386
22.32 Vietnamese in a multi-cultural Australia
TABLE 28
Comparison of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal response to Schedule II
statement referring to the location of Vietnamese in the Australian
'•world'
Agree Not Disagree Majority
Statement strongly Agree sure Disagree strongly response
1. Vietnamese should
leave all their ways
of life behind and
become Australians
Aboriginal response
(N= 93) 3.4
non-Aboriginal response
(N=289j 10.5
16.9 19.1 43.8 .
12.9 22.4 35.6
(disagree)
16.9 60.7
18.6 54.2
The notion of assimilation of Vietnamese, the most newly
arrived, and a group which is also 'coloured', (Australians have
hitherto categorized Asians to the north as 'yellow hordes', ’the
yellow peril’),was rejected by the majority of Aborigines and non-
Aborigines. The Aboriginal group again had stronger opposition than
the non-Aboriginal group.
This is particularly interesting in that one of the most vocal
of the reality definers for the Aboriginal population, Charles Perkins,.
strongly criticised (1975:124, 193*; 1975a:117) migrant'
policies that admit coloured people before Australia solves its own
colour problem.
I1