“Ten Pound Poms”‘AS’ Immigration Case Study

What was the policy ?

• “Populate or Perish” scheme – started in 1947

• Supported by English and Australian governments

• Fresh start for working class Britons, where there was rationing after WWII, and shortages of housing and jobs

• Wanted white British stock to populated

Can be seen using BBC iPlayer“Timewatch” (Sat 2nd Feb)

Download it within the next 3 days, and you have 30 days to watch it.

Key Points

• Limited quota now of 30 000 per year, and also a ‘points system’ for entry

• 1 million people sold dream of British way of life in the sun in the 1950’s and 1960’s - films

• Wanted to attract 70 000 people per year, but 400 000 applied in the first year

• By end of 1960’s around 1 million people had made the trip

• Just cost £10 – children travelled for free• 25% of people came back home

The ‘catch’ ?

• Had to stay for at least 2 years or pay the full fare home

• Had to pass a medical and a personal interview

• Only took white people and no one with mental handicaps – no blacks or Asians could apply

• Voyage on ships such as the Himalaya• Real cost of voyage was £120 (6 months’

wages)• Had to sleep in bunks in single sex dorms

The arrival

• Some people were surprised by what they found when they arrived.

• On arrival, they relied on ‘sponsors’ who promised accommodation and a job. Some of these

• Those with no sponsors had to stay in a temporary hostel in a nissen hut, with basic rations

• These were cheap so that people could save, but a lot of people were fed up, and were labelled “whingeing poms” !

Jobs

• Needed workers to boost the economy and solve the housing crisis. Opportunity to learn new skills

• Pay was higher in Australia than the UK (about 1.5 times) and with lower tax too

• Jobs were also available for women

• Some found “pommie bashing” going on.

• The real reason why 250,000 Britons returned to the UK wasn't the anti-British feeling or the awful immigrant hostels - it was family responsibility. The guilt, isolation and homesickness people felt when confronted with ageing parents, marriage break-ups and pregnancy was too much to bear. People also felt culturally alienated in a land that was very familiar in some ways but also shockingly strange."

• "I was young and craved adventure. We saw the world and tried new things. I never felt accepted there though, and we made mistakes: we had a beautiful bungalow, but it was miles from the city, in an immigrant settlement. I don't think the Australians were prepared for why we were there. But I never regretted my big adventure."

Negatives

• Shiploads of people ‘taking their jobs’

• 3 jobs: step forward all the Australians, then the British…

• “Go back to where you came from…”

• Those who moved to the outback had to cope with spiders, flies etc.

Muriel Miller found out what Australia thought of her family when her children

returned home from their first day at school there in 1963 and said: "Mum,

what's a Pommie b*****d?"

The returnees….

• Still had an ‘experience’…• 25% of people returned and brought

back negative experiences – arrived back in the Britain of the 1960s

• New campaign started in the 1960s – price was still £10 even in 1968, but could now go by plane rather than ship.

• 600 000 Britons migrated in the 1960s

Positives

• People started to buy houses and land

• Some came home and then went back (the ‘boomerang poms’)

• People started to assimilate, and have children born in Australia

• Free higher education was provided, which allowed people to ‘better’ themselves (less class divisions)

Changes

• £10 scheme ended in 1982

• By then, it had been widened to other countries, and non-whites too…

What else can you discover about the scheme ?

What happened next ?Read the article…

• What made people stay ?

• What made people come home ?

Fast forward to August 2007

Australia is changing its immigration policy in an attempt to lure thousands of skilled British workers to its shores.

Doctors, nurses, painters and decorators are among those being encouraged to move Down Under to solve

the nation's desperate labour shortage. New rules from September 1 will offer an extra five

points towards a visa for those who pass a basic English test.

Australia's Skilled Migration programme assesses applicants on age, qualifications, experience and English

language ability. But it apparently discriminates against British

professionals aged 30 to 35, because they lose out in the age category.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ten_Pound_Poms

http://open2.net/forum/showthread.php?t=4333 – discussionon the programme

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7217889.stm- very useful BBC News article