Section B: Migrants
Change over Time
- the changing patterns of migration 1945-2000
Students learn to:
- account for continuity and/or change over time in the relevant study
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Text - Chapter 6.2 Migrants: The Struggle for Acceptance
p.307 The changing patterns of migration
p.308 ‘Populate or perish’
p.309 The new Australians
Before World War II * 1901: Immigration Restriction Act - White Australia Policy * Most migrants to Australia were from England, Scotland and Ireland * During the Great Depression, migration slow significantly
After World War II * Continuity: migration encouraged from Britain - £10 Poms. Throughout the second half of the 20th Century, most migrants came from Britain, though British migration decreased as a percentage of total migration. * Migration from southern and eastern Europe, most significantly Greece and Italy * 1973 - end of the White Australia Policy - increase in migration from south-east Asia * More recently, migration from Africa and the Middle East
Populate or perish * Migration from war-torn Europe: British and southern Europeans (mostly Italians and Greeks) and people from Baltic states (Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia) * Begun during Prime Ministership of Ben Chifley (1945-1949) * Reasons: * labour shortage, larger workforce to stimulate economic growth * new workers would bring new skills * a larger population would improve Australia’s security against invasion (source 6.13) * note: large-scale immigration was a change from traditional Labor Party policy * 1945: Department of Immigration - Minister: Arthur Calwell (see source 6.13 p.309)
The new Australians
British migration: to encourage migration, ex-servicemen given free passage; others offered assisted passage (£10 Poms). Didn’t provide the required numbers. Migrants were then accepted from any European country. 500,000 migrants by 1949.