- Post WW2, Immigration minister saw the need to increase our population to improve our economy and defence force.Describe the pattern of migration to Australia in the post World War II period.
- Immigration minister Arthur Calwell's slogan "populate or perish"
- First Australia wanted to attract British migrants. They could come here on the assisted migration scheme and only pay ten pounds.
- They had to agree to work a minimum of 2 years in government assigned jobs
- Soon we looked outside of Britain due to: humanitarian reasons, migration targets not being met and not enough ships to bring British in comfortable conditions
- Australia looked towards the Baltic states of Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania.
- Under the Colombo Plan (1950) Asian students could come to Australia to study but they could not stay.
- Australia soon opened it's doors to Italy and Spain.
- In the 1970s there was an influx of refugees coming from Vietnam to Australia by boat.
- Gough Whitlam abolished the White Australia Policy.
- The government took steps to remove race as a factor of immigration policies.
- Australia soon opened it's doors to The Middle East and Asia and did not assign jobs.
- They instead looked at your qualifications and contributions