Muslims making Australia home: Immigration and Community Building

By Dzavid Haveric

The story of Islam and the Muslim people is an integral part of Australian history. This book covers the period from post-World War II until the 1980s when the history of Islam in Australia unfolded into a rich multi-ethnicity, manifested by diverse Muslim ethnic groups. Muslim migrants found Islam in Australia more pluralistic than they found possible in their homeland, because in Australia they met fellow Muslims from many different ethnic, racial, cultural, sectarian and linguistic backgrounds. Muslims are an integral part of Australia’s social fabric and multicultural way of life, shaping their Muslimness in an Australian context and their Australianness from Muslim viewpoints and experiences. Documenting socio-historical characteristics rather than providing a theological interpretation, Muslims Making Australia Home covers interrelated Islamic themes in the sociology of religion by noting how these themes reappear in cultural history. The book reveals many unknown or little-known historical facts, stories and valuable memories.

Islamic Studies Series - Volume 28

• Language: English
• Publisher: Melbourne University Publishing Ltd
• Release date: Jul 16, 2019
• ISBN: 9780522875829

Book preview

Kazi

CHAPTER 1

Post-World War II to the 1980s

Muslim Immigration

Immigration in the last decades of the White Australia Policy

Australia has a long history of immigration. It is one of the few traditional settler immigration countries in the Western world. It was the apparent need for population growth and economic development in the post-war period that led to the broadening of Australia’s immigration policy. As a consequence, successive waves of migration led to the settlement of Muslim communities of diverse ethnic backgrounds across Australia. Over time, Muslims would arrive in Australia from 183 countries, making them one of the most ethnically and nationally heterogeneous communities.

The first years of the post-war period was marked by the arrival of large waves of migrants, refugees and displaced people. From 1947 Australia allowed a number of displaced Muslim immigrants to come to Australia in search of a better life or to find refuge from war or persecution. They also left their countries of origin because of poverty, the breakdown of social structures and the decline of local industries. This movement was mainly a migration of the ‘rural-to-urban’ type.

In 1947, the Australian government entered an agreement with the new International Refugee Organisation (IRO) to settle displaced people from camps in Europe. This scheme was extended to include ‘displaced persons and European people generally’ and among them were European Muslims. The early post-war period encouraged immigrants to express their cultural heritage. In 1947, the number of Muslims was negligible and did not even register on the national census.¹

Although the impact of discriminatory migration policies was still strong, the government had to review these as ‘populate or perish’ became the motto, coined by Labor minister for immigration Arthur Calwell, indicating a need for and acceptance of the new settlers. However, the White Australia Policy with its racial prejudices and social inhospitality marked a long period from 1901 until 1973. It regarded ethnic identities of non-British migrants, their cultures and languages as undesirable. They were exposed to social-economic hardship and assimilation. The Policy maintained an old loyalty and a belief in creating a monocultural ‘Anglo-Celtic’ Australian nation. It restricted migrants from entering Australia, especially of Asian backgrounds. It caused many inequalities and anomalies.² On the other hand, the post-war demands for a new outlook for an immigration program would gradually develop, along with a recognition of the value of the cultural diversity of migrants outside of Europe.³

Between the late 1940s and late 1950s, refugees who had been selected in overseas locations by Australian officials working in collaboration with the IRO, UNHCR and Intergovernmental Organisation for European Migration were resettled in Australia. They were considered to be an integral part of the overall migrant intake.

We must remember that it is a big adventure for people to pull up their roots in countries where they and their families have lived for many years to come to Australia to start a new life.⁴

Ships of many nations left European ports, bound for Australia, bringing a polyglot, multiethnic and multicultural human cargo. Displaced persons travelling to Australia were carried on passenger ships provided by IRO contracts.⁵ Many of these ships, having carried new settlers to Australia in the late 1940s and 1950s, remain unlisted in sociological and historical studies of migration and are still virtually unknown,⁶ such as the Misr, Asturias, Partizanka, Protea, Rena, Kaninbla, Skaugum, Amara Poura Glasgow, Castel Bianco, Fairsea, Goya, Heintzelmann, Oxfordshire, Howze, Anna Salen, Hellenic Prince, Roma, Ugolino Vivaldi, Skaubryn, Nelly II, Tioscana, Aurelia, Fairsea, Begona, Flamencia, Castel Felice and Via Rio Triestino.

