Citizenship Today: U.S. and Australia-- Two Immigrant Nations

In a June 19 event sponsored by the Asia Program, in cooperation with the annual American Australian Leadership Dialogue, Bob Carr, for ten years (1995 – 2005) the premier of the Australian state of New South Wales, compared the experiences of Australia and the United States as two nations with a long history of welcoming, resisting, and assimilating successive waves of immigrants. Both nations are quintessential immigrant nations -- 12 percent of the U.S. population today is foreign-born, while an even larger portion -- 24 percent -- of Australia's population was born overseas. Moreover, Carr asserted, both countries have much about which to be proud in their treatment of immigrants, although Australia is twice as generous (on a per capita basis) as the United States in its intake of legal immigrants. Even so, both countries today find themselves in the midst of heated national debates over immigration policy, as policy makers and average citizens alike are divided over the benefits of diversity, multiculturalism, and cheap labor versus the perceived burden illegal immigrants place on host governments.

Reaching back into 19th century American history, Carr contrasted the United States' immigrant experience to that of Australia, identifying key topics of debate in the two countries on issues such as pledging allegiance to the flag, citizenship testing, and designating English as an official language. Carr voiced skepticism about proposals pushed by figures such as former California governor Pete Wilson for erecting giant fences along the U.S.-Mexico border, and credited George W. Bush's Texas heritage with giving the president a more tolerant approach in finding a balance between immediate citizenship and deportation. Carr also underscored a major difference between the two countries: the United States has land borders that make illegal immigration relatively easy, whereas Australia's surrounding oceans have acted more often as barriers than bridges to illegal immigration.

In recent years, however, Australia has confronted new social tensions arising from an influx of disadvantaged Muslim migrants from countries such as Lebanon, Syria, and Afghanistan. High profile crimes by Lebanese gangs (and condemned by their local Islamic leaders) led to major rioting in December 2005, where Australians of European ancestry targeted Middle Easterners in acts of racist-tinged violence. Australia was "seized with shame that this should happen in a country that boasts a successful immigration policy," Carr declared. Assimilation is the answer, according to the former premier, who quoted Woodrow Wilson's understanding of national identity: "A man who thinks of himself as belonging to a particular national group in America has not yet become an American."

Joseph Duffey, former director of the U.S. Information Agency, played a snippet of the controversial Spanish rendition of the U.S. national anthem as an example of how immigration issues have been politicized and allowed to divert our attention from real issues. Rather than thinking of America as a "melting pot," Duffey suggested, we ought to think of it as "an Irish stew," where one does not need to lose one's sense of former national identity in order to become an American. Duffey predicted that questions of immigration could become convenient but irrelevant symbols in an American election year, and noted that the ongoing struggle to find an American national identity was, in reality, a part of an evolutionary experience faced by all immigrant nations.

Aisha U-Kiu, Asia Program Intern, Tel: (202) 691-4020
Robert M. Hathaway, Director, Asia Program