From the archive: 1939

The problem of refugee immigration

Australia's immigration history is rocky, yet while each wave of immigration into Australia has met with teething issues, our country is generally proud to call itself an immigration nation. But when it is refugees that are the immigrants, then modern Australia is deeply conflicted.

The complex issues of refugee policy are nothing new for this country; the problems existed before the Tampa, before September 11, before mandatory detention, before governments were willing to sacrifice people-in-need by soap-boxing themselves to a point of no return and no compromise.

It is therefore not surprising that Australia was debating ‘ The Refugee Problem' at what would become the most poignant moment of the modern age to be discussing immigration – in the very days before World War Two broke out.

It is often difficult to draw a direct line between government policy and material human outcomes. Yet in this case the effects of refugee policies that every nation enacted are staggeringly obvious with the gift of hindsight – every person taken in was likely a life saved.

On the eve of WWII, Australia was only just throwing off the yoke of The Great Depression; the scars of WWI were still raw. And the arguments against immigration were little different to the ones we hear howled across our current Parliament.

Yet 80 years ago, the debate about refugee policy was far more nuanced and far more compassionate. And this in a country arguably less able to afford generosity.

Today we are one of the richest countries, and immigration tends to be framed as a threat to our affluence, rather than with due consideration of the actual threat faced by refugees. In reading this article I wondered whether we have a greater understanding of the humanity of the people that were lost to the Holocaust, than we do for people whose lives are yet to be lost. How is this possible and how did we get here?

This article went to print for the September 1939 edition of The Australian Quarterly – on the 1st September 1939 Hitler invaded Poland; on the 3rd September Britain and France declared war.

The author and the article are perched on the eve of something monumental. They offer a window into the economic and cultural calculations Australia was wrestling with on the topic of refugees.

It is alarming how much of this article echoes what we hear today; and yet it also offers hope that there is another way to have this debate; that perhaps there is a way to wind back the polemic… The problem of the settlement of the refugees has two different aspects, a humanitarian and a practical aspect. Various circumstances have created an aggressive nationalism in Central Europe, which today causes the major part of the present refugee problems.

This aggressive nationalism would hardly have gained its present malignancy without the harsh treatment of Germany and her allies in the peace treaties and, more still, in the fifteen years between 1918 and 1933. Even Australia cannot completely wash her hands of the fate which has befallen not only the German Jews, but all the friends of peace and understanding between the nations, in Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia.

To let these people go to their doom without an attempt to save them would not only be against all principles of human solidarity and Christian ethics, but it would mean a complete withdrawal before the spirit of aggressive selfishness which we condemn today in Germany. Let us hope that the reception of refugees in Australia and the increased taxation for defence purposes will be the only sacrifices which Australia will be called upon to make in order to repair the mistakes of the unfortunate fifteen years.

If I have called the reception of the Central European refugees in Australia a sacrifice, I wish to add that Australia ought to be prepared to make it, even if it might not be financially justified, though I firmly believe that it will prove to be so, or, at least, become so in the long run.

The way in which the refugees are received in their new homeland will matter a great deal. After all the hardships, dangers and humiliations which these people have suffered, their souls are still wounded and they are in a semi-neurotic state which makes them extremely sensitive.

They arrive here tense with expectation of what the new life will have in store for them. If they are once more given to understand that they are not wanted, the finer and more sensitive type will suffer intensely, will keep separate and will not readily be absorbed in the life of the community, while the coarser type will become selfcentred ‘go-getters.'

If they are received with open friendliness, they will soon become happy, contented and grateful citizens of the Commonwealth. Every one who has

Let us hope that the reception of refugees in Australia and the increased taxation for defence purposes will be the only sacrifices which Australia will be called upon to make.

been in touch with them knows their intense desire to become Australian citizens as soon as possible.

Fortunately Australian people are, in general, friendly to new-comers and make it easy for them to feel at home. Also, the practical situation is such as to warrant that with some creative effort of the Government and of private organizations the absorption of the refugees into the economic life of the country will not cause any disturbance and later on will become a great asset.

