The Australian Identity and Citizenship

Abstract

Australia history and beginning is very different to that of Slovenia and the EU. Australia has been occupied by the Indigenous Aboriginal peoples for centuries. However, the treatment of the Indigenous community can be best described in the modern period as barbaric and quite shocking. They were excluded from all forms of the polity and society. They were dispersed across the entire continent. Upon Federation their plight got no better, when the White Australia policy was invoked. This chapter traces some of the issues the Aboriginal people faced. Since then, Australia has abolished its White policy, at least on paper, and today Australia is an amalgam of different ethnic and religious groups. National identity and social cohesion has not been smooth. The national identity has, at times, been difficult to define and locate. It has been challenged, along with cohesion. Both have been highly politicised over the past two decades with the rise of nationalist thought and politics. It has galvanised Australia to strengthen its identity. More importantly, government(s) have begun to recognise the Aboriginal people, even though they continue to be excluded from many areas of the law and policy. In 1948–1949, the first citizenship laws were introduced, and ever since there has been reform to strengthen the laws in response to regional and international events. They support multicultural Australia today, immigration, rights, PIL, identity and social cohesion.