Australian Politics and Policy - Senior, 2019a

Australian Politics and Policy
overpopulation and fears of political instability in Europe, Australia was persuaded
by the International Refugee Organisation to accept large numbers of people
displaced by the war. After the Second World War, the decision to initiate a
program of mass migration was announced in the Commonwealth parliament by
the first minister for immigration, Arthur Calwell.
Australia introduced the assisted European migration program, which began
in 1947. The Australian government was initially hesitant to admit Greek and
Italian refugees because they were seen as culturally different and politically suspect
due to the influence of communism in their home countries. 5 However, due to
the demand for labour, the program eventually accepted 170,000 refugees from
countries including Malta (1948), Italy and the Netherlands (1951), Germany,
Austria and Greece (1952), Spain (1958), Turkey (1967) and former Yugoslavia
(1970). 6 European immigration peaked in the 1960s, with a total of 875,000 assisted
passages. 7 Overall, the European immigration program helped to increase the size
of the workforce and contributed to postwar economic expansion. 8 Postwar
migrants formed the backbone of the manufacturing sector and the Snowy
Mountains Hydro-Electric Scheme. In fact, it could be argued that the Snowy
Mountains Scheme, which attracted over 100,000 migrants from Europe under
assisted migration schemes, was the beginning of multicultural Australia.
In this period, the ideology behind the European immigration program was
‘assimilationism’. Non-British migrants were encouraged to naturalise and
assimilate. 9 In 1945, Arthur Calwell, the minister for immigration in 1945–49,
proposed that ‘Australian nationality’ be equated with Australian citizenship to
facilitate immigration and deportation, the issue of passports and the representation
of Australians abroad. 10 CalwellproposedthattoqualifyasanAustralian
national one should be:
• a person born in Australia who has not acquired another nationality
• a British subject not born in Australia who was not a prohibited immigrant at
his time of entry and has resided in Australia for five years
• a person naturalised in Australia who has residence of five years
• the wife of an Australian national who is herself a British subject resident in
Australia, or
• a child born outside Australia whose father, at the time of birth, was an
Australian national. 11
5 Vasta 2005.
6 Jupp 1992.
7 Jupp 2002, 23.
8 Jakubowicz 1989.
9 Jakubowicz 1989; Jordens 1997.
10 Dutton 1999.
11 Dutton 1999, 14.
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