Australia today carries a population of nearly 7,000,000 inhabitants on an area of 2,974,000 square miles. This represents an average density of population of 2.3 per square mile. It is necessary, however, to subtract the uninhabitable part (about 20 per cent) and that part which only carries sparse pastoral habitation (22 per cent).

Even so, the figure of density of population is small if compared with that of New Zealand (I8.I per inhabitable square mile) and is minimal if compared with the figures of Japan (441), or of Great Britain (695).How many people Australia can carry is a matter of conjecture, the number given varying between 12 millions and 200 millions. At the present stage of agriculture and industrialization

Fortunately Australian people are, in general, friendly to newcomers and make it easy for them to feel at home… the absorption of the refugees into the economic life of the country will not cause any disturbance and later on will become a great asset.

a figure of 30 millions appears to be the most reasonable.

The natural trend of the Australian population without immigration is, however, for stagnation, followed by a decline. If the present birth rate remains as it is, Australia will never have 9 million inhabitants. At the same time, the birth rate in Japan is increasing and the population will be 80 millions in 1950.

With the pressure on the outside of a rather thin-walled vessel constantly rising and the pressure inside this vessel decreasing, it would appear to be only a matter of time until the explosion occurs. This is not a matter of short-term policy. The danger, indeed, may not be acute, nor would immigration provide an immediate help for defence. But it would be very short sighted for such reasons to deny the value of increased immigration as a matter of long-range policy.

On the whole the five million refugees whose emigration was caused by the alteration of frontiers after the war of I9I4-I8 and by the political alterations during and shortly after the war, have been settled, at least those who were not killed or did not die from disease or starvation. The League of Nations has done valuable work in the settlement of the Greek (1,300,000) and Bulgarian refugees, the Armenians, the Assyrians and White Russians. Insoluble problems have been overcome by concerted efforts.

A new refugee problem was then created by the 1933 Nazi revolution. For a while it looked even as if this problem would be solved with comparative ease. Up to 1937 the majority of the displaced 1400 German University teachers had been placed by the splendid efforts of the Academic Assistance Council, now the Society for Protection of Science and Learning, in London, and by similar organizations in other countries.

Palestine opened her doors to Jewish immigration and large funds were collected by the Jewry in all countries. In 1936 the Council for German Jewry was formed in London, and its plan for assisting the emigration of 25,000 Jews from Germany per year would have gone far to solve the problem as it then was. Then followed the conquest of Austria, of the Sudeten provinces, and finally Czechoslovakia, the steady increase of intensity of the persecution of the Jews and "non-aryans," i.e. Christians with some Jewish blood, culminating in the November pogroms. The number of people concerned was thus largely increased.

To the 500,000 Jews of Germany, 150,000 of whom had meanwhile emigrated, were added the 180,000 of Austria and those of Czechoslovakia, together with a considerable number of German refugees who had escaped there from Germany in 1933.

Even if some non-aryans themselves still find bread in Germany, there is no

Then followed the conquest of Austria, of the Sudeten provinces, and finally Czechoslovakia, the steady increase of intensity of the persecution of the Jews and "non-aryans," i.e. Christians with some Jewish blood, culminating in the November pogroms.

hope for their children. These are not admitted to the Hitler Youth and to the Labour organizations, the membership of which is required for obtaining the majority of positions, and they have no access to the Universities.

In the November pogroms, when the majority of the adult male Jewish population was imprisoned in Concentration Camps, many non-aryans shared their fate. This imprisonment of Jews and non-aryans has no other reason than to enforce their emigration. They were told that they would not be dismissed, unless they could show a permit to enter an overseas country and a ship's ticket. While many were released in December 1938, there are still some suffering indescribable hardships and humiliations in these camps.

Meanwhile access to every profession and all positions in trade and commerce are denied them, their houses are sold at nominal prices and their capital taken away as a ‘fine.'

In Austria the persecution was even more sudden and hateful than in the Reich.

