Immigration Nation: The Secret History of Us

At Federation in 1901, Australia had a dream to create a democratic Utopia. But the nation’s leaders believed this vision would only be achieved by closing the country to anybody who wasn’t white. As World War II ended Australia faced a population crisis. Its solution was to adopt a bold and radical new strategy - white was redefined as migrants were recruited en masse from Europe for the first time in the nation’s history. In a single decade the country opened its doors to a million immigrants but somehow clung more strongly than ever to its cherished White Australia Policy. By the 1960s a new generation were questioning Australia’s racist immigration policies and the exclusion of our Asian neighbours.