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Skin colour had (as many years before) effectively become an issue in deciding who
should receive work and who should not, leaving the non-professional Italians largely
excluded from the work-force.
Such negative attitudes did not, however, deter Italians from arriving in
Australia in large numbers. Instead, the sudden imposition of quotas on Italian
immigration in the United States of America in the 1920s led to an increased number of
applications to Australia: 36,000 in that decade, mostly from single men ~ agricultural
workers, miners, labourers, fishermen and tradesmen.** More than 300,000
immigrants of all nationaUties arrived in Australia during the period, the majority from
Britain but many also from Greece and what was then Yugoslavia.*' It was not,
however, untU the years following the 1950s that Italian immigration reached its peak.
In March of 1951 the Australian govemment concluded a new assisted passage scheme
with Italy which attracted large numbers to settle by 1953.^" In the years following the
Second World War, AustraUa again faced severe labour shortages and increased its
immigration levels. Italians began arriving from the poorer regions of southem Italy to
be incorporated into the ranks of the lower working classes.^* This accentuated the
gap between the Italians of the middle-class ideal and the poor and uneducated peasant
and rekindled the racism of early generations. Fears that Italians would accept lower
rates of pay and thus reduce working conditions brought conflict with Australian
workers and an increase in racial tension,^^ During the Second Worid War Italians
were intemed as a threat to national security and, at its conclusion in 1945, found
themselves victims of scare campaigns which aimed to discredit them as workers. Their
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