Migration History Seminar Aug 2013

Migration Experiences

W/PROFESSOR JENNY GREGORY

AUCUST 2013

The University of Western Australia

OVERVIEW & AIMS

1. to introduce Year 10 Australian Curriculum – History– Curriculum focus– depth studies — 3. migration

2. to provide an understanding of Migration Experiences– Land of Immigrants– Post war Immigration– Assimilation to Multiculturalism

The University of Western Australia

Year 10 Curriculum focus: Australia and world history

1. Historical understanding through range of disciplinary concepts i. Evidence – use of sources, analysis, interpretation

ii. continuity and change

iii. cause and effect

iv. significance

v. empathy

vi. perspectives and contestability

2. opportunity to engage students through contexts and through debates, past and present

The University of Western Australia

Year 10 Depth Studies

1. WWII (1939-45)

2. Rights and freedoms (1945- present)

3. Globalising world — social and cultural influences

• Popular Culture

• Migration experiences (1945 – present)

• Environment movement (1960s – present)

The University of Western Australia

Year 10 Depth Study 3

Impact on the Australian way of life of MIGRATION

waves of post-World War II migration to Australia, including the influence

of significant world events

impact of changing government policies on Australia’s migration

patterns, including abolition of the White Australia Policy, ‘Populate or

Perish’

impact of at least ONE world event or development and its significance

for Australia, such as the Vietnam War and Indochinese refugees

contribution of migration to Australia’s changing identity as a nation and

to its international relationships

The University of Western Australia

MIGRATION EXPERIENCES - OVERVIEW

1. LAND OF IMMIGRANTS

Migration exercise 1 (who do you think you are?)

2. POST WAR IMMIGRATION

Migration exercise 2 (SS MISR Controversy)

Migration exercise 3 (camp)

3. ASSIMILATION TO MULTI-CULTURALISM

Migration exercise 4 (definitions)

Migration exercise 5 (cultural changes)

The University of Western Australia

1. LAND OF IMMIGRANTS

British Group Settlers Kentdale WA 1924

The University of Western Australia

Where Australians have come from

Countries of birth 2006

The University of Western Australia

Countries of birth 2011

The University of Western Australia

Migration Exercise 1

Who do you think you are? (10 mins)

Where were your parents and grandparents born?

Did they or any of your ancestors come to Australia from another

country?

When did they come?

Why did they come?

How did they get here?

Where did they live when they first arrived?

What did they bring with them?

The University of Western Australia

2. POST WAR IMMIGRATION

White Australia Policy 1901–72 ‘Populate or Perish’ Post WWII – Displaced persons (DPs) and refugees

• Migration Exercise 2 (SS MISR) Migrant camps

• Migration Exercise 3 (Camp life) Post war reconstruction Immigration agreements with UK/Europe Ten Pound Poms 1945-72 Assisted passages Italy, Greece, Netherlands, Germany Changing composition of population 1933 & 1966

• Migration Exercise 4 (Food)

The University of Western Australia

White Australia Policy 1901-72

1901 Immigration Restriction Act (White Australia Policy)

exclusion of non-European people via dictation test

50-word dictation test in any European language

1902-03 administered 805 times – 46 people passed

1904-09 — 554 times – 6 people passed.

People who failed were refused entry or deported.

The University of Western Australia

Post WWII - Displaced people and refugees

Bavaria 1945

Berlin 1945

Refugees Danzig 1945

The University of Western Australia

Populate or Perish

Context WWII

• Suspicion of Asia• Post war reconstruction

1947 Arthur Caldwell, 1st Minister for Immigration

• ‘We must populate or we will perish. We must fill this country or we will lose it. We need to protect ourselves against the yellow peril from the north. Our current population of 7,391,000 (about one person per square mile) leave a land as vast as Australia under-protected.’

• Mass immigration

The University of Western Australia

Migration Exercise 2

MS Misr Controversy (15 mins)

Caldwell meeting migrants on MS Misr 1947

683 passengers

27 different nationalities

Complaints

Conditions on ship

Nationality of passengers

Govt report

Who wrote documents?

Who published?

Why?

What were their sources?

Are sources identified?

What does the

controversy reveal

about immigration

and attitudes to

immigration?

The University of Western Australia

Australian Government poster displayed in migrant reception centres

overseas and in Australia 1949-51

The University of Western Australia

German, 1952

Dutch, 1954

Latvian, Fairsea 1949

Blond blue-eyed push–pull factors

The University of Western Australia

Major migrant camps 1949

The University of Western Australia

Migration Exercise 3

Northam Camp 1950

The University of Western Australia

Adult education class Northam camp 1950

The University of Western Australia

Post war reconstruction

migration fuelled expansion of manufacturing

Drove down unskilled and semi-skilled wages

eg 1950s motor vehicle companies used mass recruitment

of southern European labour to prevent increase in rates for

production line workers.

The University of Western Australia

Snowy Mountains Hydro-electricity Scheme 1958

Ford Motor Plant Geelong 1956

Bob Csillag, later a psychiatrist in the Dept of Psychiatry at UWA, came to Australia as displaced person in 1950. The war prevented him from completing his medical training at the University of Vienna. He spoke no English and was required to undertake hard physical work felling timber for the Forestry Commission for two years

The University of Western Australia

Ten Pound Poms

Archie (my husband) and I applied to Australia House in 1948. We were living in a small flat with our four children. Housing was very tight because of the bombing during the war…So we went to Australia House to explain it was our living conditions that made us want to migrate. They told us how much better off we would be in WA. The Government would pay our fares and give my husband a job for two years. We would stay in Point Walter Camp for two days, then have a state flat for six months, and finally a state house. So we decided to come.

