Working With Australian Families: Invisible Immigrants

Abstract

As a migrant from England to Australia in 1986, I was delighted to write this chapter. My experiences of immigration are similar in kind, but not in detail, to those of many immigrants who move to the United States from Australia. I have used the term 'invisible immigrant' (Hammerton & Thomson, 2005) to describe the experience of migration between countries with developed market economies, such as from Australia to the United States or from Great Britain to Australia (United Nations, 2002). This term was used to describe the 1.5 million Britons who migrated to Australia in the 25 years after World War II on an assisted-passage scheme (Hammerton & Thomson, 2005). They traveled to Australia for 10 pounds each, and when they arrived, they had the temerity to complain about the Hies, the snakes, the sharks, the mosquitoes, and the food. It had previously been assumed that they "would easily assimilate and thus 'disappear' into such a familiar society" (Hammerton & Thomson, 2005, p. 9), thereby becoming invisible. In fact, large numbers returned home to Great Britain as soon as they were able. Like many other migrants before me, I did not find it particularly easy to assimilate into society when I first arrived in Australia. I had to go through a slow and, at times, painful process of acculturation. I felt desperately homesick for the first five years and unable to speak about this publicly for fear of being labeled a "whinging Pom" (Hammerton & Thomson, 2005). As a result of my personal experience, I feel for other invisible immigrants who are often ill prepared for the shock of migration and have false expectations about fitting in easily. Like me, they may feel guilty when they ask for help because they believe that the needs of many refugees and other, more visible, immigrants far outweigh their own.