The Asianisation of Australia?: Some Facts About the Myths

’...we must combat blind ignorance with fact, and unreason with reason, and that is what this book is about.’--Don Dunstan

Pauline Hanson was not the first person to sensationalise the effects of Australia’s open immigration policy on the racial make-up of this country. Nor was she the first politician to see advantage in building on the fear and prejudice beneath the surface of Australia’s multicultural society. For the end of the White Australia policy in 1973 did not spell the end of fear of a peaceful Asian invasion through immigration.
The Asianisation of Australia? contributes the dispassionate, independent and objective comment that has been missing from media debate on the effects of our immigration policies. It provides a wealth of data on the make-up of Australia’s immigrant intake and the ability of immigrants to establish a place in their new country.
Recent political rhetoric and forecasts are exposed for the myths, prejudices and over-simplifications that they are. By comparing such indicators as rates of employment, income, childbirth, intermarriage and fluency in English between Asian and other immigrants, Professors Jayasuriya and Kee convincingly demonstrate the valuable contribution made by Asian immigrants to our culture and our economy.

Laksiri Jayasuriya, AM, was one of the first Asian scholars to gain an academic position in an Australian university when he joined the University of Sydney in 1954 and has held various public appointments in Australia and Sri Lanka. Kee Pookong is director of the Centre for Asia-Pacific studies at the Victoria University of Technology.