Essay

Friday, 24 August 2012 1:33 PM

The Italian Migrants are settlers who have moved from Italy to Australia from the 1840's. Significant Italian migrants moved to Australia in search for employment and better living conditions after WW1 when Italy was facing major economic difficulties and political problems while other Italian Migrants arrived in Australia after the gained the right to own properties and run businesses in Australia. Later during WW2, Italian migration had burst in Australia for similar reasons. The Italian migration had its impact in all areas of Australian industry and society as well as food including brand s of clothes like Armani and foods like pizza, pasta etc. World War 1 and World War 2 had devastating effects on Italy and its economic status. Australia's population after WW2 had decreased drastically and required more migrants to survive as a country. Therefore, Arthur Calwell, Australia's first immigration minister had used schemes such as the Assisted Passage Scheme and the Displaced Person Scheme to encourage more migrants to come to Australia. After WW2, Italy had large scale destructions and people from Italy needed better economic conditions. The Displaced persons scheme and the Assisted Passage Scheme attracted war displaced Europeans such as Italians to settle in Australia. The Assisted Passage Scheme expected Italians and other migrants to work for atleast 2 years in industries nominated by government as areas of need. This helped both migrant employment, Australian Economy and Government. After arriving in Australia, the Italians needed, temporary housing, medical care, basic provisions, and employment . The government had constructed special hostels for these new Australians. The first hostel built was Bonegilla Reception and Training Centre. In these hostels, the migrants were allocated separate huts according to their gender. Each hut or tent accomodated atleast 20 to 30 people however later smaller huts were built so familites can be kept together. The hostels provided basic provmisions and essentials such as cutlery and blankets. These camps being in rural areas had hot and dry conditions in summer and freezing conditions in winter. Children and women from many cultures overcame their language barriers to make friends. Most settlers had to accept the 'Australian way of life' and had to leave their language, food and music. Most men obtained work in distant towns and had to leave their families for long periods of time. Many settlers lost their culture, language and lifestyle. The White Australia policy had migrants abandon their way and and become like white Australians where most migrants would be British. Later migrants from other countries were involved in this policy. Due to this policy, many British were preferred above Italians and therefore the Italian population in Australia was not high at the time. At the beginning, Assimilation only accepted Non Anglo-Celtic white Europeans for humanitarian reasons but later Southern Europeans were accepted for economic reasons. During Assimilation many Italian migrants had settled in Australia and therefore had to leave their culture, language and lifestyle. Later integration was brought forward by the government where Italians and other migrant groups were allowed to maintain their national identity while still becoming a part of the community. During the mass migration the government had produced plans for employment and development. The Snowy mountain scheme was designed to generated hydro-electricity by using snow and rain that fell in Snowy mountains and the water was later used for farming. There were fields of surveying, tunneling, geology and hydrology. Toni Pani an Italian Migrant was sent to work on canecutting and later transferred to the railway lines later that year. These policies and the scheme had a vast impact on the Italians and other migrants that arrived to Australia. The arrival of Italian migrants began to influence many industries and business in Australia after the Multicultarism policy was widely accepted. Italian fashion, cuisine and language are abundant throughout many areas. These items were quite popular and had helped develop many industries and businesses around Australia till now. These had also helped improve the Australian living standards. Italian migrants after being forced to Australia due to the conditions in Italy had been made to work on the government and their culture and lifestyle were affected drastically by different policies at
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on the government and their culture and lifestyle were affected drastically by different policies at the time. The Italian way of life has been deeply imbued in Australian life which had improved the living conditions and standards of Australians.

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