cont'd...

"The same migrants could have accomplished a great
deal more, if the Australian authorities had made
full use of their skills and knowledge, instead of
treating them all as unskilled labour. Nevertheless,
their economic contribution was significant at a
time when Australia needed it most."

Just for your information - I was born in this country,
as was one of my brothers. My parents and other
European migrants - paid their dues -
in blood, sweat, and tears - their contribution to this
country is now a part of history - and it has been
acknowledged in historical records of the period.
All National Libraries have this information freely
available - for those willing and able to do further
research on the subject.

Foxy

Where does it support your assertion that, "They (migrants) were ...invariably doing jobs rejected by other Australians."?

Well my memory was that about all work was basic, not really comparable to today. Lack of skills meant no barrier. Social benefits were pretty non-existant. This was true the world over. If you had work you got great rates of pay, overtime and all sort of incentives. Today is far worse for the unskilled as near every job requires a uni degree, even street sweeping requires a wall mounted certificate.

I must admit I am not true blue Aussie shiela as I have emigrated twice from Aussie after immigrating here with my family as a child. It is an honest country, really. Why I bommerang back all the time and not till my older age do I appreciate this country so much.

For our Ukraine, Latvian and Lithuanian friends a real nice video, tears for the past but not for now, nor for the future.

http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=vOhf3OvRXKg#t=00

Examinator, if you want to be considered a d1ck head, just keep talking like one. Be careful there, you'll have me crying for those poor soles in the migrant camps. Or at least I would if I had not shared much tougher conditions, with many native Ozies, at that time.

My father came out of the airforce, with a cheep suit, & 16 pounds. From there we were on our own. He was 30, with a wife & son, had missed out on his education, & was never to catch up, financially.

We did not get tax payer supplied accommodation, we provided our own. My family were a little lucky. Dad had scrounged enough cement for us to have a floor that only got wet, in real bad weather. Many of our neighbours had dirt floors, in our tin huts.

Not nice quonset huts for us. Most of ours were clad in flattened kerosene tin metal. We were lucky that local farmers had to run their tractors on kero, or we wouldn't have had that. Still, living in a tin hut is OK, when most of your friends do, as well.

We lived in that hut for 2 years, before we managed to get enough materials to build the first two & a half rooms of a real house. Some of our neighbours were still in their tin huts, when we moved on, 3 years later. My room was the half room, we never did get the materials for the 4Th wall.

There was a bit of ill will towards the "reffos" getting high paying jobs at the Snowy scheme, which our blokes weren't allowed, for some reason, but apart from that no one cared where you were from.

Our lives would have been much easier, if Oz had not taken in hundreds of thousands of refugees, we would not have had such bad shortages of everything, but I never heard anyone complain. Taking in those folk was never in question.

Hasbeen,
Please get new glasses then read my piece again in *context*. I wasn't there I was adopted out to a family like yours.
The post was in answer to Cornflower's claims that the migrant were welcomed out of the Aussies good hearts. and the 50's were halcyon days of community yarder yarder. They weren't

I agree with you my family did it tough too.

I just don't accept the rose coloured view of the Australia in the 50's like that lump Howard.
I reject the notion that untill the 50 Australia was Wasp/c. historic texts show it wasn't.
So why proffer the myth further and treat all other groups as insignificant by singling out one group above all i.e. the union jack on the aussie flag.

Do keep up old fella.

Dear Cornflower,

Thanks for asking.

It was taken from the book by Liz Thompson,
called, "From Somewhere Else."

But there are other historic records - from
numerous books by different authors on the subject to -
government reports - to the book by Professor
Taskunas that I cited earlier - that
can easily be accessed
through your regional and national libraries.

As well as of course - from people who actually
lived through those times and their personal experiences -
like those of my family members, Examinator's - and others.

Anyway, its got to be understood that up until
the early 1970s, assimilation and the preservation of
"White Australia" continued as the Australian
Government's official policies. Migrants of every
ethnic origin were expected to assimilate promptly
into a monocultural mould of Australian identity,
based on the Anglo-Saxon and Celtic culture.

The ideal immigrant was the one who assimilated
easily, one who "became more similar to the host
population as a result of social interaction and
through the shedding of attributes of their culture."

Anyway, enough said - I don't want to go into the
entire history of that period - the topic of this
thread is after all - the Australian flag.
And, as I wrote in my first post - it's up to the
country to decide - whether it wants to change
anything - or leave things as they are.