Publisher's Synopsis
When Paul Keating announced his plans for an Australian republic in 1995, he emphatically appealed for Australia's head of state to be 'one of us'. This 'us' needs no explanation when it is used, but debate still rages about 'who we are' and 'what it means to be Australian.' This book examines the ideas and policies that Australian governments have used, since Federation, to create 'an Australian citizenry'. Using previously neglected archival sources and recent work on race and nationalism, it attempts a reconceptualisation of Australian immigration and citizenship. The book will be of particular interest for its treatment of the long decline of the White Australia policy from the mid-1950s, and in the light of current debates about immigration and who should be allowed to become Australian.
