AustLit logo

AustLit

Issue Details: First known date: 2009... 2009 Stowaways on Their Father's Ships : European Immigration and Australian Film
The material on this page is available to AustLit subscribers. If you are a subscriber or are from a subscribing organisation, please log in to gain full access. To explore options for subscribing to this unique teaching, research, and publishing resource for Australian culture and storytelling, please contact us or find out more.

AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'In the 1940s and 1950s the Department of the Interior's Film Unit made a number of films designed to win the support of a sceptical Australian public for the large-scale intake of migrants, including refugees, from Europe. Migrants, it was argued, addressed the most pressing shortage in Australia at the time, 'manpower'. Since then, there has remained an emphasis on the vitalizing effects of immigration upon Australian society, although this has broadened to include cultural richness as well as labour. The more recent films dealing with the children of migrants have, however, dramatized a concern that the migrant's experience delivered to them as their 'heritage' could no longer carry the weight of optimism that both migrant and host had invested in the enterprise.'

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

Last amended 9 Mar 2010 13:38:04
75-92 Stowaways on Their Father's Ships : European Immigration and Australian Filmsmall AustLit logo Studies in Australasian Cinema
X