Australia, Britain and Migration, 1915–1940
A Study of Desperate Hopes

This 1999 book is a systematic study of assisted emigration from Britain to Australia during the inter-war years.

Michael Roe (Author)

9780521465076, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 28 July 1995

322 pages, 8 b/w illus. 3 tables
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.9 cm, 0.6 kg

"Michael Roe is an eminent Australian historian who has chosen to study the neglected subject of immigration to Australia between the wars. ...this a very detailed analysis of British-Australian diplomacy on the issue of migration which also illuminates wider social attitudes among the policy-making elites. ...[Roe's] book will remain definitive for a long time." Erik Olssen, Labor History

The story of Australia's post-war immigration program is well known, but little has been written about migration to Australia between the wars. This 1995 book is a systematic study of assisted emigration from Britain to Australia during the inter-war years. It looks at the British and Australian politicians and bureaucrats involved in the program and the half-million migrants who uprooted themselves. While their imperial ties were significant, the book shows that British and Australian governments acted in their own interests, using migration to meet their different needs, with little regard for the migrants themselves. Michael Roe shows that the Anglo-Australian relationship was rife with contradictions and these often came to a head in the debates over migration. Not only is the book an important study of imperial relations in the 1920s and 1930s, it describes an important and overlooked aspect of Australian political and social history.

Introduction
Background
1. The Great War's impact
2. The whirl of Hughes: 1920–3
3. S. M. Bruce and Empire: 1923–5
4. The modest zenith of hope: 1925–6
5. Ambiguities: 1926–7
6. Through confusion to doom: 1928–9
7. Nadir: 1929–35
8. Toward the wheel's return: 1932–40
9. Emigration
10. Immigration
Afterword.

Subject Areas: Migration, immigration & emigration [JFFN]