The ‘unwanteds’ and ‘non-compliants’: ‘unsupported mothers’ as ‘failures’ and agents in Australia’s migrant Holding Centres^*

* Single quotation marks are used throughout the article both for terms that were commonly used during the period (but which we do not necessarily endorse) and around direct quotations.

Abstract

Ideas of assimilated citizenship are inherently gendered and during Australia’s post-World War Two migration boom they were deeply and explicitly invested in marriage, children and domesticity. In this period of social conservatism and economic boom, assimilation rhetoric functioned as a reassuring mirror for the host population, promoting the dream of prosperous family life as the ultimate aspiration for refugees and migrants. The role of immigration Holding Centres within this vision was to provide a context in which migrants and refugees could take their first steps towards accomplishing this dream. These Centres of necessary temporary residence were designed as sites of transition towards autonomous, assimilated family life. However, those families headed by single mothers, often referred to in government records as ‘unsupported mothers’, had limited opportunities to live up to such images of assimilation, or even to comply with the economic imperatives of the migration scheme that had brought them to Australia. Based mainly on Department of Immigration records, this article demonstrates that despite recognising the long-term economic and social prospects their children represented, government agencies viewed many unsupported mothers as system failures. They attempted to remedy the situation by turning these women into live-in domestic workers, at times placing pressure on them to institutionalise their children in order to facilitate this, thereby prioritising their compliance with economic imperatives over support for their parenting. Within the limited scope of their agency, unsupported mothers responded by attempting to negotiate the terms of their compliance or simply refusing to comply. For the latter group, Holding Centres became a more permanent home. This permanence is read here as a gendered form of resistance to a system that struggled to foster their economic self-reliance without compromising their capacity to be mothers.

Keywords:

• Refugees
• single mothers
• assimilation
• gendered resistance
• migrant Holding Centres

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to the anonymous reviewers for their very engaged and constructive feedback.

Notes

* Single quotation marks are used throughout the article both for terms that were commonly used during the period (but which we do not necessarily endorse) and around direct quotations.

1. The so-called Hard Core consisted of DPs who were aged, disabled or required treatment in institutions, unaccompanied children, and unmarried mothers/widows and their children. The great fear was that these people would become a burden on the receiving nation’s government.

2. National Archives Australia: CP815/1, 21.134, Immigration – Displaced Persons – General.

3. National Archives Australia: CP815/1, 21.134, Immigration – Displaced Persons – General.

4. Note that although official policy allowed for single fathers and their children to apply to come to Australia as refugees the only evidence we have found of single fathers in the migrant accommodation system are those who were widowed after arrival or whose wives absconded. We do not believe they represent a substantive cohort.

5. The term ‘Australian way of life’ came into use in the 1940s and was used extensively throughout society from its use in advertising vernacular to government policy. Although vague, the term evoked images of middle-class material comforts, family life replete with traditional gendered roles, and the enjoyment of healthy outdoor recreation as a supplement to British traditions. It suggested a self-deprecating humour, friendliness and sense of fairness. For discussion on this term see White (1981). For contemporary discussion see Stanner (1953). Shurlee Swain and Renate Howe’s landmark book Single Mothers and Their Children (Swain & Howe, 1995) movingly illustrates the marginalisation suffered by single mothers in Australia in this period, many of whom were forced to relinquish their children.

6. National Archives Australia: A445, 140/5/6, Commonwealth Immigration Advisory Council Committee on Social Welfare.

7. National Archives Australia: A438, 1950/7/387, Conference on Duties of Social Workers.

8. The aim of this agreement was to try to resettle the enormous number of displaced people who remained in Europe following the end of World War Two. Australia was one of a number of countries that set up facilities in Europe to screen and select ‘suitable’ refugees who were then transported to Australia on IRO organised ships. For more information on the Australian refugee intake see Kunz (1988).

9. Australia aimed to increase its population by 2% per annum with 1% of this increase achieved through immigration. The DPs were the first refugees to arrive and in the 1950s and 1960s would be joined by other refugees from Eastern Europe. Australia also negotiated a series of assisted passage agreements with Britain and European governments. These assisted migrants were eligible for accommodation in migrant centres. By contrast non-assisted migrants (those who paid their own way or were sponsored by relatives or companies in Australia) were not eligible for accommodation.