Only few have the moral strength to leave their country and all their worldly possessions for an uncertain future. But among these few who, for reasons of conscience, voluntarily take over the hardships of emigration there should be the very best types suited for pioneer life.

While thus the number of people

Against immigration in general the most often heard argument is that of existing unemployment, the naive idea being that every new-comer is a competitor for a fixed number of jobs.

forced to emigrate was suddenly increased to great proportions, it is particularly unfortunate that at the same time more and more barriers were erected against emigration to other countries.

Labour restrictions for aliens and visas became general. Palestine was prevented from taking more than an insignificant trickle, and even the emigration of 10,000 Jewish children to Palestine was not allowed.

Some of the South American States had meanwhile closed their doors to immigration. France was filled with refugees; she had received a considerable number of Russians, some German refugees in the earlier years of the Nazi regime, the Saarlanders, and is now admitting a great number of Spanish Republicans.

England has restricted her immigration to a few scientists, selected professional men, nurses and domestics. She has offered a home to a somewhat larger number of children. In general, England offers only a preliminary refuge to those expected to go overseas, and recently it has become increasingly difficult to obtain an interim permit for entry into England.

The greatest help was offered by the United States. The present American quota for German refugees is 20,000 per year and of Austrian refugees an additional 7000. This number is small as compared with the several hundred thousands wanting to emigrate.

Under such circumstances it is small wonder that the Department of the Interior at Canberra was swamped with applications of desperate refugees, when it announced the intention of the Federal Government to admit to Australia 15,000 refugees over a period of three years.

It is often forgotten that the German, Austrian and Czechoslovakian refugees are by no means all Jews, a great many are Protestants or Catholics, the latter particularly from Austria.

Among them we find all trades represented and a greater proportion of people with agricultural experience, of skilled artisans and of domestics than among the Jews.

The majority of the immigrants has no difficulty in learning the English language. The Government has now started classes to teach them English and the most important facts of Australian history and the constitution.

Against immigration in general the most often heard argument is that of existing unemployment, the naive idea being that every new-comer is a competitor for a fixed number of jobs. This argument is certainly wrong; for all we know we may still have unemployment, because our population is too small to make many enterprises profitable, which would become so if they had a larger circle of consumers.

Even before he finds a job every newcomer is a consumer, who gives employment to baker, butcher, cobbler and tailor and to many more trades, and if he establishes a new trade or industry he becomes directly an employer. It has been estimated that in Holland enterprises introduced by a few thousand German immigrants now give employment directly to 5000 and indirectly to a further 3000 Dutch persons, and that part of the decrease of the import and of the increase in local manufacture of certain goods can be attributed to the arrival of German refugee immigrants.

A second argument against immigration is the possibility of the danger which may arise if large and unassimilated minorities are formed in the Commonwealth. In general this danger is over estimated. The German settlers and the majority of Italian and Greek immigrants have become loyal Australians in spite of the fact that they have retained some of their national characteristics.

The valuable assets which the Germans colonists have brought to this country are generally known. It is true, however, that some of the more recent arrivals of non-refugee immigrants may fall victims to the insidious propaganda methods of Fascism and Nazism and that immigrants loyal to such systems may become a potential danger, for Fascism claims body and soul of its adherents.

No such danger exists with refugee immigrants. They can never forget the humiliations suffered at the hands of the Fascist rulers. It makes their exclusion from the nation to which they belonged definite and unalterable. Not even the fall of Hitler would alter this. The German refugees could never return to Germany and live in a community which has connived at their maltreatment, nor can the Austrians. They will therefore give undivided loyalty to their new homeland.

There is only one danger which the Governments, the refugees and Australian Jewry is equally interested in avoiding, and that is the fostering of anti-semitic feelings in this country. In Germany anti-semitism has cemented the people in a common hatred, more than in loyalty to the Fatherland. The Jew has become the scapegoat for all failures and short-comings of earlier periods, war, defeat, inflation, as well as for those of the present time, economic difficulties; and this kind of propaganda has proved to be very successful.

