Migrant-cum-Settler: Greek Settler Colonialism in Australia

Abstract

Representations of early Greek migrants in Western Australia constituted a process of Greek migrant-cum-settler colonialization. This process was informed by the exclusionary operations of Australian race-making and the transnational dynamics of Greek labor migration. By claiming an exemplary attachment to whiteness and alerting immigration authorities to the fact that Greek proprietors were breaching labor laws, Greek migrants who wrote to Australian local presses and government agencies articulated a settler sense of belonging that aligned with the cultural and legal contours of the Australian settler state. Inspired by the Australian example of the self-sufficient and law-abiding settler, Greek migrant-cum-settler colonialism took shape in the context of Greek migrants' lived experience as a racialized minority in White Australia.