SS Orontes, March 1958

The University of Western Australia

We were allotted one room with three beds in it, one each for my husband and myself, which we pushed together, and one for Brian, our six year old son. This left little room for the baby we were expecting. The bed bases were criss-crossed wire, the mattresses thin army issue palliasses… I remember lying back in the bed, watching the insects coming up through the floorboards, thinking, ‘What the hell have we done’.

Nissan huts Graylands Hostel

The University of Western Australia

Italian immigration

WWII – Italians interned as enemy aliens Post war – Italian govt – safety valve Mainly Southern Italians Chain migration Male migrants – sponsored families

‘It was hard because there were lots of people [in Italy] and no work, no space. There was just that bit of work in the countryside. You worked the land but at the end of the year you earned nothing… So I thought, “It’s better I go to Australia where there is gold in the streets.” That’s what they said in those days.’

The University of Western Australia

Greek immigration

From Epiros to Sydney

Melbourne – largest Greek city outside Greece

The University of Western Australia

German and Dutch Immigrants

Johan van Oldenbarnevelt poster, 1950

Intergovernmental Agreements

The University of Western Australia

Changing composition of population

The University of Western Australia

3. ASSIMILATION TO MULTICULTURALISM

Assimilation

Integration

Abolition White Australia Policy 1966–72

Racial Discrimination Act 1975

Multiculturalism

Vietnamese Refugees

Cultural changes

The University of Western Australia

Vietnamese Refugees

MECA HO: I can remember when I was on a boat, Mum was carrying me. And my grandma was holding my hand and she was crying as the boat started quietly moving, slowly drifting away. I see a lot of people on the boat. But they’re always cramped in just one boat and underneath of the boat.

Darwin 1977

Vietnam War 1962–72

The University of Western Australia

Migration Exercise 4Definitions

Asylum seeker

Refugee

Illegal immigrant

The University of Western Australia

Migration exercise 5Cultural changes

• List the food you have eaten this week

– Breakfast, lunch, dinner

• What is the origin of these foods/recipes?

• How did they come to Australia?

The University of Western Australia

Summary

Immigration patterns in Australia have changed

Pre WW II British immigrants dominated

Post war waves of immigrants• displaced people from war torn Europe• immigrants from Britain and Europe• refugees from Indo-China and other parts of the world • immigrants with skills needed in Australian economy

Policy issues • White Australia policy • ‘populate or perish’ • push pull factors • Assimilation• Multiculturalism

Australia now • one of the most multicultural countries in the world• many ethnicities contribute to national identity • link the nation to global society

The University of Western Australia

Further information

Reginald Appleyard and John N Yiannakis, 'Greek Pioneers in Western Australia, Crawley, UWA Press, 2003

Collins, Jock; Gibson, Katherine; Alcorso, Caroline; Castles, Stephen; and Tait, David A., Shop Full of Dreams - Ethnic Small Business in Australia, Sydney, Pluto Press Australia, 1995

James Hammerton and Alistair Thomson, Ten Pound Poms: Australia's Invisible Migrants, Manchester, Manchester University Press, 2005

Susanna Iuliano, Vite Italiane: Italian Lives in Western Australia, Crawley, UWA Publishing, 2010

James Jupp, The Australian People: an encyclopedia of the nation, its people and their origins, Cambridge University Pess, 2001

James Jupp, The English in Australia, Cambridge University Press, 2004

Nonja Peters, Milk and Honey — but no Gold: Postwar Migration to Western Australia 1945–1964, Crawley, UWA Press, 2001

The University of Western Australia

Glenda Sluga, Bonegilla: 'A Place of No Hope', Parkville, University of Melbourne, 1988

Anastasios Tamis, The Greeks in Australia, Cambridge University Press, 2005

Jürgen Tampke, The Germans in Australia, Cambridge University Press, 2007

Gwenda Tavan, The Long Slow Death of White Australia, Carlton, Scribe, 2005

http://museumvictoria.com.au/immigrationmuseum/

http://migrationheritage.nsw.gov.au/exhibitions/somuchsky/

http://northamarmycamp.org.au/storylines/migrant/living/

http://migrationheritage.nsw.gov.au/exhibitions/goldandsilver/journey/

http://vietnam-war.commemoration.gov.au/aftermath/

http://www.yale.edu/cgp/

http://www.immi.gov.au/media/fact-sheets/

http://www.multiculturalaustralia.edu.au

Northbridge History Project

The University of Western Australia

Scootle on line resourcesAsylum seekers 1990s -2000s

13 digital curriculum resources focus on the arrival of asylum seekers in Australia in the 1990s and early 2000s. It is organised into six categories - reasons for seeking asylum; reaching Australia; Australian reactions; detention centres; assessing refugee status; and living and working in the community. The collection includes documentary and feature film footage, an audio interview, cartoons and poetry.

Immigration: fill it or lose it, 1992

video clip looks at the political forces and propaganda campaigns that tried to fill Australia with 'pure white' immigrants. 'Immigration: fill it or lose it' is an excerpt from the documentary 'Admission impossible' (54 min), produced in 1992.

SS Orama pamphlet for Port Said, 1939

details information for passengers about the Orient Line ship SS Orama's arrival in Port Said, Egypt, in June 1939 en route to Australia from Europe. It lists everyday tasks

National treasures, 2004: Cuc Lam's suitcase

Fiona Chiu: Chinese family tree