Many ships departed European ports such as Bremerhaven, Napoli, Genoa–Pyrenees, Malta and Limassol, some stopping at Tripoli and then going through the Suez Canal with stopovers in Port Said and Colombo, while others travelled via Gibraltar around the Cape of Good Hope. Most voyages by ship lasted one month, while some lasted up to sixty-two days. There were also some migrants who came by aeroplane, stopping at airports in Cairo, Abadan, Karachi, Calcutta and Singapore, and finally arriving in Darwin, Sydney, Melbourne and other airports.

The earliest post-war Muslim arrivals came as individuals or small groups and rarely with family. European Muslims were admitted to Australia during the White Australia Policy when issues of the population’s predominant ‘whiteness’ were still important. They were exempted from restrictions imposed on earlier Muslims by the same policy. Muslim refugees entering Australia in this period included ‘European Turks’—Turkish Cypriots, Muslims from Bosnia, Albania, Kosovo, Bulgaria, Russia, Hungary and Poland. While Lebanon is Middle Eastern rather than European, Lebanese Muslims were classified as of ‘European appearance’.⁷

There were numerous examples of post-war Muslim arrivals. For instance, in 1948, a couple of Bosnian Muslims travelled from Germany on the Protea, a ship that was not in the best condition; it had already undergone significant repairs on four occasions. It stopped near the coastline of the Suez Canal when it again needed repairs. The ship was restored by capable Sudanese workers who were able to work in the hot weather. The Protea then continued sailing to Australia and reached the port of Melbourne after forty-five days. From Melbourne, the arrivals were taken to the Bonegilla migrant camp.⁸

Another story is from 1949: a Kosovo-born Albanian was transferred to a refugee camp in Beirut. The young Muslim, who gave his occupation as a mechanic, was regarded as educated, with five years of secondary school education. He was fluent in Albanian, Yugoslavian, Turkish and Italian. He impressed the Australian selection officials and was duly offered admission. He arrived in Melbourne aboard a US troopship in 1949.⁹

In 1950, the only English-speaking Cypriot among the thirty-one who reached Adelaide by train from Darwin confirmed reports that ‘an international racket in migrants to Australia is operating in the Middle East.’ He was a 32-year-old barber, who was on his way to Sydney. At that time, many migrants were paying fares to Australia well in advance of their departure. He paid £118 to a tourist agent at Famagusta, Cyprus, to come by ship to Australia. Later, he found out there was no ship available and had to pay an extra £42 to come by plane. On top of that, he had to pay an extra £50 to exchange his ship ticket for one by air.

Australia’s official figures in 1947 indicated the Muslim population was 2704. These were mostly Muslim settlers prior to World War II.¹⁰ They were the Indo-Afghan cameleers and/or their descendants dispersed mainly in rural areas who in the past worked on historic inland explorations of Australia and the trade, and transport of supplies and equipment needed for the construction of its earliest and greatest infrastructure projects, such as the railway line between Port Augusta and Alice Springs, and the Overland Telegraph Line. This population was in rapid decline due to the impact of the White Australia Policy. Only a handful of them spent the last years of their lives in cities where a mosque existed such as in Adelaide, Perth and Brisbane. The forthcoming arrival of European Muslims and their encounters with a few of these old settlers testified to the continuation of Islam in Australia. From the late 1940s, it was estimated the first several hundred Cypriots, Albanians, Bosnians and a handful of Middle Eastern people had arrived. Between 1947 and 1956, 350 Turkish Cypriot settlers were living in Australia. For the same period, the number of Bosnian Muslims in Australia was estimated at about 300. Between 1949 and 1955, Australia received 235 persons classified as ‘displaced’ from Albania. The Albanian population continued to grow steadily until it peaked in 1961 at 753.¹¹

