Post war immigration

Topic: Immigration in Australia.

Hypothesis: Post war (1945) immigration influenced and changed Australia in a positive way.

Ever since 1945, more than 6.8 million new settlers have come to make Australia home. After World War Two ended in 1945, Europe was filled with displaced people who were forced to flee from their home countries and find refuge elsewhere. At the time the Australian government believed that a significant population growth was crucial for the country’s future.

After the Japanese nearly invaded the Northern tip of Australia, the government was forced to reassess the ideal population number for the nation. As Prime Minister Ben Chifley later remarked:

… a powerful enemy looked hungrily toward Australia. In tomorrow’s gun flash that threat could come again. We must populate Australia as rapidly as we can before someone else decides to populate it for us. <http://www.migrationheritage.nsw.gov.au/belongings/about-belongings/australias-migration-history/>

So, at the end of World War Two the Australian government took a completely different tactic to migration.

The Department of Immigration was set up in 1945, and was created to ensure that Prime Minister Ben Chifley’s fears would not become a reality. The Department of Immigration now known as the The Department of Immigration and Citizenship, determined that Australia’s annual population would need to have a growth of two percent. They found that only half of that percentage could me maintained by natural means, and that the rest would have to come from overseas. The Department said that 70,000 immigrants were required each year to make up the difference.

Australia’s first displaced people arrived on the 28^th of November 1947. They docked in Melbourne by boat, on the General Heintzelman. There were 844 passengers; they all came from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. In exchange for free passage to Australia, the passengers on the General Heintzelman agreed to work for the government for two years.

This method of luring immigrants to Australia only lasted seven years. Following the end of the departments’ latest scheme, the Federal government negotiated with multiple countries. These negotiations led to agreements with Holland and Italy in 1951; Austria, Belgium, West Germany, Greece and Spain in 1952; the United States of America, Switzerland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland in 1954.

More than 100,000 people from over thirty different countries worked on the “Snowy Mountain Scheme”. Seventy percent of the schemes working population were immigrants. Working at Snowy Mountain was a dangerous and risky job; between 1949 and 1974 over one hundred and twenty workers died during its construction.

Many Anglo – Saxon Australians thought of these migrants as cheap labour, and did not treat them as equals. During this period, immigrants entering Australia encountered the Australian Governments ‘Assimilation policy’. This policy meant that all migrants had to abandon their cultural beliefs and values. This was done so that they could fully embrace Australian ethics and morals.

The governments ‘Assimilation Policy’ was unsuccessful when applied to immigrants. Many of them refused to conform to the governments’ policy and they either went to other countries or back to their homeland. Realizing that the policy was having an adverse effect, the government changed the ‘Assimilation policy’ to the ‘Integration policy’. The ‘Integration policy’ had the same objective of the previous policy, but immigrants were given time for the transition. By 1927, Australia accepted multiculturalism and the governments ‘White Australia Policy’ was abandoned. Immigrants were no longer forced to cast off their cultural beliefs, and values.

Although the government thought that immigration would be completely beneficial, there were some disadvantages. Some of the negative effects of post war immigration were that the immigrants would take Australian jobs, drain the economy and contribute to racial tension.

However, the benefits of post war immigration easily overshadow the disadvantages. Post war immigration produced jobs by raising demand and expanded government services, such as health care and transport. Immigrants paid tax, and they put their money back into the Australian economy. Immigrants brought cultural diversity to Australia, which promoted tolerance. Australian trade increased due to foreign partnership and reinforced intentional agreements with other countries.

Australia’s post war immigrants influenced Australia in a positive way, they made Australia diverse and open minded. Immigrants are now part of our national identity and have made many positive contributions to our culture, economy, music, tourism, food, agriculture, lifestyle and politics.