Vietnamese family reunion in Australia 1983 - 2007

© 2016 Dr. Bianca LoweThis thesis explores the reunification of Vietnamese families in Australia through the family reunion program from 1983 to 2007. Focusing upon these key years in the program, and building upon substantial existing research into the settlement of Vietnamese refugees in Australia, this dissertation adds to the knowledge of Vietnamese-Australian migration by focusing on the hitherto neglected story of family reunion. It offers an account of the process and circumstances by which Vietnamese families attempted to reunite and establish new lives in Australia, following the Vietnam War. Drawing upon analysis of political debate and interviews with Vietnamese families, this thesis provides an overview of years that challenged traditional narratives of national identity and of the composition and character of the ‘family of the nation’. During this period, the Australian Government facilitated the entry of large numbers of Asian migrants, which represented a fundamental shift in the composition of the national community. Analysis of political commentary on Vietnamese family reunion reveals tensions between the desire to retain traditional conceptions of Australian national identity and the drive to present Australia as an adaptable and modern country. The early chapters of this thesis examine political debate in the Australian Parliament about the family reunion program. They note differing emphases across the Hawke-Keating Labor Government (1983-1996) and Howard Liberal-National Coalition Government (1996-2007), but also similarities that underline the growing adherence to economic rationalism and the effect this had on the broad design of the program. Subsequent chapters explore the impact of such political debate and decision making by providing insights gained through interviews conducted with Vietnamese people who came to Australia under the family reunion program, as well as community publications produced by Vietnamese organizations. These chapters note the impact of policy design and argue that family sponsorship, and the different conditions associated with either personally entering Australia or facilitating the migration of family members from Vietnam, had a significant and often deleterious impact on family life and the ease with which individuals could settle into their new home. The imposition of quotas and withdrawal of certain welfare payments, in particular, are exposed in these interviews as having the potential to quite dramatically shape the roles performed in families, as well as family members’ social and economic participation in Australia more broadly. The final chapter explores the implications of the family reunion program for Vietnamese families that reunited in Australia within the context of multiculturalism. Between 1983 and 2007, Australian governments adopted multicultural policies as the framework for managing cultural diversity domestically, and also for imagining the ‘family of the nation’. This framework emphasized loyalties and allegiances to the Australian nation, which was often at odds with the experience of Vietnamese family reunion participants forced to rely on family members rather than the state. This reliance on family necessitated through sponsorship arrangements complicated the extent to which many Vietnamese-Australians were able to live in Australia as ‘multicultural citizens’. The family reunion program is revealed, in this respect, as having a potentially detrimental effect on the ability of many families to establish lives that involve meaningful interaction with non-Vietnamese families and individuals. Family reunion as experienced by many Vietnamese families, it is argued, disrupted the project of creating a truly multicultural nation