cappuccino

I love these old films:
Look at Life - Immigration to Australia 1950s 196…: http://youtu.be/8MzGR4OJmGE

paulry

Looks good! In a lot of ways immigrants' experiences and expectations haven't changed that much.

spouse of scouse

Thanks for the link I remember how the suburban Aussie street I grew up in in the 60s benefitted from the arrival of 2 families, one from Italy and one from Yugoslavia. All of a sudden we had playmates who could speak in another language, brought weird (to our eyes) and wonderful things for their school lunch, and had parents who welcomed us into their homes with hugs and kisses, and plates piled high with all sorts of yummy and unpronounceable things. I have such great memories of those days

chris955

My Mum still tells me how the lady from Australia House told all the women they could leave their Hoovers at home because they don't have dust in Australia
Nothing prepared them for what they encountered on arrival back then from what my parents have told me.

spouse of scouse

Your poor Mum, what a shock she would have got! No dust my arse - er - you know what I mean

chris955

Yes I think it's fair to say she was shocked, Geelong was and still is a very dry and dusty. We reckon it was to bolster the Hoover retailers here

jad n rich

Watched bits of it, love the bit about cuddly sharks, yep tell em what they want to hear poor buggers.

There was a 3 part series ( abc or sbs ) on migration.

It was so interesting but parts of it shocking. The first boats were filled with hand picked, blonde, blue eyed, fit, young people, the theory was to convince the population that they were bringing in 'ideal' migrants. White Australia really was promoted.

It was also interesting many of the migrants felt they had been led to believe it was far better than it was and the climate, harsh nature of the country was a total shock. Imagine being shown pictures of orange groves and people on a picnics and beaches, then being sent to some rural dustbowl.

Many could not afford to go back, many said they arrived and that was it, also said they never saw their families again.

Amazulu

Same in America, Canada, Africa

Old school emigration was tough but they built a great world

northernbird

They have a museum in Nova Scotia we visited when we lived there that shows the path many immigrants took to get to Canada. It was fascinating but scary what they had to deal with.

Amazulu

And Nova Scotia must have been pretty bleak in previous centuries

I went to Ellis Island in New York many years ago - the place where many of America's immigrants landed. They took the world's unwanted and became a superpower because of it