The Backward Stock of the South: The Metaphoric Structuring of Italian Racial Difference in 1920s Australia

ABSTRACT

This paper examines the use of metaphors to construct Italian migration within the 1920s Australian press. Using a critical discourse analysis approach, the paper investigates the range of metaphors used to frame Italian migration, which were also applied to Asian migration in earlier decades. It finds that such metaphors were a racially coded means for constructing immigrant deviance and threat. It further finds that this threat construction was the means by which immigration restrictions were legitimised and the need to preserve White Australia reiterated. While there was some ambivalence as to the extent of danger posed by Italian immigration, the use of such metaphors to frame discussion illustrates the extent to which debates around Italian immigration were, at heart, anchored in ideas of race.

KEYWORDS:

• Italians
• press
• discourse-analysis
• metaphor
• race

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Large-scale Chinese immigration began with the gold rushes of the 1850s with the exclusion of the Chinese and other non-white races a main catalyst for Federation in 1901. During the first decades of the twentieth century, despite the Anglo-Japanese alliance (1901–1921), fears about Japan intensified following their victory in the Russo-Japanese war (1905) (Cochrane 2018; Lake 2008).

2 Kanakas were Pacific Islanders brought to work in Queensland sugar plantations during the nineteenth century, whose presence was denigrated as a threat to White Australia. Legislation introduced in 1901 prohibited their immigration after 1904,and stipulated their deportation from 1906 (Hunt 1978).

3 The Argus closed in 1957.

4 The imagined threat from Asia was a major issue prior to Federation, and Asia still featured heavily in articles about immigration in the first years post-Federation.

5 Conceptual metaphors are higher level metaphors capturing the patterns of thought underlying the conceptual mapping (Lakoff and Johnson 1980).

6 Anti-Chinese Immigration legislation in NSW was entitled Influx of Chinese Restriction Act (1881).

7 Unless otherwise stated, all emphasis is mine.

8 The Argus, 07/02/1925.

9 Prior to this period, it was used to refer to Asians.

10 SMH, 15/11/1921.

11 WA, 29/06/1926.

12 Except for two instances where pour referred to British migration.

13 SMH, 18/12/1924.

14 The Argus, 21/04/1925.

15 The West Australian, 29/06/1925.

16 SMH, 04/06/1925.

17 The Argus, 14/02/1925.

18 The Argus, 14/02/1925.

19 The Argus, 03/01/1925.

20 With the exception of one reference (1902) to people from Norway and Sweden.

21 The Argus, 07/02/1925.

22 The Argus, 14/02/1925.

23 The Argus, 28/02/1925.

24 1st, 8th, 15th July 1925.

25 NAA: A1, 1925/18474, NAA: A1, 1927/15940.

26 NAA: A1, 1925/18474.

27 SMH, 20/03/1924.

28 Australian Natives Association.

29 The Argus, 27/05/1927.

30 Australian Workers Union.

31 The Argus, 7/02/1925.

32 Returned Soldiers and Sailors Imperial League of Australia.

33 NAA: A458, LR745/1/296.

34 Technically referring to anyone from another country, alien was only used to describe Asians, Southern Europeans or other racially Other groups.

35 The Immigration Act (1925), was amended to limit Italian immigration (Tavan 2005).

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by an Australian Government Research Training Program (RTP) Scholarship.

Notes on contributors

Catherine Ann Martin

Catherine Ann Martin has a PhD in Sociology. Her research examined the use of metaphors within press reports on immigration. Her interests centre on race, migration, national identity, media and critical discourse analysis.