The Lines We Cross

In 1901, the newly formed Commonwealth of Australia passed the Immigration Restriction Act, also known as the White Australia policy. This piece of legislation, designed to end Asian immigration into the country, came in response to public outcry that workers from China and Japan would take Australian jobs and jeopardize their standard of living. Instead of specifying which racial and ethnic groups were to be excluded, the policy required prospective immigrants to take a dictation test in a European language. The tests were manipulated to exclude people of color: “A South Asian with a knowledge of English could be given a test in French, German, or, if need be, Lithuanian” (“White Australia Policy.” Encyclopedia Britannica, 22 Mar. 2024). The policy remained in place for 50 years before being enforced less strictly under administrations led by the Liberal and Labor parties. The passage of the Australian Citizenship Bill in 1973 and the Racial Discrimination Act in 1975 ended the policy. In Abdel-Fattah’s novel, an anti-immigration TV program alludes to the White Australia policy to characterize Alan Blainey’s political views. While Blainey claims to condemn the policy, his organization echoes the racist and xenophobic