This increasing migration was reflected in the national census figures. Apart from the descendants of Malays and Afghans whose ancestors settled during the colonial period and/or the early years of the Commonwealth of Australia, the 1954 figures gave the estimated number of Muslims in Australia as 3752: 802 in New South Wales, 1434 in Victoria, 715 in Queensland, 481 in South Australia, 234 in Western Australia, 56 in Tasmania, 27 in the Northern Territory, and three in the ACT. The total number for 1961 was 5377 and for 1966 it was 7660.¹² In 1969, the Australian Federation of Islamic Societies (AFIS) represented between 14 000 and 17 000 Muslims in Australia.¹³ These Muslim newcomers of diverse origins in the first migratory post-war period would become known as pioneers. At that time, the Turkish Cypriots were considered residents of the British territory and they possessed British passports; hence it was easier for them to come to Australia. The small numbers of Turkish Cypriots who settled with their families during the late 1940s and 1950s actually preceded the first significant migratory wave of Turks from Turkey in the late 1960s. Similarly, the small Bosnian and Albanian Muslim communities that formed between the late 1940s and early 1960s preceded larger migratory influxes of Muslims from the former Yugoslavia and Albania. The arrival of displaced persons from the 1940s and 1960s did not form such visible communities. Although they eventually tended to settle in particular suburbs, they did not do so in large enough numbers to attract attention.

From 1947, Bonegilla, near Wodonga in north-east Victoria, was a staging camp for new migrants and refugees, and this was also the initial destination of these early post-World War II arrivals of Muslims with European backgrounds. They exchanged free or assisted passage to Australia for two years of labour at places of the Australian government’s choice. Besides the Bonegilla camp, they were initially housed in rural camps such as at Bathurst and Greta in New South Wales or Woodside in South Australia. These camps were often established in former buildings of the Army and Air Force, and came to be regarded as Reception and Training Centres.

Afterwards, workers’ hostels would be widely established in the city and country areas where migrants and/or migrant families could live more easily than under camp conditions. Virtually all displaced persons, refugees and assisted migrants were housed in such ways, for varying lengths of time. In the camps and hostels they learned English and the Australian way of life. The facilities and food at these sites were basic.

Among Muslims, there was a need for halal meat. In the Bonegilla camp, Bosnian, Russian and Romanian Muslim migrants found there was no such provision, although before long they were able to obtain food prepared according to halal requirements from an Albanian Muslim family who had a farm close to the migrant camp.¹⁴ There are also stories of Bosnian and Russian Muslims making furtive contact with a local Albanian butcher to secure supplies of halal meat for ‘secret cooking’.¹⁵

Muslim migrants in Australia would find not only freedom of religion, but economic opportunities. It was considered that Australia was taking displaced persons and migrants at a greater rate than any other country in the world. In their former countries, there was nothing but misery, unemployment and starvation. At that time, prime minister Joseph Chifley stated:

I earnestly appeal to the people of this country to do all that are possible to brighten the lives of the migrants coming to this country and to make Australia a better place for them in which to live.¹⁶

Then minister for immigration Harold Holt would affirm this in 1950: ‘We want to make our migration programme a great victory for peace’.¹⁷ The political emphasis was on the need for production and development sourced from their labours within the Australian workforce. It was not just the added security that their presence would provide, but also the way in which Australians received migrants into their social life and by the greater happiness they received in their new homeland.¹⁸

Migration was seen as a solution to post-war labour shortages.¹⁹ Muslim migrants and displaced persons were received as an asset to Australian economic development. There was a pressing national necessity for Australia to increase its population to develop its resources. From 1945 to 1970, Australia enjoyed a period of sustained economic growth. As Calwell had foreshadowed, immigration was pivotal in providing the labour to support the growing economy and its demands. Initially, the duration of work of those employed in various industries for their compulsory work was two years.²⁰ However, these migrants continued to stay in these jobs. Hard work was valued and expected of everyone, including these grateful migrants.

