MIGRANT EXPERIENCES

1945 to present

YESTERDAY’S LESSON

The period after 1945 marked a huge change in Australian immigration policy.

But what was the policy changing from? What was the starting point or underlying philosophy in 1945?

Yesterday you undertook an overview of Australia’s migration patterns from 1850-1945.

What can you tell me?

TODAY’S LESSON

The waves of post-World War 11 immigration to Australia, including the influence of significant world events

Impact of changing government policies on Australian migration patterns

Explain why the government attempted to attract more migrants to Australia during the 1950s and 1960s with reference to the slogan ‘populate or perish’

REVIEW

The first white settlement began in 1788 with

convicts who were then followed by free settlers in the C18th and C19th

However migrants became of a certain type: predominately from England, Scotland and

Ireland

The notion of a ‘white Australia’ steadily grew in the 19th century and it was a key factors that encouraged Federation.

What philosophy or ideology drove the ‘White Australia Policy’

DEVELOPING THE IDEA OF WHITE AUSTRALIA

Attitudes towards people with different ethnic backgrounds were generally negative and based on beliefs that were popular at the time.

These were: Racial purity Ethnocentrism Social Darwinism

REVIEW

• The Australian population was mainly white and English speaking

• Population 3.7 million

• 95.5% of the population was born in Australia or in the countries of Great Britain

• 4.1 % born in other countries• Aboriginal Australians were not officially

counted in the Census .

WHY DID AUSTRALIA WISH TO RESTRICT NON- WHITE IMMIGRATION?

The belief that the British race was superior and that non-British races were inferior.

The fear that Australia could be invaded by the more populated Asian countries to the North.

The fear that people from other nations would work for lower wages and keep white Australians out of jobs.

The two groups that were targeted particularly in Australia were the KANAKAS and the CHINESE.

TABLE SHOWING THE DEMOGRAPHIC PROFILE OF AUSTRALIA IN 1901

TOWARDS A WHITE AUSTRALIA

Most people rejected the notion that “inferior races” could ever assimilate into the Australian way of life. The phrase ‘White Australia’ was first coined in the 1880s.

New and more restrictive laws were implemented to keep Asians out of Australia.

WHITE AUSTRALIA POLICYAfter Federation in 1901 the new Australian nation introduced the White Australia Policy

Limiting of non-white immigration: the policy of limiting the number of non-white people migrating to Australia, embodied in the

Immigration Restriction Act of 1901

A medal commemorating ‘white Australia’

Depiction of Chinese miners on the Australian goldfields

Kanakas on the Queensland cane fields.

EXAMPLES OF RACISTS COMMENTS

Racist attitudes were conveyed in the Bulletin magazine:

Australia for the Australians – the cheap Chinamen, the cheap nigger and the cheap European pauper to be absolutely excluded.

All white men who come to these shores….and leave behind them the memory of class and religious differences… are Australian….No nigger, no Chinaman, no kanaka is an Australian

2 July 1887

The Mongolian Octopus The Bulletin 1886

THINK YOU KNOW/WANT TO KNOW

In pairs discuss and write down what you think you already know about Australia’s migration patterns after 1945.

Some questions to consider include:

Until the 1950s where did Australia receive most of its migrants and why?

Why was there a large increase in the intake of migrants after 1945?

Where did the initial wave of migrants come from? How have migration patterns changed since? Name 4-6 countries from which Australia has

received large numbers of migrants.

WHAT DO YOU WANT TO KNOW AND WHY IS IT IMPORTANT TO KNOW

With your partner identify 2-3 points questions about post-war immigration that you would like to learn more about.

Link to your survey from yesterday. How do you think continuing debates on immigration and its place in Australian society continue to link to contemporary events?

POST WAR IMMIGRATION

Ben Chifley

POST WAR IMMIGRATION

Immigration was the strongest force changing Australia post war

The Chifley Labor government promoted the policy of ‘populate or perish’

What do you think this means? What events in WWII would have

influenced this thinking?

JAPANESE ADVANCES WWII

POPULATE OR PERISH

As a result of the war the Australian Labor government’s vision was to build a stronger Australia through immigration on a grand scale

The government proposed a yearly intake of 70 000 migrants

The government believed that an ambitious immigration policy would provide

-a larger population for future military defence-a larger workforce to promote greater economic development and increase national wealth

REASONS FOR CHANGE: ECONOMIC REASONS

There was a serious labour shortage after the war and a larger workforce would stimulate post war economic growth

To develop its secondary industries(manufacturing) it needed a larger workforce

A larger population would also provide for a bigger consumer market

-New settlers meant new workers and new skills to strengthen the Australian economy

-If Australia was to develop its vast open spaces then it was going to need many more workers

REASONS FOR CHANGE: DEFENCE

WWII had shocked the people of Australia. It had been the first time Australia had been under enemy attack

The bombing of Darwin and Northern Australia was seen as a wake up call for many Australians

-A larger population would make it easier to defend the country from a possible future invasion.

THE BOMBING OF DARWIN

REASONS FOR CHANGED RESPONSE HUMANITARIAN GROUNDS

The world was facing a humanitarian crisis at the end of WWII. There were millions of refugees in Europe

Australia had an international duty to take some of the refugees

The two main sources of refugees were:

-freed inmates from concentration camps-people from Eastern Europe who were fleeing communism

SURVIVORS FROM CONCENTRATION CAMPS

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SnHKKX6FUhk

7.15-14.11

BEN CHIFLEY AND IMMIGRATION

REASONS FOR CHANGED ATTITUDE TO IMMIGRATION

HumanitarianFactors

Economics Defence

Justification of Australian occupation of the continent

REVISION

Outline the concept of ‘populate or perish’

Copy the mind-map on the previous slide? Add one to two dot points on how the policy was justified on economic, defence and humanitarian grounds

Extension questions (pair and share)

Why would Australia feel an obligation to take refugees after WWII?

