Ten Pound Poms were British citizens who migrated to Australia and New Zealand after the Second World War. The Government of Australia initiated the Assisted Passage Migration Scheme in 1945, [1] [2] and the Government of New Zealand initiated a similar scheme in 1947. [3] The Australian government arranged for assisted passage to Australia on chartered ships and aircraft.
The migrants were called Ten Pound Poms due to the charge of £10 in processing fees to migrate to Australia. [4]
The Assisted Passage Migration Scheme was created in 1945 by the Chifley government and its first Minister for Immigration, Arthur Calwell, as part of the "Populate or Perish" policy. It was intended to substantially increase the population of Australia and to supply workers for the country's booming industries. In return for subsidising the cost of travelling to Australia, the Government promised employment prospects, affordable housing, and a generally more optimistic lifestyle. But upon arrival, migrants were placed in basic migration hostels and the expected job opportunities were not always readily available. [5]
Adult migrants were charged only ten pounds sterling for the fare [4] (hence the name; in 1945 pounds, equivalent to £459in 2021), and migrant scheme children travelled free of charge. It was a follow-on to the unofficial Big Brother Movement and attracted more than a million migrants from the British Isles between 1945 and 1972. It was the last substantial scheme for preferential migration from the British Isles to Australia. [6] In 1957 more migrants were encouraged to travel following a campaign called "Bring out a Briton". The scheme reached its peak in 1969, when more than 80,000 migrants took advantage of the scheme. [7] In 1973 the cost to migrants of the assisted passage was increased to £75 (equivalent to £965in 2021). [5] The scheme was ended in 1982. [8]
While the term "Ten Pound Pom" is in common use, the scheme was not limited to migrants from the United Kingdom. People born in the Irish Free State or in the southern counties of Ireland before the establishment of the Republic of Ireland in 1949 were also classified as British subjects. [9] In fact most British subjects were eligible and, at the time, that included not only those from the British Isles but also residents of British colonies such as Malta and Cyprus. Australia also operated schemes to assist selected migrants from other countries, notably the Netherlands (1951), Italy (1951), Greece (1952), West Germany (1952) and Turkey (1967). [10]
Assisted migrants were generally required to remain in Australia for two years after arrival, or alternatively refund the cost of their assisted passage. If they chose to travel back to Britain, the cost of the journey was at least £120 (in 1945 pounds, equivalent to £5,509in 2021), a large sum in those days and one that most could not afford. [8] It was also possible for many British people to migrate to Australia on a non-assisted basis before the early 1970s, although most travelled as Ten Pounders. This was part of the wider White Australia policy. An estimated quarter of British migrants returned to the UK within the qualifying period; however, half of these—the so-called "Boomerang Poms"—returned to Australia. [8]
Before 1 December 1973, migrants to Australia from Commonwealth countries were eligible to apply for Australian citizenship after one year's residence in Australia. In 1973 the residence requirement was extended to three years, the requirements being place of residence, good character, knowledge of the language, and rights and duties of citizenship and the intention to live permanently in Australia. In November 1984 the residence requirement was reduced to two years. [11] However, relatively few British migrants—compared to other post-war arrivals, such as Turks—took up Australian citizenship. Consequently, many may have lost their Australian residency status later on, usually through leaving Australia.[ citation needed ]
The Government of New Zealand initiated a similar immigration scheme in July 1947. [12] The first immigrants arrived on the RMS Rangitata later that year. [13] The scheme was administered by the Department of Labour under the guidance of Bert Bockett, and was expanded to include the Netherlands in 1950. [12] [14] The Dutch immigration scheme finished in 1963, with just over 6,000 immigrants to New Zealand; [15] with Bockett receiving the Olivier van Noort medallion from the Dutch government in the following year. [12] The British immigration scheme lasted until 1971, with 76,673 immigrants. From 1957 to 1971, the scheme applied to further European countries, with a total of 1,442 immigrants. [12]
Prime Minister Julia Gillard migrated with her family from Barry, Glamorgan, Wales, in 1966, aged four. [16] Her parents hoped the warmer climate would help cure her lung infection.
