Why and how did Australia’s migration pattern change from 1945 to the 1990’s?

Question

My sister has an assignment due on this topic, 'Why and how did Australia’s migration pattern change from 1945 to the 1990’s?' and I was wodnering if you can help give some insight into this for her.

Also the question that we are stuck on at the moment is 'In the 70's the pattern changed- Aust govt accepted Asian migrants. An end to the white Aust policy.

Can you please help answer that?

Thanks heaps in advance :)

Answer 1

In the post-war years (1946 - 1973), Australia actively encouraged immigration from the UK and from (mainly) European countries.

Australia needed workers for post-war growth and development and in the aftermath of the war, there were very large numbers of displaced and war affected people in Europe who were looking for a new life.The White Australia policy was still in existence (though it had been watered down somewhat) which ruled out much Asian and African immigration and immigrants from the UK and Europe were seen as the answer to kickstarting Australia's population and economic growth.

I was in primary school in the early 50s in Melbourne and our school's student population more than doubled in 2 or 3 years with an influx of Italian, Greek, Maltese, Lithuanian, Yugoslav and other European children. None of us had ever met anyone from outside Australia before so it was almost as much a culture shock for us as it was for the immigrants, many of whom had not a word of English at first.

Not long after, we began seeing non-white students in Australia who were studying under the Colombo Plan. By the end of the 50s, soldiers (and others) who had met and married Asian spouses during and after the war were allowed to bring them to Australia and over the following 13 years or so, some non-white immigrants were accepted if they had acceptable qualifications and were considered to be capable of integration with existing Australian society.

In 1973, the Whitlam government issued policies that removed race from the selection criteria relating to migrants and in 1975 introduced the Racial Discrimination Act which outlawed the use of racial criteria for any official purpose.

During the years between 1946 and 1975, European immigration had been continuing very strongly with large numbers of immigrants arriving every year. From the early 70s, Asian and sub-continent (Indian etc) immigration began to increase gradually until in 1976, the first boatloads of Vietnamese refugees began arriving and were accepted as immigrants. Within 3 years, a further 53 refugee boats had arrived.

Answer 2

http://www.skwirk.com.au/p-c_s-14_u-112_...

http://www.aph.gov.au/Library/Pubs/RN/20...

heres a couple of sites to look through . In the earlier years australia needed a lot of manual labour. We had a country to build as the population grew we needed a lot more skilled labour for example doctors http://www.multiculturalaustralia.edu.au...

Answer 3

I did a google search found nothing as far back as 1945. your best bet is your local reference library.

Answer 4

Factual information  will be available at the library the librarian will find it for her she will need to quote her sources of information.