Abstract
This chapter is about identity, a sensitive subject in an immigrant country, like Australia. Do immigrants have an identity problem? To what extent should they assimilate in their ways and beliefs to their “new” country? Specifically, how long did it take me to become an “Australian”? Can and should immigrants consciously change identity?
This is a particular issue for Jews in many countries and indeed was so in Germany. But in Australia, the issue has arisen (and possibly arises now) for most non-British immigrants. The pressure from the existing population on non-British immigrants to assimilate very quickly was once extremely strong but has now become moderate. I discuss, also, the identity issue in relation to the difference between German Jews and Jews from Eastern Europe, that is Ostjuden.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Bibliography
Patai, Raphael, The Jewish Mind, 1977
Benjamin, Rodney, A Serious Influx of Jews. A History of Jewish Welfare in Victoria, 1998.
Lack, John and Jacqueline Templeton, Bold Experiment. A Documentary History of Australian Immigration since 1945, 1995.
Sen, Amartya, The Indian Identity, in The Argumentative Indian, 2006.
Woodward, Edward, One Brief Interval, 2005. (His autobiography).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Corden, W.M. (2017). Identity: Becoming Australian. In: Lucky Boy in the Lucky Country. Palgrave Studies in the History of Economic Thought. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-65166-8_7
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-65166-8_7
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-65165-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-65166-8
eBook Packages: Economics and FinanceEconomics and Finance (R0)