Sequence 2: Hieu Van Le
Short term challenges
One point of observation in our immigration history is that virtually every large scale arrival of new migrants has brought short-term challenges and created doubts in the minds of some Australians. Thousands of European settled here in the 1940s and 1950s, people said that these folk would not fully integrate into society — these ‘Balts’ and ‘reffos’, ‘wogs’ and ‘new Australians’ were quite different from the Poms and Scots and Irish, so the story went. ‘I mean, just look at their appearance and strange food, and listen to their funny language!’
When we Vietnamese arrived in the 1970s, some said that these ‘boat people’ were quite different from the post-World War II crowd. Yes, those Europeans turned out pretty well, I suppose, but these Indochinese are something else again! ‘I mean, just look at their appearance and strange food, and listen to their funny language!’
Everyone of these groups has, in time, made a profound contribution and been accepted — such that their presence becomes completely unremarkable.
Source: Mr Hieu Van Le (AO), Annual address on immigration and citizenship, Canberra, June 16, 2011, pages 13–14
Inquiry questions
- What do you think Hieu Van Le means by ‘short-term challenges’?
- How do the derogatory terms reflect racism?
- Why does Hieu Van Le mean by ‘their presence becomes completely unremarkable’?
Back to Sequence 2 The Globalising World: Changing policies and Australian identity History Year 10