Why was this a challenge to Australia’s existing migration policy?

THE MISR 1947

On April 20, 1947, the Egyptian-registered SS Misr docked in Melbourne with its multicultural human cargo: 624 men, women and children from 26 different countries, plucked from ports in the Mediterranean, Middle East and East Africa.

It was a voyage that began amid scenes of almost unimaginable chaos, as hundreds of thousands of migrants, refugees and displaced persons scrambled for berths on ships heading out of an area ravaged by war and now being painfully redrawn along new boundary lines.

Arthur Calwell greets newly arrived immigrants who had travelled to Australian aboard the Misr.

http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/when-the-boat-came-in/2007/03/10/1173478709142.html?page=fullpage

THE MISR 1947

It was a voyage that ended in unprecedented controversy as the SS Misr sparked a bitter wrangle over dire on-board conditions, and allegedly "animal-like" behaviour by steerage-class migrants.

And a voyage that sailed deep into the national psyche, exposing widespread fears that the very future of White Australia was suddenly threatened by the arrival of so many Jews, of so many swarthy dark-skinned southern Mediterraneans.

Un-British, un-Australian, "unsuitable"

EXTENSION: EXPERIENCES ON THE MISR

Go to http://www.theage.com.au/multimedia/misr/ and outline the experiences of some of the early boat arrivals.

http://www.theage.com.au/multimedia/misr/pappas.html

http://www.theage.com.au/multimedia/misr/bortolazzo.html

THE PROCESS:

It was within this context the Labor government established a Department of Immigration with Arthur Calwell as the first Minister for Immigration.

Caldwell was aware of the Australian public’s traditional reluctance to non-white immigration.

In order to soften the way, he painted the situation as dire.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4DwCaB7E3Q

POLICY IN ACTION

Between 1945 and 1965 more then two million migrants came to Australia.

‘Populate or perish’ became the catchcry, as the Australian Government embarked on an intensive international promotional campaign to encourage migration to Australia.

Most were assisted: the government paid most of their fare to get to Australia.

The campaign initially targeted Britons with schemes such as ‘Bring out a Briton’ as shown in the ‘Immigration Nation’

ASSISTED PASSAGE SCHEME

In 1946 Calwell designed the Assisted Passage Scheme to attract British migrants

Under this scheme British ex-servicemen and their families were given free passage to Australia and other British migrants paid 10 pounds for an adult and five pounds for a child.

The scheme was offered on condition that migrants remain in Australia for a minimum of two years

An immigration poster from 1948

http://www.migrationheritage.nsw.gov.au/exhibition/objectsthroughtime/post-war-migration-poster/

Prime Minister Ben Chifley and Minister for Immigration Arthur Calwell greet a party of migrant British building tradesmen. The men were bound for Canberra and had arrived at Sydney on the Largs Bay in January 1947. NAA: A1200, L21159

1948 immigration poster

http://museumvictoria.com.au/accessallareas/discoverycentre/category/immigration-discovery-centre.aspx?page=3

DEFICIENCY OF THE TEN POUND POMS

As early as 1947, it was clear that the British migrant numbers could not meet the target set by the Australian government

1947 Arthur Calwell toured the refugee camps of Europe where 11 million homeless survivors of the war were waiting to be accepted for settlement in new lands

Calwell was aware of the Australian reluctance to accept non-British immigration

He attempted to change attitudes by declaring that immigrants :

-would not take Australian jobs and -they would stimulate the economy and create more employment

THE BEAUTIFUL BALTS

In order to appease Australians about the fear of ‘dark skinned’ Europeans invading the country, Caldwell adopted a deliberate strategy of selecting blue eyed, blonde haired refuges and migrants from the Baltic states, the so-called ‘Beautiful Balts’

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wiOvBob5d1I

7.00-10.00

OPENING OUR SHORES TO NON-BRITISH MIGRANTS

In 1947 The Australian government signed agreements with the International Refugee Organisation to accept a minimum of 12 000 settlers every year

In November 1947 the first group of WWII refugees arrived:

843 Latvians, Lithuanians and Estonians

Between 1947 and 1953 the Displaced Persons Scheme had delivered 170 000 refugees to Australia

By 1949 Australia was accepting any European provided they were under 45 years of age and not supporters of communism

14 000 Hungarian refugees came to Australia after the anti-communist revolt in Hungary in 1956

FURTHER BROADENING OF IMMIGRATION The government gradually

widened the immigration intake to include many other European countries for example Poland, Russia Ukraine, Czechoslovakia and the Baltic states 1947

Malta 1948 Italy and the Netherlands 1951 West Germany, Austria and

Greece 1952 Spain 1958

END TO WHITE AUSTRALIA POLICY?

NOTE: accepting European migrants did not directly challenge the idea of a White Australia and despite the vigorous immigration policy after WWII the White Australia Policy remained official policy.

Arthur Calwell fiercely defended the WAP even deporting Asians who had been given refugee status in Australia during WW11

REVIEW

Claim/Support/Challenge

The White Australia Policy was alive and well in Australia in the 1950s

Cite evidence that supports the claim Cite evidence that challenges the claim