10. National Archives Australia: A436, 1948/5/330, Commonwealth Immigration Advisory Council Conditioning Campaign Conferences with Press & Radio Representatives & preparation of statement for circulation to press & radio editors.

11. National Archives Australia: A445, 200/1/5, Medical – Displaced Persons. Policy & Procedure in regard to Migrants & Applicants, for Landing Permits.

12. National Archives Australia: A445, 200/1/5, Medical – Displaced Persons. Policy & Procedure in regard to Migrants & Applicants, for Landing Permits.

13. There remains considerable debate in Australia about the humanitarian objectives of the post-war acceptance of DPs. See for example Franklin (2009) and Neumann (2004).

14. National Archives Australia: A434, 1950/3/1145, Unaccompanied Youths and Children.

15. The authors have deliberately used pseudonyms and initials for the women referenced in this paper out of respect for their and their families’ privacy.

16. National Archives Australia: A12052, 106–109, DOJCZMAN Kazimiera born 6 March 1912; Maria born 25 March 1939; Jozefa born 19 July 1940; Hedwig born 24 April 1948.

17. Harold Holt succeeded Arthur Calwell as Minister for Immigration in 1949.

18. National Archives Australia: A434, 1950/3/27104, Widows with Dependent Children at Immigration Centres – Employment and Accommodation.

19. The locations and number of Holding Centres did vary across the years as centres closed or as Reception and Training Centres such as Bonegilla also took on the role of Holding Centres to meet demand. The key centres were Greta, Cowra, Uranquinty, Parkes and Scheyville in New South Wales; Rushworth, Benalla, Somers, West Sale and Mildura in Victoria; Wacol, Enoggera, Stewart and Cairns in Queensland; Northam, Cunderdin and Holden in Western Australia; and Woodside and Mallala in South Australia.

20. National Archives Australia: K279, 1948/979 Part 2, Migrant workers’ hostels – general [Australian Construction Services] [Part 2]. Note that a third level of accommodation was also provided in the form of migrant hostels (for example Glenelg and Finsbury/Pennington in South Australia) to house migrants arriving on assisted passages. However, sometimes DP families and single men were also housed in such complexes.

21. National Archives Australia: B550, 1948/23/5138, Displaced Persons. Policy – Placement of Family Groups and Heads of Families.

22. For example, in 2000 the New South Wales Standing Committee on Social Issues noted that ‘The availability of … appropriate child care was extremely limited in the 1950s and 1960s. In the late 1960s there were only six nurseries in NSW which catered for under two-year-olds and these were all in metropolitan Sydney.’ Standing Committee on Social Issues (2000, p. 34).

23. In 1949 the Department of Immigration established its own Social Welfare Section which employed over 30, mostly female social workers across the country to work with new arrivals. See National Archives Australia: A445, 140/5/6, Commonwealth Immigration Advisory Council Committee on Social Welfare.

24. National Archives Australia: A445, 276/2/11, Social Welfare special problems financial.

25. National Archives Australia: A445, 276/2/7, Social Welfare – Special Problems, Marital.

26. National Archives Australia: A445, 276/3/2, Social workers annual reports – New South Wales.

27. See note 25.

28. Ibid., The social workers are not explicit in the risk posed by the presence of single men but the implication is clearly that married women in the absence of their husbands may strike up illicit relationships with these single men.

29. National Archives Australia: A434, 1950/3/25969, Placement of Displaced Persons – Widows with Children – Policy.

30. National Archives Australia: B550, 1950/23/1941, Displaced Persons – placement of widows with children – procedure.

31. National Archives Australia: A445, 276/2/11, Social Welfare special problems financial. Note that the actual breakdowns of nationalities, etc. are not present in this archive collection and appear not to have survived.

32. See note 18.

33. National Archives Australia: A446, 1962/65241, Immigration Advisory Council Committee on Hostels and Centres Part 1.

34. Ibid.

35. National Archives Australia: J25, 1966/2798, Social Welfare – Migrant Accommodation – Problem Cases in Commonwealth Hostels, Queensland [Wacol and Colmslie Hostels].

