ASSISTED MIGRATION.

Waipawa Mail, Volume LXVI, Issue 67, 23 February 1938, Page 4

ASSISTED MIGRATION.

DOOR OPENING. AUSTRALIA READY AGAIN. SYDNEY, February 11. The first definite step towards development of the new migration policy of the Federal Government will be taken next week by the Cabinet when it considers a statistical summary of the decline in British migration to Australia since 1928. The report will be accompanied by a summary showing the various kinds of migrants who were brought to Australia under the assisted schemes of the Commonwealth and the States and the relative results yielded by each. In the next six weeks the Cabinet will develop plans for the resumption of migration from Britain. These plans will be discussed with the British Government and officials at Australia House by the Ministerial delegation to the trade conference in London. The Ministry hopes that the new organisation for assisted migration will begin to operate about the end of this year. It is understood that the report to be considered next week will disclose that migration for land settlement, besides being extremely costly, and in many cases a failure, was the least productive type of assisted migration undertaken before the depression. It will show that land settlers comprised only about 2 per cent, of the total of migrants brought to Australia between the war and the depression. On the other hand, results from the introduction of migrants to undertake rural occupations as employees will be shown as among the best achieved. The survey so far made indicates that the Ministry’s policy will be directed at attracting three broad types of migrants: (1) Youth migrants, consisting of boys for country employment, finder some form of supervision, possibly unofficial, and girls for domestic service; (2) general farm workers, some of whom may be accompanied by small families; (3) selected artisans and craftsmen, to meet demands in Australian industry for skilled workers, which the Australian labor pool is unable to fill.

As a preliminary to the introduction of the plan, the Ministry, it is expected, will seek a consultation with the State Governments for active co-operation in placing migrants in employment, and to reach an understanding on the status of migrants introduced for farm work in State unemployment relief undertakings. The existence of elaborate relief facilities is regarded as the greatest obstacle to the successful resumption of migration of farm laborers on the pre-depression basis. According to information received in Canberra, the acute shortage of farm labor is due in part to the preference of persons who formerly accepted farm employment for employment on State relief schemes. It is recognised that if the States’ relief facilities continue to be more attractive than ordinary rural occupations, there is a danger that migrants admitted for farm work will drift to those undertakings soon after their arrival.