After decades of turning inward--and looking toward the British Commonwealth for cultural and commercial relations alike--Australia is becoming a Pacific partner. Without fanfare, it is embarking on a bold gamble, seeking to include itself within an emerging regional bloc. Closer commercial ties to Asia follow a burst of Asian immigration. Peter Layer, vice president of the conglomerate BHP in Sydney, notes that Asia's somewhat xenophobic attitude is ending "at about the same time our own is."
Although adjustment was needed after a large influx of Asians in the 1970s and '80s, Australians have a good track record on recent immigration and assimilation of ethnic groups including Laotians, Vietnamese, Sri Lankans, and Chinese. Far from being considered "nong" (useless), as in times past, these minority groups are accepted and perceived as adding dynamism to the economy.
Assimilation of Asians is part of the growing interaction with Asia, one taking place on different levels. The process comes during a period of intense reflection on Australia's national identity. The "bush balladists" and frontier writers are now being rediscovered and are popular even as a typically Australian openness fosters a new melting pot.
For decades, a latticework of British-styled collectivism was transposed to a frontier setting. Unique concepts, notably "mate-ship," a testimony to egalitarianism, arose. All were mates on the ships that took the Aussies' ancestors across desperate seas two centuries ago. Now, one in four Australians is an immigrant, and their country is acknowledging its 50,000 aboriginals. Australia has become "dinkum," or honest, about race relations.
This spirit of acceptance came after a sometimes difficult battle of reconciliation. An Aussie version of "benign neglect" prevailed, according to most accounts, until aboriginals were gradually incorporated into the mainstream during the 1960s. In some ways, this situation mirrors the history of race relations in the United States.
Noticeable differences are the percentage of minorities and indigenous peoples, their location in rural rather than urban areas, and the degree of violence associated with assimilation. Australia has wrongly been termed a bigoted society because of its immigration policies, yet few deny that open immigration would have altered national demographics rapidly, a situation that can be socially destructive.
THE ASIAN CENTURY
Australia began as a British colony some 205 years ago and, like all former colonies, it became a Commonwealth nation. The queen of England remains head
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