Kubicek, Robert

English

Histoire sociale / Social History (E-Journal, York University)

388 mSTOIRE SOCIALE - SOCIAL IDSTORYadministrative law and enactment or legal matters is avoided, especially at a time whenpoverty is becomimg feminized, feminist historians risk fossilization in the manner ofHenri Bourassa, when bis views came increasingly to appeal only to that small Quebecminority accepting his middle-class nationalist and anti-feminist assomptions. Ifbisto-ry as legitimation is not channelled into new approaches, the only dialogue remainingwill recall the experience of Canadian missions in China - the dialogue of the deafand the dumb.Terry CrawleyUniversity o/Guelph***Egon F. Kunz - Displaced Persons: Calwell' s New Australians. Sydney andToronto: Pergamon Press for Australian National University Press, 1988. pp. xxi,285.Between 1947 and 1954, sorne 180,000 persons displaced by war in eastem andcentral Europe settled in Australia. Almost all of these immigrants migrated under ascheme with special selection criteria and relocation controls. This scheme, launchedby Arthur Calwell, the country's first minister of Immigration (1945-1949), is thesubject of this book. The author, who came to Australia under the scheme, haspublished extensively on the fate of Australia's displaced persons.He uses samples, surveys and statistics generated by other researchers andgovemment agencies. He also created a sample of bis own: sorne 5,800 adult maleswho arrived aboard 12 non-randomly selected transport sbips. Sorne 1,800 of thesewere sent questionnaires in a 20-year follow-up. Data analysis, though extensive, isdescriptive. The most compelling reading is the comments by refugees culled fromnumerous sources.The context in wbich the migrants began their odyssey identifies the peoplesaffected by war and persecution. The Australia in wbich they ended up is alsoportrayed. Thirteen ethnic groups from which almost all came are also described. Forexample, the ruptures which displaced millions of Poles and the factors whieh drave60,000 of them to Australia are examined Brief reference to displaced migrations toCanada and elsewhere is also made.The author stresses that not only did Australia's intake feature numerous ethnicgroups, but that the migrants from these groups were not typica1 cross-sections. Bach,to use the author's category, was made up of a number of discreet "vintages" withdistinctive attributes in terms of gender ratios, age, class and occupation. Sorne werenot even properly identified, with Russians mixed in with those listed as Ukrainiansand Hungarians, sometimes referred to as "Balts", a term more properly attached toarrivals from the Baltic, namely Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.In Australia, the host group, whieh had practiced exclusivist immigration policiesand wbich, despite its overwhelmingly British origins, could even hurl xenophobieepithets at English immigrants, was not disposed to welcome the European influx.Calwell was convinced that underpopulated, labour-short white Australia could onlysurvive and prosper in the post-war world through a rapid infusion from Europe. ButCOMPTES RENDUS - BOOK REVIEWS 389he also feared that such a migration would trigger a disruptive backlash within the hostgroup. To allay fears, he had Australian officiaIs select the most physically fit fromcamps ron in Europe by the International Relief Organization. In addition, displacedpersons coming to Australia under the scheme must agree to enter into a contract underwhich they were required to spend up to two years in locales and in unskilledemployment specified by the state. Breaking this undertaking could lead to deportation.The government also carnpaigned to place the new immigrants in the most positivelight.The author details how the immigrants fared, what their contribution was both asregards future immigration policy and the development of Australia. They, for exam-pIe, were the vanguard of sorne 4.5 million immigrants who came to Australia between1947 and 1987 to a country that had orny 7.5 million inhabitants in 1947. While theauthor concludes that CaIweIl's scheme benefitted both the host and migrant groups, itnonetheless had its darker side which, he asserts, bas not been sufficiently explored. Hefinds and accounts for a higher incidence of mental illness among the refugees. Hetraces numerous exarnples of conflict, suffering and lost opportunity as the migrantgroups try, on the one hand, and the host people, on the other, to impose strategies ofsegregation, assimilation and integration.The author dwells upon a particularly ironic development. Calwell's schemesignificantly increased the opportunity for unskilled and poorly educated migrants toquickly improve their materiaI lot. Their wages and the buying power these possessedwere considerably higher than in the Europe they had left. "That Australia did tum outto be close to a paradise for the least educated, there can be no doubt" (225).Meanwhile, skiIled, weIl educated upper-class refugees, who made up a significantminority of the migrants, lost status and self-esteem. The country lost their potentialcontribution while many of thern languished in unskilled, manual jobs during theirtwo-year indenture and even beyond it. Medical doctors were particularly ostracized.Sorne got to practice in the outback or Papua, New Guinea, but the profession blockedtheir use in urban areas. Other skilled refugees, through a combination of their initiativeand the flexibility of sorne Australian bureaucrats and professionals, found appropriateskilled emPlOyrnen~before their contract expiredThis wode relj.earses much that is farniliar in migration studies generally, in thedynarnics of the dertl.Ography of war-torn Europe and in ethnic relations in Australia. Italso contains material the author has previously published. Its distinct contribution isits reminder that eren academics are inclined to categorize too readily and fosterdistortion as a consequence. In this case, Australia's displaced arrivals were, in terrnsof their background and the specifics of their harrowing joumies, a heterogeneous lot.With this point clearly established, the author is able to show that responses to theirnew circumstances were also varied. The host group, including even its most inforrnedmembers, ignored that variety and indulged in stereotyping which demeaned anddisadvantaged themselves as weIl as the newcomers. Whether most Australians belat-edly reforrned as consequence of the impact of immigrant numbers and values as theauthor aIso suggests; is, of course, a moot point.Robert KubicekUniversity ofBritish Columbia***

Egon F. Kunz - Displaced Persons: Calwell's New Australians

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Egon F. Kunz - Displaced Persons: Calwell's New Australians

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Histoire sociale / Social History (E-Journal, York University)