Page 219 - On Not Speaking Chinese Living Between Asia and the West

NOTES

Immigration Reform Group (1962; 1975) advocated a gradualist policy of multi-
racialism. After the early 1970s, no one talked about multiracialism on either side of
politics – a decisive discursive shift.

6 ASIANS IN AUSTRALIA
1 Over the years, the Hanson phenomenon has come to be interpreted in official
political circles mainly as the expression of discontent among rural and regional
communities, who were left behind by the rapid economic changes caused by
globalization. Hence, the masive attention paid by the major political parties to the
plight of rural and regional Australia in the year 2000. Interestingly, however, this
emphasis served to downplay the racial dimension of the fear of globalization which
has been a persistent part of the Hansonite worldview.
2 While Ms Hanson lost her seat in parliament at the 1998 Federal Elections, the fact
that her party received around 8 per cent of the primary vote during these elections
indicates that what she represents to the nation will not simply go away.
3 For a concise history of Australian immigration, see e.g. Jupp (1991).
4 For a theoretical elaboration of the concept of (dis)articulation as used here, see Laclau
and Mouffe (1983) and Slack (1996).
5 For two centuries, the European occupation of Australia was legitimized through the
invention of the principle of terra nullius, the notion that the land was not inhabited
before the Europeans came. In 1992, this colonial principle was officially overturned
(in the so-called Mabo decision) as the High Court recognized that the land was never
‘empty’ and acknowledged the right to ‘native title’ for Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander groups throughout the country. Needless to say, this recognition was received
with great apprehension in many parts of white Australia, especially those who felt that
it damaged their material interests in the land such as mining companies and farmers.

7 RACIAL/SPATIAL ANXIETY
1 This Sydney Morning Herald article (Phelan 1997) reports on an AGB McNair survey
which found that at least one-third of people overestimate boat arrivals by 11 times,
believing that more than 4,000 arrived annually, while the true 1996 figure was 376.
The ‘boat people’ hysteria re-emerged in 2000 when the number of intercepted boats
increased dramatically, often containing ‘illligal immigrants’ from Afghanistan, Iraq,
and so on who were seduced by organized people smugglers. Australia has become a
preferred destination for many refugees from war-torn or otherwise inflicted Third
World countries willing to risk their lives in this way, but their total numbers are still
much lower than in other parts of the Western world in Europe and North America.

9 IDENTITY BLUES
1 Pauline Hanson was reportedly very hurt, and cried, when she was called white trash
by anti-racist protesters. For a look at the cultural politics of ‘white trash’ in the USA,
see Wray and Newitz (1997).
2 Such responses are empirically manifest internationally. See e.g. May (1996).

10 LOCAL/GLOBAL NEGOTIATIONS
1 For a recent, quite comprehensive articulation and discussion of this theoretical
perspective, see Soja (1996).
2 See also Chambers (1991), which is a book written from the site of the British/Italian
borderlands.

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