A HISTORY OF THE DEPARTMENT OF IMMIGRATION Managing Migration to Australia A HISTORY OF THE DEPARTMENT OF IMMIGRATION Managing Migration to Australia i First published June 2015 Revised edition June 2017 © Commonwealth of Australia 2017 Unless otherwise noted, copyright in the content of this publication is owned by the Commonwealth of Australia, represented by the Department of Immigration and Border Protection (DIBP). On and from 1 July 2015, the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service (ACBPS) is merging with DIBP to create the new Department of Immigration and Border Protection. This will include the Australian Border Force (ABF). All material presented in this publication is provided under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Australia licence, with the exception of: • the Commonwealth Coat of Arms • ACBPS and ABF logos, emblems and trademarks • content supplied by any third parties (as identified). The details of the relevant licence conditions are available on the Creative Commons website: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/legalcode. Whenever a third party holds copyright in material in this publication, the copyright remains with that party. Their permission may be required to use this material. Use of the Coat of Arms The terms under which the Coat of Arms can be used are detailed on the It’s an Honour website: www.itsanhonour.gov.au/coat-arms/index.cfm. Contact us Enquiries regarding the licence and any use of this document are welcome at: Communication and Media Branch Department of Immigration and Border Protection PO Box 25 BELCONNEN ACT 2616 Telephone: (02) 6264 2233 Email: [email protected] Cover image: A group of ‘displaced persons’ on the train to Bonegilla, Victoria, 1949. Image courtesy of the National Archives of Australia, A8139, volume 7. Contents Introduction vi A History of the Department of Immigration – Managing Migration to Australia has been written to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the establishment of the Department of Chapter One: Migration to Australia 1 Immigration in July 1945. It is intended to be a brief history that before Federation captures the key events, and has relied on extensive research The first Australians 2 to ensure that the information included is as accurate as possible. Any opinions, comments and analyses expressed in Early exploration of the continent by Europeans 3 this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily Britain claims Australia and begins a bold experiment 4 represent the views of the Department. Colony expansion and the gold rush 5 Authors Non-British arrivals 6 Victoria Mence, Simone Gangell and Ryan Tebb from the Immigration policies in the lead-up to Federation 7 Irregular Migration and Border Research Section, DIBP. Designer Chapter Two: Federation to the end 9 Nihara Weerasinha from the Production and Design, of World War II Communication and Media Branch, DIBP. ‘One people, one destiny’ 10 Acknowledgements Early immigration and the ‘White Australia Policy’ 12 The authors are grateful for the assistance and advice provided The dictation test 14 by Alex Parrinder and Christopher Ritchie, DIBP, in preparing Immigration patterns following Federation 16 this publication. We would like to thank senior executive officers and other colleagues in the Department for their World War I 17 valuable comments on earlier drafts. We would especially like Post-war immigration boom in the 1920s 18 to acknowledge the time given by long-serving officers who Refugee rescue 20 provided fascinating personal stories and reflections on some key events in the Department’s history. World War II 21 iii Chapter Three: ‘Populate or perish’ 25 Resettlement of those in humanitarian need 59 The Displaced Persons Scheme 28 Establishment of the Humanitarian Programme 60 Assistance to settle in Australia 31 Australia becomes a popular destination 65 Immigration and nation building 33 Chapter Five: Managing migration 67 Assisted immigration schemes in the 1950s and 1960s 35 in a dynamic and complex world ‘Ten Pound Poms’ 36 Managing short-term visitors and encouraging migration 70 Nationality and citizenship 40 Shifting the emphasis to business and skills 71 The Department drives a new approach to immigration 43 Strengthening the border 72 Non-European immigration 44 The second wave of unauthorised migration by sea and by air 73 A new secretary and policy reform 45 Operation Safe Haven 74 Humanitarian resettlement 46 The Pacific Strategy 76 The Department’s work with the international community 77 Chapter Four: Migration and multiculturalism 49 Special events 78 Transition to multiculturalism 51 International travel temporarily declines 80 The Department’s functions expand 52 A shift in the Department’s culture 81 Assimilation, integration, multiculturalism 53 Working holiday schemes 82 Settlement services 54 The third wave of unauthorised migration 83 Reduced immigration 56 The Department of Immigration and Border Protection 84 A new approach to attracting migrants 57 Snapshot of departmental business 85 iv A History of the Department of Immigration – Managing Migration to Australia Conclusion 86 Appendix 87 Former and current ministers 88 Former and current departmental secretaries 90 History of departmental names 92 Notes 93 References 99 Timeline photo captions 106 Right: A family leaves the Australian Migration Office in Birmingham after an interview, 1962. Image courtesy of the National Archives of Australia, A12111, 1/1962/14/31. v Introduction his publication is a brief history of the Department of Immigration Heyes oversaw the diversification of the programme to include people (the Department) and captures some of the key events, highlights and from across Europe, beginning a process that transformed the social and Tchallenges relating to immigration to Australia. It has been prepared in cultural landscape of Australia. When Heydon became the Secretary of the commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the Department’s establishment Department in 1961, he began a process of dismantling the ‘White Australia in July 1945. It also marks the formal amalgamation of the Australian Policy’ approach to immigration, which had defined Australia’s approach to Government’s immigration and customs portfolios and the establishment of immigration since before Federation. Heydon prepared the way for a non- the Australian Border Force that will officially take place on 1 July 2015. discriminatory programme that considered applicants on the basis of merit and skills rather than the colour of their skin. Chapters one and two look back at the early history of immigration to Australia. This early history provides a useful context for understanding the challenges Chapter four covers the 1970s and 1980s, exploring how the Department faced by the new Department in overseeing an ambitious nation-building plan in managed the advent of jet travel and the decline of the migrant ships that had the post-World War II period. These chapters reflect upon the historical policies been such a feature of the migration journey to Australia. During this period, which maintained a restricted approach to immigration that primarily favoured the Department shifted the Migration Programme away from the assisted migration from Britain. Throughout the first half of the 20th century non-British migration schemes, which had characterised immigration to Australia since migrants were not encouraged, and non-Europeans were excluded altogether, settlement, to a programme that started to respond more specifically to although some European groups did manage to filter through. The immigration Australia’s economic, social and labour concerns through a greater focus on history of Australia prior to the establishment of the Department provides an skills and family reunion. The Department further refined its migrant settlement indispensable backstory to appreciate the magnitude of the transformation services, creating a model that was admired and emulated by other countries. of Australian society that the Department presided over in implementing the immigration programme following the end of World War II. The chapter also traces the tradition and practice of humanitarian resettlement which began with the resettlement of 170,000 people from displaced persons Chapter three examines the establishment of the Department in 1945 camps in Europe and continued throughout the 1960s with discrete groups of and the first two decades of the immigration programme. By necessity, refugees resettled from Europe, South America and the Middle East. This was the new Department had to look beyond the British Isles to achieve the scale followed by refugee boat arrivals from Indochina after the end of the Vietnam of immigration the Curtin and Chifley Governments championed with bipartisan War and the Khmer Rouge takeover of Cambodia in 1975. In response to the support. The first two substantive secretaries of the Department, Tasman Heyes unprecedented phenomenon of asylum seekers arriving on Australia’s doorstep, and Peter Heydon, both engineered and guided the establishment of the the Humanitarian Programme was established in the late 1970s to provide a Migration Programme. more targeted and orderly response to future refugee crises. vi A History of the Department of Immigration – Managing Migration to Australia The final chapter surveys the rapidly expanding responsibilities of the Department as Australia’s interconnectedness with the rest of the world gathered pace in the final decades of the 20th century and into the