10 Years Of Immigration To Australia

Press, Volume XCIII, Issue 27909, 5 March 1956, Page 11

10 Years Of Immigration To Australia

(Australian Correspondent N.Z.P.A.) (Rec. 8 p.m.) SYDNEY, March 2. Australia’s post-war immigration scheme has been a tremendous success. About 1,000,000 migrants, half of them British, have come here during the last 10 years to settle permanently. Only 2 per cent, of the European migrants and 6 per cent, of Britons gave up after the first unavoidable difficulties and left Australia for good. But almost 970,000 have remained, and the second million migrants are now on the way. Lecturers at the sixth Australian Citizenship Convention held in Canberra recently emphasised the migrants’ contribution to Australia’s post-war development. • Complaints are sometimes heard that “New Australians” aggravate the housing shortage in Australia. Mr D. Stewart Fraser, M.L.A., executive director of the Building Industry Congress, answered these complaints at the convention. He said: “Australia’s housing problem is not

aggravated, but alleviated, by the migrant intake” Migrants had helped to raise the Australian home-building capacity from 40.0(H) a year before World War , II to 80.0G0 during the last few years. Mr A. E. Monk, president of the Australian Council of Trade Unions, emphasised the big part migrants had played in increasing production of key commodities such as pig iron, steel, bricks, cement, tiles and sulphuric acid. “We have reason to be proud of what we have achieved as a nation in the last 10 difficult years. Migrants have played an essential part in our development,” he said. Today, about 500,000 persons in Australia were born in continental Europe. They belong to about 30 major ethnical and linguistic groups. About 15 per cent, of the total population—or roughly 1.350.000 persons—is of non-British parentage. This me ants that, today, one person in seven in Australia is not of British descent, and that 6 per cent, of the population are relative newcomers, whose mother tongue is not English. It would not have been surprising if | such a large influx of foreign migrants ; within the short period of 10 years had causfed friction between Austra-1

lians and the newcomers. But Australians have come to accept migrants and immigration as a normal factor in their lives. They no longer fear competition from the migrant Arrangements for Fiances The Immigration Department is now making it easier for migrants to bring their fiances to Australia. It has abolished the need for a migrant who is bringing a bride-to-be here to lodge a cash bond of £lOO. A Swedish family has travelled to Australia from Stockholm in a station waggon, which carries everything from beds to a spirit stove. The family passed through Sydney last week on the way to Cairns in North Queensland, where they have bought a 200-acre farm. The family comprises Mr Lennart Fdren, his wife and two small boys. Four months ago Mr Edren was a lecturer and specialist in dentistry at Stockholm University. He will now grow fruit and vegetables.