36. National Archives Australia: A437, 1950/6/173, Social Welfare Section – Social Workers’ Reports – Benalla Centre (Victoria).

37. Ibid.

38. National Archives Australia: A445, 276/2/10, Social Welfare. Widows and Unmarried Mothers with Dependent Children.

39. Ibid., National Archives Australia: Social Welfare Section – Social Workers’ Reports – Benalla Centre (Victoria).

40. See note 18.

41. See note 38.

42. National Archives Australia: D1917, D15/50, Employment of Displaced Persons – widows with children.

43. See note 38.

44. National Archives Australia: D1917, D47/47 Part 3, DP Scheme Instructions Part 3.

45. Article reproduced in National Archives Australia: A434, 1950/3/27104, Widows with Dependent Children at Immigration Centres – Employment and Accommodation.

46. ‘Migrant Widows Want Work and Homes’ (1950, p. 8).

47. See note 45.

48. See note 29.

49. National Archives Australia: A434, 1950/3/25969, Displaced Persons – placement of widows with children – procedure.

50. see note 29.

51. National Archives Australia: A445, 220/52/13, Report on creches in migrant centres.

52. National Archives Australia: A445, 276/2/11, Social Welfare special problems financial.

53. Social workers report that women usually come to agreements with other migrant mothers and grandmothers within the centres whereby the mother pays £1/10/- per week to the childminder. Concern is expressed that these childminders, although kindly, have no training and may be in charge of up to eight children under three years old. See National Archives Australia: A437, 1950/6/173, Social Welfare Section – Social Workers’ Reports – Benalla Centre (Victoria).

54. National Archives Australia: PP6/1, 1950/H/4191, Approved Institutions transfer of Displaced Persons, minors.

55. Ibid.

56. National Archives Australia: A445, 276/3/2, Social workers annual reports – New South Wales.

57. National Archives Australia: A434, 1949/3/24452, Placement of Children of Displaced Persons who are Widows.

58. Infant Life Protection Acts gave the states of Victoria, Queensland, New South Wales and Tasmania powers to regulate the institutions (or in some cases private homes, e.g. in NSW) where children were placed (Swain, 2014). The provisions of these Acts enabled temporary placement. See Standing Committee on Social Issues (2000, p. 34).

59. See note 38

60. Department of Immigration social workers filed regular reports on their work in the centres. In these reports the categories of cases dealt with is given a numerical figure so that these reports almost always include the number of adoptions organised for the period. See for example National Archives Australia: A445, 276/3/1, Senior social workers annual reports – all states and National Archives Australia: A445, 276/3/2, Social workers annual reports – New South Wales.

61. See note 38

62. See note 38.

63. See note 29.

64. National Archives Australia: A445, 220/51/88, Benalla – pre-school play centre.

65. See note 35.

66. See for example National Archives Australia: C3939, N1963/75029, Immigration – The Reception and Aftercare of Single Female Migrants [Box 165].

67. National Archives Australia: A434, 1950/3/24052, Uranquinty Centre – Report on Disturbances 13 June 1950.

68. National Archives Australia: A436, 1948/5/330, Commonwealth Immigration Advisory Council Conditioning Campaign Conferences with Press & Radio Representatives & preparation of statement for circulation to press & radio editors.

69. ‘Migrant Women “Mutiny” against Ration Change’ (1950, p. 1).

70. 15 September 1950 letter Department of Labour and National Service to Commonwealth Employment Service – five employers’ forms sent – widows ‘proved to be unwilling and useless’. There are two more employers waiting in Brisbane but nothing forthcoming ‘I would welcome some advice as to the cause of the delay. Possibly it is because few widows understand English or Australian domestic duties. If this is the case, I think we should be frank with employers, rather than send these unfortunates hundreds of miles into the bush, only to meet with disillusionment.’ National Archives Australia: A445, 112/1/10, Assimilation Activities in Benalla Centre.

71. See note 18.

72. See note 18.

73. See note 18.

74. See note 30.

75. See note 38.

76. See note 33.

77. See note 33.

78. See note 38.