There were a number of significant projects across Australia that required skilled workers. One of the largest employers was the Snowy Mountains’ Scheme. Along with migrants of different ethno-religious backgrounds, Muslims from Bosnia, Kosovo and Albania began to arrive in Australia in the mid-1950s and many came to work on this massive project.²¹ Many also worked in the metropolitan area in timber mills, engineering, building and transport, while others found jobs in mines, forests and farming. Among those who worked in factories and manufacturing, some managed to establish small businesses, such as grocery shops, milk bars or cafés. One route out of factory work was self-employment, the so-called ‘ethnic small business’.²²

The social experience of post-war Muslim immigrants was frequently marked by loneliness, discrimination and economic disadvantage based on their non-English speaking backgrounds.²³ They worked long hours and did so almost without adequate spare time for themselves and their families. Their monotonous work routine was expressed in a common motto of ‘work-home-work,’ then ‘again the same’. Regardless of their qualifications and skills, the men were classified as labourers and women as domestics.²⁴

Contradictory policies against Asians marked 1947, and these policies also implicated Muslims. For instance, in their effort to re-establish a ‘White Australia,’ the Australian government repatriated Indonesian servicemen to their homeland. They were previously accepted on humanitarian grounds to stay temporarily during World War II.²⁵ Exemption to remain in Australia was made for a few hundred Indonesians who were loyal to the Dutch government as long as their government required their services.²⁶ From 1947, specific careers provided exemptions for a limited number of Asian Muslim professionals, business people, private students and diplomats. Only a handful of Muslim professionals would continue to come to Australia in the 1950s and 1960s.²⁷ Of these, some were Egyptian, Lebanese, Syrian and Turkish nationals. There were burghers from Sri Lanka, a few Indonesians and also ‘white Russians from China’ who made their home in Australia.²⁸ However, overall, these were only scattered exceptions to the far more dominant European immigration.

Since the late 1940s and early 1950s, numerous immigration issues appeared due to the restrictive immigration rules of the White Australia Policy, such as the rejection of Malay seamen from staying in Australia (1947), inquiries from an Egyptian Muslim representative to allow Egyptian Muslims to settle in Australia (1947) and an Indian Muslim appeal to understand the distinctiveness of Indian Muslims and to be given an opportunity to come to Australia (1954). The Australian government’s decision to order fourteen Malayan seamen who married Australian women to leave Australia provoked a storm of criticism.²⁹ An initiative by Egyptian Muslims to come to Australia resulted in one of the first Middle Eastern proposals to talk to Australian officials on immigration. The general president of the Universal Islamic Union, an Egyptian of Alexandria, came to Melbourne to negotiate with the authorities about Egyptians being allowed to settle in Australia. The union’s aim was to promote world peace through co-operation among all races and religions.³⁰ Criticism of the White Australia Policy also came from India. An Indian representative, a physicist from New Delhi, during his visit to Australia, made ‘a plea for sympathy and understanding of the problems of the people of Asia.’ He said ‘it was difficult for Asians to understand a barrier being raised on account of colour,’ describing the phrase ‘White Australia for the immigration policy’ as ‘unfortunate [and] damaging.’³¹

In a little while, the first arrival of students from Muslim countries also occurred. The Asian students, who pioneered Asian student migration through various scholarships, came to Australia in 1946 to study by private arrangement. They were a small group of Malaysian students who took a wide range of courses, all privately financed. Soon, the arrival of students of diverse backgrounds followed. The widely differing spheres of study, and their varied national backgrounds, added up to a complex human problem. The Australian government and other relevant organisations also considered scholarship programmes for South-east Asian students arriving in Australia.

