Jim’s Australiana Spot – 2UE - October 30, 2011

 Migrants and Ethnicity 'A polyglot nation of wogs and bogs'

Migrants in the 1950's

Jim has received an AMAZING letter from an Afghani refugee.... As if Raza. This young man, from a desert country which has NO coastline, speaks of his gratitude to Australia and quotes a poem in Jim's big collection of verse:

The Ocean Beach by Wilfred Mailler

I weary of the sun-scorched plain, its yellow, sere monotony;
I want the whisper of the rain; I want the great, blue, surging sea.
Oh just to wash away the stain of dust eternal and be fanned
By winds that sing the strong refrain of crested wave and cool, wet sand. ]

As we debate the asylum seekers...lets put our whole migration history into perspective.

• Today about 24% or 1 in 4 Aussies are ‘migrants’ … PHILIP SCHAFFER, a German, the 1st person to migrate to Australia of HIS OWN FREE WILL in 1790!
• Let’s look at what happened to Our Ethnicity next. 1828: 1st official census….. 36 595 White population - 46% convict – (Jim’s estimated ETHNICITY for 1828 Aboriginal 98.8% Anglo Celt 1.1% other .1%) A few steps along the way....
• 1831 Land grants stopped and land was sold to assist migration
• 1832 Land & Emigration Commission established in UK – 1 088 shiploads of migrants in next 35 years 340 000 migrants – again in 1925 &1947
• 1840s assisted schemes for single women. Caroline Chisholm and Catholic Church.
• Germans to SA 1840s on • Gold rushes … anti Chinese laws 1855 and again 1870s & 1890s
• 1893 Chinese Restriction Act extended to all Asians
• 1921 Italians arrive - after USA restricts immigration
• Post-War Italians Greeks and other non English speaking Europeans TODAY Our ETHNIC make up

TODAY?

70% Anglo Celtic (Brit) 18% European (7% NTh 7% Sth 4 % East) 6.5% Asian 2.5 Mid East/African 1.5% Abor TSI 1% Pacific Is

(There are many MYTHS about ethnic characteristics – a report into ‘ethnic crime’ in 1980s showed only ONE group of migrants were more likely to break the law than native born Australians – New Zealanders)

'SHELTER'
Eric Bogle

I’m drowning in the sunshine as it pours down from the sky. There’s something stirring in my heart, bright colours fill my eye, As from here to the far horizon your beauty does unfold, And oh, you look so lovely dressed in green and gold. I can almost touch the ocean, shimmering in the distant haze, As I stand here on this mountain on this loveliest day of days. Round half the world I’ve drifted, left no wild oats unsown, But now my view has shifted and I think I’ve just come home. To the homeless and the hungry may you always open doors. May the restless & the weary find safe harbour on your shores. May you always be our Dreamtime place, our spirit’s glad release, May you always be our shelter, may we always live in peace.

Tune in to hear Jim on 2UE every Sunday at 12.30 pm