Her Majesty’s newest subjects: official attempts to assimilate non-English speaking migrants in post-war Australia

Abstract

Following World War Two, Australia accepted large numbers of Europeans as part of a mass immigration program that would completely change the face of the nation. Key to the acceptance of these non-English speaking migrants was the policy of assimilation and the expectation that new arrivals would blend into the ‘Australian way of life’. Although learning English was a fundamental requirement to assimilation, so too was an understanding of Australian history and civics. This article examines the role of national events, the Jubilee of Federation, Queen Elizabeth II's Coronation and the 1954 Royal Tour in the attempted assimilation of new arrivals. It argues that the Department of Immigration looked to these events not only to assimilate migrants, but also to assist in the ‘conditioning’ of the Australian public towards the acceptance of this significant shift in immigration policy and the arrival of large numbers of non-English speaking migrants.