Black Melanesia policy

The Black Melanesia policy is a set of laws, policies, and constitutional amendments that bars all individuals of non-black African heritage from entering into Melanesia. While there is no official policy named "Black Melanesia", the term is widely used in the media and daily life to reference the race-based immigration policies of the state to ensure that a black majority remains in the population of Melanesia. As of the present, the policies of discriminatory immigration policies in Melanesia are targeted against Hani, Japan, China, and Vietnam, with recent allowances made for individuals hailing from South Korea in the mid-1960s as a concession for their participation in the Vietnam War. In spite of this one allowance, Melanesia officially bars all non-black individuals from claiming citizenship, though recent changes in policy have allowed for temporary work or student visas to be granted to foreigners.

Historically, the overall aim of the colonization authorities responsible for Melanesia's early development, sought to secure a land for free blacks across the globe, though primarily for those English-speaking blacks from the former United States and Canada, as well as those from the United Kingdom and the metropolitan France and their African and Caribbean colonies. The immigration of non-blacks to Melanesia was violently resisted by the black Melanesian population, and seeking to avoid bloodshed, many of the states in the country began passing non-black exclusion laws, especially with regards to immigrants of Chinese and Japanese origin. The rapid growth of Melanesia's economy in the industrial and resource extraction sectors was deemed highly appealing to foreigners looking for work away from their impoverished and war-torn homelands, leading to some ten thousand Chinese immigrants to seek entry into Melanesia in 1870 alone.

During the colonial period of Melanesian history, the federal authorities back in the United States would not enforce racial exclusion laws related to immigration, especially with the American Civil War raging back in North America. Once the United States collapsed and fractured into various entities, the new Melanesian government moved to deal with the new non-black migrants, albeit slowly due to various events beyond federal control. Believing the "black experiment" would be jeopardized by the waves of non-black immigration, the states and municipalities moved to act on their own, expanding the exclusion laws already on the books at the state level, and covering virtually everything from housing, finance, employment, policing, worship, and education. Slowly but surely, the harsh laws at the state level filtered into federal legislature, culminating with the Alien Exclusion Act of 1889 under President Dominic Kane, legally barring non-black immigrants from attaining citizenship or sharing any of the legal protections affording to black citizens.

Origin of policy

Official government recognition

The issue of race-based immigration policy promoted by TBD and his supporters in the Senate were official placed on the agenda for the Nth session of Congress in 18XX. It was there that TBD hoped to promote his idea of a "pure" Melanesia home to only individuals of black African heritage, and attain official status for the policy in law. Popular support for the bill was prominent as a consequence of increasing wages as more and more jobs opened up to the population, and fewer and fewer qualified individuals were available to take them, naturally increasing the value of each worker substantially. Rampant and uncontrolled migration from the Asian continent would lead to a suppression of wages and readily available employment for local Melanesians, leading to disdain for the idea of allowing Asians into the country. Though Europeans and aboriginal Papuans were also regarded as a threat to the internal stability of Melanesia, no group was considered as of "pressing concern" as the Chinese living in the neighboring lands, and the Han people to the northwest. The congressmen pushing for increased isolationism and closing the borders off to non-black migrants were well aware of this sentiment, and were quick to capitalize off of the popular opinion of their fellow countrymen.

It was argued by the isolationists that the Chinese, Vietnamese, Han, Japanese, and Koreans that had already been relocating overseas to the former continental United States, were already seeking means of accessing Melanesia as a new place to migrate, and thus represented a demographic threat to the black character of the country. Should these orientals, as they were officially termed in the bill, be allowed to settle in Melanesia, they would irreversibly altered the makeup of the country and refuse to integrate into the culture and nature of Melanesia, as TBD had argued was already underway back in the former United States. Many of the congressmen had already held long-standing grievances against foreigners, who some believed actively collaborated with the European powers to strangle the only black nation in the region to the benefit of nations such as Australia, New Zealand, and Dutch-ruled Indonesia. Others yet still feared that the declining Qing dynasty would prove incapable of dealing with its vast population in a productive manner, leading to a rampant outflow of Chinese subjects to other lands, among which would be the islands of Melanesia.

When the Congress was convened in TBD 18XX, the Federalist Party presented the legislation that would make it nearly impossible for individuals of non-black African descent to enter Melanesia, or even find legal employment should they manage to enter successfully. Ratification of the bill into law was swift, as many of the politicians had been quick to capitalize on the anti-Asian, anti-foreigner sentiments in the country to their benefit. The Nth Amendment to the Melanesian constitution was added with very clear terminology as to who and who was not to be admitted entry into the country, and several uses of the term "undesirables" placed within the amendment. The usage of "undesirables" rather than "undesirable persons", allowed the new amendment to as open-ended as necessary for the lawmakers, allowing them to classify anything, be it people, ideas, items, or cultures, as "undesirable" in the eyes of the constitution of Melanesia. Senator TBD was thrilled with the passage of the laws, and toured the country with his supporters hailing the accomplishment of the Federalist Party.

In the official text of the bill turned into law, opening part of the bill read:

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of Melanesia in Congress assembled, that it is the opinion of this Congress convened in 18XX that having suffered the perils of slavery and subjugation at the hands of alien people, that it shall not be done twice more in this land. Let it be known that this United States of Melanesia have resolved to insatiable flow of a greedy peoples into this sovereign state, bringing with them alien traditions, religions, and civilizations to this more sacred of homes. The white, the oriental, the savage...none shall enter hither...but the black, the most downtrodden of mankind shall be embraced and nursed by his brothers and sisters.

See also

• Immigration to Melanesia
• Melanesians
• Melanesian nationalism