Some Psycho-Social Aspects of British Emigration to Australia

Abstract

little has been done to investigate the same process at a social psychological level, though comments on the need for such studies are sometimes found (e.g. Weinberg, I955). Among the questions posed by both approaches are: 'Why do people emigrate?' and 'What kind of people emigrate?' The sociologist, historian, or economist has tended to look for the ways in which the old region is economically, politically, religiously or socially repellant and the new region correspondingly attractive (e.g.Jerome, I926; Kirk and Huyck, I954; Johnson, I9I3). In this way a macroscopic answer is pronded to the question of 'Why do people emigrate?' Similarly, an examlnation of the age distribution, sex, occupation, education, marital status, locality and so on of those who emigrate provides a macroscopic answer to the second question of 'What kind of people emigrate?' (e.g. Ravenstein, I885; I889: Thomas, I938). These two questions, however, have a slightly different significance to the social psychologist who wants to know what factors in the experience of the individual deterne the decision to emigrate and in particular what personality and situational differences exist between those who decide to emigrate and those who do not. One of the main reasons why research at this level has so seldom been undertaken in the past has been the difficulty of identifiring intending emigrants before they leave their home region. It is the purpose of this paper to attempt two things. First, to outline a conceptual framework for thinking more systematically about the emigration process at the social psychological level; and second, to illustrate the use of this conceptual framework by reference to a study of some Briesh skilled manual workers who were intending emigrants to Austrafia between I954-5.