Another prime minister, Tony Abbott, migrated in 1960 under the scheme, although his father had already lived in Australia after arriving at the beginning of the Second World War on a Blue Funnel Liner and his mother was an Australian expatriate living in Britain at the time of his birth. [17]
England fast bowlers Harold Larwood (in 1950) [18] and Frank Tyson (in 1960) also took advantage of the scheme when they retired from cricket. [19]
The Bee Gees (Gibb brothers), born on the Isle of Man, spent their first few years in Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manchester, England, then moved in the late 1950s to Redcliffe in Queensland, where they began their musical careers. [20]
The five original members of the Easybeats migrated independently and formed their band after arriving in Sydney. Lead singer Stevie Wright migrated from Leeds, England. [21] Harry Vanda migrated from the Hague, Netherlands, and George Young migrated from Glasgow, Scotland, to become the twin guitars and later the songwriting team that took the Easybeats to the world with "Friday on My Mind". [22] George's younger brothers, Malcolm Young and Angus Young, formed the twin guitars of AC/DC with another immigratory Scotsman, Bon Scott. [23]
Other musical artists to have migrated to Australia under the scheme include John Farnham, Jimmy Barnes. John Paul Young, Colin Hay of Men at Work, [24] Jon English and Cheetah, while Kylie Minogue is the daughter of two Ten Pound Poms; her mother was on the same boat as the Gibbs and Red Symons. [25]
Businessman Alan Bond moved to Australia with his parents in 1950. He was named "Australian of the Year" in 1978. [26]
Rugby league player and actor Ian Roberts moved to Sydney with his family in 1967. According to Roberts, he "was brought up in an English household and Australia existed outside the front door". [27]
Actor Nicholas Hope, best known for his role in the 1994 film Bad Boy Bubby , was born in Manchester on Christmas Day 1958 and migrated to Whyalla shortly after. [28] [29]
The White Australia policy is a term encapsulating a set of racist historical policies that aimed to forbid people of non-European ethnic origin – especially Asians and Pacific Islanders – from immigrating to Australia, starting in 1901, in order to create an Anglo-Celtic ideal. The policy also affected immigrants from Germany, Italy, and other European countries, especially in wartime. Governments progressively dismantled such policies between 1949 and 1973.
Free migration or open immigration is the position that people should be able to migrate to whatever country they choose with few restrictions.
The Australian continent was first settled when ancestors of Indigenous Australians arrived via the islands of Maritime Southeast Asia and New Guinea over 50,000 years ago.
The immigration history of Australia began with the initial human migration to the continent around 80,000 years ago when the ancestors of Aboriginal Australians arrived on the continent via the islands of Maritime Southeast Asia and New Guinea. From the early 17th century onwards, the continent experienced the first coastal landings and exploration by European explorers. Permanent European settlement began in 1788 with the establishment of a British penal colony in New South Wales. From early federation in 1901, Australia maintained the White Australia Policy, which was abolished after World War II, heralding the modern era of multiculturalism in Australia. From the late 1970s there was a significant increase in immigration from Asian and other non-European countries.
Since 1945, immigration to the United Kingdom, controlled by British immigration law and to an extent by British nationality law, has been significant, in particular from the Republic of Ireland and from the former British Empire, especially India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, the Caribbean, South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, and Hong Kong. Since the accession of the UK to the European Communities in the 1970s and the creation of the EU in the early 1990s, immigrants relocated from member states of the European Union, exercising one of the European Union's Four Freedoms. In 2021, since Brexit came into effect, previous EU citizenship's right to newly move to and reside in the UK on a permanent basis does not apply anymore. A smaller number have come as asylum seekers seeking protection as refugees under the United Nations 1951 Refugee Convention.
Home Children was the child migration scheme founded by Annie MacPherson in 1869, under which more than 100,000 children were sent from the United Kingdom to Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and South Africa. The programme was largely discontinued in the 1930s but not entirely terminated until the 1970s.
Foreign-born people are those born outside of their country of residence. Foreign born are often non-citizens, but many are naturalized citizens of the country in which they live, and others are citizens by descent, typically through a parent.
Italian Australians are Australian-born citizens who are fully or partially of Italian descent, whose ancestors were Italians who emigrated to Australia during the Italian diaspora, or Italian-born people in Australia.