Soon, increasing numbers of young people who came to study in more organised ways were financed by UNESCO scholarships, Australian Commonwealth scholarships, UN fellowships and Colombo Plan fellowships and scholarships. In 1947, UNESCO proposed that countries like Australia and Canada, whose educational systems were left intact after the war, might help less fortunate countries by accepting overseas students. The UNESCO scheme in the late 1940s preceded the Colombo Plan. The first Indonesian students arrived in Australia under the UNESCO scheme to study civil aviation in Melbourne, Sydney and Tasmania. Others followed to study teaching, postal and telegraph work in Australia.³²

During the Menzies Government, the Colombo Plan was established in 1951 in Colombo, Sri Lanka. This enabled thousands of Asian students from several neighbouring countries to study at Australian universities. It was designed to strengthen Australia’s relationship with Asia and the Pacific, and to promote partnerships of mutual help towards the social and economic development in the member countries. Every university in Australia received overseas students under the Colombo Plan.³³ The student newspaper of the University of New South Wales, Tharunka, recorded that, in 1952, about two thousand students from South-east Asian countries came to study in Australian universities, industries, government departments, libraries and schools. From the early 1960s, Australia was replacing the United Kingdom and the United States as the centre of Western civilisation for the higher education of Asians.³⁴

Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, students from Asia flocked to Australian universities. Asian Muslim students from Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Philippines, Thailand, Burma (Myanmar) and Brunei were among those who welcomed the opportunity to study in Australia. The Colombo Plan was one of the most valuable contributions to mutual understanding and goodwill between Asian countries and the West, and it had special benefits for Australia. Through the plan, Australia provided tertiary education to students from various Asian countries. Thousands of Asian students benefitted from study at Australian universities and other tertiary institutions as part of the Australian scholarship programme. The Colombo Plan was of ongoing significance in shaping Australia’s identity in the Asian region.

From the beginning of the Colombo Plan, Indonesians comprised a significant percentage of those who were given assistance. At the onset, a group of twenty young Indonesian officials were invited by the Australian government to follow a course in government administration.³⁵ Indonesian engineering students received scholarship aid for their studies. Indonesian language teachers and radio broadcasters were also recruited.³⁶ In 1955–56, out of 675 Colombo Plan student arrivals, there were 220 Indonesians. To transport them, the Australian government chartered two aircraft.³⁷

As early as 1955, Colombo Plan students from India, Pakistan, Ceylon, Indonesia and Malaya [Malaysia] formed the first regular classes in food technology to be held at the Sydney Institute of Technology.³⁸ The thousandth student to come to Australia under the Colombo Plan came from Djakarta. He was a chemical engineering student at the New South Wales Institute of Technology. The Australian minister for external affairs presented him with a scroll recording he was the thousandth student—this entitled him to an air ticket to travel free to all Australian capital cities.³⁹ Into the 1980s and 1990s, the Australian scheme awarded around 300 scholarships to Indonesians each year.⁴⁰

Although immigration to Australia from Indonesia started during World War II, the numbers of Indonesian immigrants remained small until the mid-1970s. During this period, migrants from Indonesia were mostly academics, professionals and students granted scholarships by the Australian government.⁴¹ Some of them married Australians and settled permanently in Australia.⁴²

In the 1950s and 1960s, many English-speaking Muslim Malays from middle-class families arrived in Australia as Colombo Plan students. For instance, in 1966, there were 155 Colombo Plan Malaysian students in Australia studying various courses, including engineering and veterinary science. When they arrived, they found hundreds more already in residence. Immigration from Malaysia to Australia and from Indonesia to Australia tells relatively similar stories. However, they are divided by two Western powers—Malaysia was a British colony and a member of the Commonwealth, while Indonesia was a Dutch colony. Thus, for Malaysians, it was easier to migrate to Australia than for Indonesians. Malays also arrived in Australia in an atmosphere of crisis when Indonesian threats against Malaysia occurred in 1964, adding to tensions in South-east Asia and spreading concern through the West.⁴³ Throughout history, there were about twice the number of Malaysians in Australia than Indonesians. The Malaysian immigrant population in Australia would grow rapidly from the 1980s.⁴⁴

Many Pakistani Muslim students studied nursing, engineering, business studies and economics in Australia. On return to their homelands, some of these students became leading figures in their societies: senior public servants, politicians, economic planners, businessmen and educators.⁴⁵ Altogether, Pakistani, Indian, Bangladeshi, Sri Lankan, Malaysian, Indonesian and other Asian Muslim students diversified the cultural landscape of Australia. On one side, the Colombo Plan brought a large number of Asian students, which enriched the fabric of Australian society. On another, the Colombo Plan had a dramatic effect on the relationship between Australia and its neighbours in South-east Asia.⁴⁶

