‘The Redefinition of Citizenship in Australia, 1950s-1970s’ (original) (raw)

Jatinder Mann (Editor), Citizenship in Transnational Perspective: Australia, Canada, and Aotearoa New Zealand, 2nd Revised Edition (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2023)

Abstract

In the 1950s, Australia very much identified itself as a British country and an integral part of a wider British World which had the United Kingdom at its centre. However, by the 1970s this British World had come to an end, as had Australia’s self-identification as a British nation. During this period, citizenship in Australia was redefined in a significant way from being an ethnic (British)-based one to a more civic-founded one which was more inclusive of other ethnic groups and apparently Aborigines. This chapter argues that this redefinition of citizenship took place primarily in the context of this major shift in national identity. After having established the context of the end of the British World in Australia (with a focus on the UK’s application for entry into the European Economic Community (EEC) and the British withdrawal from “East of Suez”), it explores the Australian Citizenship Act of 1973 to illustrate the way in which citizenship became more inclusive of other ethnic groups in the country. It then studies the 1967 constitutional referendum to highlight how citizenship in Australia also appeared to incorporate Aborigines at this time.

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