Welfare Recipient Patterns Among Migrants

Background - The post-war situation

When the post-war immigration program began in 1947 the Commonwealth had already taken over responsibility for welfare services from the States under the constitutional amendment of 1946. It had also set up a Department of Immigration for the first time and this soon expanded from recruitment to providing some settlement services, especially temporary on-arrival accommodation and the teaching of English.

This became increasingly important as the balance of migration shifted from the United Kingdom towards Europe and thus towards migrants who could not speak English and were legally aliens. Over the period following 1947 the emphasis in settlement provision shifted to what became known as non-English-speaking-backgrounds (NESB) migrants.

The services for United Kingdom migrants included all those welfare provisions available to the Australia-born, such as the Age Pension and unemployment benefit. As there was almost no unemployment, the second provision was relatively unimportant before 1975.

As immigrants were selected on the basis of age, the pension did not become an important need until about the same time and was available for British migrants of the pre-war period, most of whom had arrived in the 1920s. Commonwealth-assisted British migrants were housed in hostels in the major cities and there was some resentment against conditions. However, these were supposed to be self-financing and for temporary residence.

The Good Neighbour Councils, formed in 1950 on the basis of already existing charitable bodies, also catered for the British, as did a number of self-help organisations such as the UK Settlers League. Public housing was available for British subjects and was used, especially in South Australia, as an incentive to emigrate away from the acute British housing shortage which followed the war.

While there was a social services agreement with the United Kingdom, the main difference between the two countries was the absence of a National Health Service as introduced in Britain in 1948. Otherwise British migrants moved into a welcoming environment as far as the provision of public welfare went. This did not prevent a rising number of returns in the 1960s which inspired the Commonwealth to look more closely at the problems of settlement both for the British and for Europeans.