Post-war immigration to Australia deals with migration to Australia in the decades immediately following World War II, and in particular refers to the predominantly European wave of immigration which occurred between 1945 and the end of the White Australia policy in 1973. In the immediate aftermath of World War II, Ben Chifley, Prime Minister of Australia (1945–1949), established the federal Department of Immigration to administer a large-scale immigration program. Chifley commissioned a report on the subject which found that Australia was in urgent need of a larger population for the purposes of defence and development and it recommended a 1% annual increase in population through increased immigration.
Migration to New Zealand began with Polynesian settlement in New Zealand, then uninhabited, about 1250 to 1280. European migration provided a major influx following the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840. Subsequent immigration has been chiefly from the British Isles, but also from continental Europe, the Pacific, the Americas and Asia.
Australians, colloquially known as Aussies, are the citizens, nationals and individuals associated with the country of Australia. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or ethno-cultural. For most Australians, several of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being Australian. Australian law does not provide for a racial or ethnic component of nationality, instead relying on citizenship as a legal status.
English Australians, also known as Anglo-Australians, are Australians whose ancestry originates wholly or partly in England. In the 2021 census, 8,385,928 people, or 33% of the Australian population, stated that they had English ancestry. It is the largest self-identified ancestry in Australia. People of ethnic English origin have been the largest group to migrate to Australia since the establishment of the Colony of New South Wales in 1788.
Migrant hostels of South Australia are hostels where thousands of migrants passed from the 1940s to the 1980s. In South Australia these included Elder Park, Gawler, Gepps Cross, Glenelg, Hendon, Mallala, Pennington/Finsbury, Peterborough, Rosewater, Salisbury, Semaphore, Smithfield, Willaston, Whyalla, Woodside and Woodville. The hostels were temporary homes to a wide range of migrants, from Displaced Persons and refugees, through to "Ten Pound Poms".
The Bonegilla Migrant Reception and Training Centre was a camp set up for receiving and training migrants to Australia during the post World War II immigration boom. The camp was set on 130 hectares near Wodonga at the locality of Bonegilla in north east Victoria, between the Hume Dam and the city of Wodonga. The site was a former World War II Australian Army base, and is adjacent to the current Latchford Barracks. Before being requisitioned by the army, the site was originally a section of large pastoral land. The camp opened in 1947 and operated until 1971, over which period it received over 300,000 migrants. It is estimated that over 1.5 million Australians are descended from migrants who spent time at Bonegilla. Eric Bana's parents were both processed through Bonegilla. The grandfather of actor and screenwriter Jason Agius stayed at the camp in 1952. Other former residents include Karl Kruszelnicki, Franca Arena, Arvi Parbo, Les Murray, Susan Duncan, Pi O and Raimond Gaita.
New Zealand Australians refers to Australian citizens whose origins are in New Zealand, as well as New Zealand migrants and expatriates based in Australia. Migration from New Zealand to Australia is a common phenomenon, given Australia's proximity to New Zealand, its larger economy and cultural links between the two countries.
Herbert Leslie Bockett was a New Zealand public servant. He was born on 29 June 1905. Bockett was responsible for New Zealand's assisted immigration scheme that first attracted British people colloquially known as "Ten Pound Poms" but was later expanded to cover other European countries.
This article delineates the issue of immigration in different countries.
Emigration from Malta was an important demographic phenomenon throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, leading to the creation of large Maltese communities in English-speaking countries abroad.
Immigration under New Labourfrom 1997 to 2010 was the immigration policy under the government of Tony Blair and then subsequently the continuation of large scale immigration under Gordon Brown.
Asian immigration to Australia refers to immigration to Australia from part of the continent of Asia, which includes East Asia, Southeast Asia, and South Asia.The first major wave of Asian immigration to Australia occurred in the late 19th century, but the exclusionary White Australia policy, which was implemented to restrict non-European immigration, made it difficult for many Asian immigrants to migrate to the country. However, with the passage of the Migration Act 1958, the White Australia policy began to be phased out and Asian immigration to Australia increased significantly. Today, Asian immigrants from a wide range of countries play an important role in the cultural and economic landscape of Australia.