In the mid-1950s, Australia still administered its immigration according to the White Australia Policy, but its practice would gradually be changed. Australia’s immigration policies affected the patterns of Muslim immigration, as the White Australia Policy allowed mostly European Muslims to settle permanently.⁴⁷ At the same time, Australia began to consider the Muslim world for its longer term political and economic significance— ‘practically the whole of the Muslim world lies along the lines of Australian communication,’ and in this regard Australia would take ‘more interest in the Muslim world.’⁴⁸

At first, the White Australia Policy would only be slightly modified. This happened from 1956 to allow non-Europeans to enter the country, but this marked a shift in the basis of immigration ‘from race to occupational skills’.⁴⁹ Another move also occurred in 1956 when non-European residents were allowed to apply for citizenship. In 1958, the Migration Act was passed, which in effect abolished the dictation test. However, immigration officials still maintained discretionary powers and effective controls.⁵⁰ In the 1960s, increasing contact between Australia and Asian countries eased the restriction on non-white immigration and a small number of Indonesian immigrants were allowed to enter Australia.⁵¹ By the 1960s, mixed race migration was becoming easier. In 1966, Australia signed the International Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination, and a subsequent review of immigration policy substantially weakened the White Australia Policy. The fifteen-year residence requirement for non-Europeans to gain citizenship was reduced to five years and a new period of immigration began.⁵²

The transitional stage of immigration towards a multicultural Australia

The period from the 1960s to the early 1970s, which is interpreted as the transitional stage from assimilation to multiculturalism, was generally referred to as the integration period.⁵³ The migration of Asian immigrants was still discouraged during this period, but the 1960s saw a change in policy in which ‘distinguished’ non-European immigrants were allowed to apply to migrate to Australia.⁵⁴ The nation’s evolution from a ‘white’ Australia to a ‘multicultural’ Australia was a slow and intricate process. It involved steady changes in policies as demands for ethnic equality increased, particularly after the 1960s following the mass waves of immigration. By 1967, Australian migration policy had travelled a long way from the stern rigidity of Arthur Calwell’s day and earlier. It was no longer implemented with an unwavering eye to racial characteristics—there was appreciable blurring of the edges of the old White Australia Policy, and a growing sophistication and confidence in Australian attitudes towards the problems of migration.

International bilateral agreements were used to facilitate labour migration. This was the period in which large-scale immigration from Turkey to Australia began after the bilateral agreement, the Australian–Turkish Assistance Passage Scheme, was signed in 1967 between the two countries. In 1967, Australian authorities observed the skills of Turkish workers in Germany. The reputation of Turkish guest workers in Western Europe brought ‘Australian attention to Turkey as a potential source for immigrants.’⁵⁵ Then it was proposed that Turkey would send its ‘six hundred workers to Australia within eight weeks.’⁵⁶ The first plane load of 186 Turks arrived at Sydney that year. They were employed in automotive assembly lines and textile factories in Victoria. Older Muslim settlers in Australia recognised the historical significance of their arrival, seeing it more broadly in connection with the immigration of Muslims over one hundred years before. A number gave them a ceremonial welcome at Sydney airport, including Ibrahim Dellal and Sheikh Fehmi el-Imam, representatives of the AFIS.⁵⁷ Among the Turkish migrants were various professionals and skilled workers, such as truck drivers, metal tradesmen, builders, carpenters and foundry workers. Flanked by Turkish and Australian flags, the minister for housing, Dame Annabelle Rankin, welcomed the new Turkish settlers on behalf of the Australian government:

Australians, for many years, have admired the courage and fortitude of the Turkish people. We hope your numbers will grow until we have a significant representation of Turkish people, with traditions and skills that can contribute to Australia’s development and add flavour to our way of life. When a Turkish host opens the door to a friend, he bids him welcome. As we open the door to you, we bid you: Hos geldiniz ve Buyrm [You are welcome, please come in].⁵⁸

The arrival of these Turkish workers was