CONFLICT ON THE GOLD FIELDS
The Australian gold rush began in 1851 when gold was discovered near Bathurst, Victoria (Wells K, 2015) and encouraged immigration from countries such as France, Italy, Germany, Poland and Hungary (Hoban S, 2015) with over 370,000 immigrants arriving in Australia in 1852 (Crowley F, 1980). Whilst the majority of immigrating prospectors arrived from European countries, the gold rush caused an influx of Chinese miners in Australia. In total, around 40,000 Chinese people moved to Australia in hopes of ‘striking it lucky’, and by 1861 they made up 3.3 percent of the Australian population (Hoban S, 2015).
The Chinese were also hired to fill the labour shortage caused by a cease in transportation of convicts to New South …show more content…
He stated that, “The human mind must think with the aid of categories […] Once formed, categories are the basis for normal prejudgement. We cannot possibly avoid this process. Orderly living depends upon it.” (Allport G, 1954) Social labels are applied to people who fall into different categories such as race, gender, and many more (Plous S, 2015). These labels are social constructs that aid in the categorisation of the known and unknown. What is known to a person, Allport designates as an in-group, and members of that in-group usually are of the same origin, race and religion, and are thus familiar (Allport G, 1954). All those that fall outside the in-group are put into the category of the out-group, and it becomes a group mentality of us versus them (us being the in-group, them being the out-group). In-groups aren’t limited to one’s own perception of them though, as what is one person’s in-group is another’s out-group. Throughout history, the dominant group is often seen as the in-group. In the case of the Chinese on the Australian gold fields, Europeans were the majority and thus the in-group and the Chinese, with their strange customs, were the out-group minority. The Europeans were so dominating on the gold fields that they became a powerful and extremely ethnocentric “master race” during that time, and those with powerful positions in society often become fearful of threats from out-groups (Allport G, 1954) and that, in turn, led to discriminatory acts against the Chinese. Allport also noted that when there is societal change, “in-group boundaries tend to tighten. The stranger is suspect and excluded.” (Allport G, 1954) This was the case with the immigration of the Chinese to Australia during the 1850’s. The rapid multicultural change struck fear of the