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cane cutters and railway navvies, were pioneers in a new country, prepared to take on
any form of manual or professional work in order to survive. The Italian-speaking
settlers of Jim Crow were part of this early group of immigrants, as most arrived in the
goldfields mterested only in the work which offered quick retums ~ labouring jobs
and mining. Highly mobile and transient, they were continually in search of
employment and, where they found it, would send messages on to their compatriots
informing them of the new job opportunities. In this sense they conform to Pascoe's
'reconnaissance scouts' ~ venturing into new lands and establishing a network of
communication to assist their fellow travellers.
As a group, they were also distinguished by their desire to retum to their
homelands as soon as circumstances allowed. The 'scouts' usually left their countries
with a specific aim, such as the solving of financial problems, and repatriated when this
had been achieved. They were seldom poUtical refugees, who emigrated with their
wives and children (although Dr Guscetti's case in a later section will provide one
exception), but instead departed alone wdth promises to return. Repatriation was
always uppermost in their minds, family reunions generally occurring in the emigrants'
middle or latter years when the difficulties had been resolved. While it is clear that the
Italian speakers possessed this 'scouting' quality, Pagliaro^ suggests that the
immigrants of the gold msh period harboured an almost universally felt 'illusion of
return', an unreaUstic beUef, considering the poverty and distances travelled. His view
is supported by Hoffinan-Nowotny', who claims a 'retum illusion' ~ a defensive
mechanism permitting the immigrant to reduce anxiety about the duration of his stay by
convincing himself that he can retum whenever he wishes ~ is a feature of all
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