Over dinner on a recent group tour in Australia, conversation turned to the wave of anti-immigration demonstrations and political statements that have flared across the country.

One woman of Anglo-Saxon origin offered a blunt view: Australia should only allow people “like us” to come. She clarified that by this she meant those with the “right” culture, behaviour and religion.

Her comment made me pause. Did she see me, a person of Middle Eastern Arab background, as one of “us”? And more importantly: what if the Aboriginal custodians of this land had told the colonisers in 1788 that they would only allow people “like us” to stay?

The long shadow of ‘White Australia’

Australia has been here before. The “White Australia” policy, enshrined in the Immigration Restriction Act of 1901, effectively restricted non-European migration for seven decades. It was dismantled in stages between 1949 and 1973, culminating in the Whitlam Government’s formal end to racially selective immigration.

This shift was profound. Migrants from Italy, Greece, Lebanon, Vietnam........

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