edited by H.B. Acton. London: J.M. Dent & Sons, 1972 [first published 1861].

    Google Scholar 

  • Russell, Peter H. Recognizing Aboriginal Title: The Mabo Case and Indigenous Resistance to English-Settler Colonialism. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2005.

    Google Scholar 

  • Soutphommasane, Tim. The Virtuous Citizen: Patriotism in a Multicultural Society. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Tavan, Gwenda. The Long, Slow Death of White Australia. Melbourne: Scribe Publishing, 2005.

    Google Scholar 

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

    Brian Galligan

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  1. Brian Galligan
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of History, Hong Kong Baptist University, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong

    Jatinder Mann

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Galligan, B. (2017). Australian Citizenship in a Changing Nation and World. In: Mann, J. (eds) Citizenship in Transnational Perspective. Politics of Citizenship and Migration. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-53529-6_4

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