There can be little doubt that

A second argument against immigration is the possibility of the danger which may arise if large and unassimilated minorities are formed in the Commonwealth. In general this danger is over-estimated.

There are newspapers in Australia trying to make capital out of the economic apprehensions of employees and workers in regard to unfair competition by refugees.

anti-semitism everywhere is deliberately fostered by the Nazis as a political weapon, and that it is a powerful weapon of Fascism. We must have the courage here to see this danger, particularly as there are newspapers in Australia trying to make capital out of the economic apprehensions of employees and workers in regard to unfair competition by refugees.

Fortunately the trade unions have done the right thing, i.e. collaborated with the private organizations supporting the refugees with the object of ensuring that no such ‘sweating' takes place.

The major part of this resistance to refugee immigration is based on an inferiority complex, the anxiety of not being able to compete with the clever and diligent Jewish immigrant. It is part of the prevailing Australian inferiority complex, which tacitly assumes that everywhere else in the world things are done better and more efficiently. New-comers silly enough to believe that they, with their Continental experience, will find it easy to compete in Australia, are amazed by the standard of the work done here, and initially are often experiencing great difficulties to work sufficiently fast.

While Holland largely prevents the assimilation of Jewish refugees and their mixing with the Dutch population and prefers closed agricultural settlements of refugees with restricted movement of freedom, England and Australia on the contrary wish to facilitate the speedy absorption of the immigrants into the community, and prevent the formation of group settlements as well as voluntary segregation.

The types which are best suited for Australia are, however, skilled labourers and artisans, domestics, farmers and agricultural workers, professional men like architects and engineers, scientists and industrial organizers, all of whom, with the exception of the industrialists, do not generally belong to the very rich classes. In some cases there has been a considerable financial gain; a few refugees, mainly Austrian, have indeed been able to transfer whole industries and have brought capital enough to establish them here. Nevertheless, I believe that the gain in the· personalities of the immigrants will be far

greater than the material gain.

In Australia the Australian Jewish Welfare Society has organized the support work and the raising of funds for refugees with the thoroughness and generosity for which Jewish Welfare Societies are noted. Until quite recently the help for non-jewish refugees was quite inadequate, only the German Emergency Committee of the Society of Friends (Quakers) in London had a well run and efficient organization, but the available funds were very small.

In Australia the first action for non-jewish refugees was taken up about two years ago by the German Emergency Fellowship Committee in Sydney. This committee, formed on a small, almost personal basis, and with voluntary workers only, has nevertheless done valuable work.

The committee has just now been reorganized on a broader basis and will be named the European Emergency Committee. The Continental Catholic Migrants Committee in Sydney has well organized the support work for Catholic refugees. In Melbourne some large funds have recently been collected in aid of the work for Christian refugees and the Victorian Refugee Emergency Council has been formed.

In recent months both Federal and State Governments have come to realize the value of the help given by the refugee organizations and a period of more active collaboration has begun which cannot fail to have good results.

Initial mistakes of the Government might have been avoided if such collaboration had previously existed. The personal touch with the refugees through German or English organizations is essential for a good selection and will make the admission of unsuitable types of refugees much less likely. On the other hand, the constant touch of the Australian refugee organizations with the refugees reveals their difficulties and shows the best ways to help them.

Most important of all is the help which the State Governments can give to the development of new industries. Some of the newcomers have all the qualifications, but not the capital for establishing such industries, but with suitable financial and advisory support this could be done and may prove of great value. It is regrettable that this country has made so little use of the unique opportunity of getting first-class scientists and artists.

The question of the dispersion of the immigrants from the cities to country districts is also one which can only be solved by the collaboration of private organizations and the State Governments.

Finally there remains the aspect of social and personal introduction of the refugees into Australian life which is an essential part of the work of the refugee organizations.

It is emphasized that the more spontaneous our help is and the more the immigrants feel that they are welcome in this country the sooner they will become valuable and whole-hearted citizens of Australia.