Inquiry Into Australia’s Loss Of Immigrants

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31128, 3 August 1966, Page 12

Inquiry Into Australia’s Loss Of Immigrants

(Special Crjpdt. N.Z.P.A.)

SYDNEY, Aug. 2.

Record numbers of former migrants have left Australia in the last year, and many observers are saying there is no doubt the migrant boom is over.

While Australia apparently still has no trouble in attracting migrants, more and more are returning to Europe after two years or so, and the Government is so concerned that it has launched a full-scale investigation. Figures just issued show a 60 per cent increase in the number of former migrants who left Australia permanently in the year ended June 30. The Immigration Department says confidently: “Many will be back,” but their departure means that the country’s net immigration in the last year fell 17,290 short of

the 145,000 target, and one expert has predicted that during 1966 Australia will get 40,000 fewer migrants than it got last year. Many reasons are suggested for this, and the investigation that is now under way is endeavouring to find the right answer.

Some people, including a Western Australian Parliamentarian, Mr H. E. Graham, believe conscription is the major cause of migrants leaving. Mr Graham, who recently returned from an overseas tour, said, many parents who wished to migrate feared that their sons might be conscripted for service in Vietnam.

An Immigration Department spokesman in Sydney said: “I don’t think politics enter into it.” He thought the old, basic reasons—home sickness, loneliness, and in-

ability to make friends In a new country—were still the major reason for migrants going home.

Added to this was an increasing prosperity and highearning capacity, which enabled more people to make trips home to see friends and relatives, he said. Although the reasons may be the same, there is no getting away from the fact that the number of migrants homeward bound is increasing, and “The Australian” noted in an editorial this week: “We must recognise the fact that the focal point of world conflict has swung from Europe to our neighbourhood in Asia.” The newspaper added: “Many of our migrants left a ravaged and still-tense Europe, fed up with war and strike and seeking the relative stability that Australia then offered. . . .

“The introduction of conscription in Australia and our commitment to Vietnam have clearly indicated to the world how closely involved we are with the continuing conflict in Asia.”

The Government’s reported decision to call up migrant youths who have not taken out Australian citizenship and are still aliens, has produced fears that the immigration programme could further be affected.

A Greek migrant anti-con-scription group has collected 5000 signatures for a petition to the Government