Communicating with migrants: the development of language teaching and of translating and interpreting services in Australia 1945-75

Abstract

This paper traces the long and sometimes tortuous process of setting up administrative structures to assist communication between the approximately 1.7 million non-British migrants who arrived in Australia between 1945-75, and the host community. The Department of Immigration was given the responsibility of facilitating these migrants' compliance with the expectation that they become 'absorbed' into the community. It perceived that this abs01ption, which it described at various times as 'assimilation', 'integration' or 'settlement', was hindered by inadequate communications. Initially, its prime objective was to develop appropriate English-language training; only later was its attention drawn by mainstream community organisations to the urgent need for interpreting and translating services. The major obstacle confronting these administrators was cultural. Much non-compliance by non­English speaking migrants with the myriad laws and regulations they were expected to obey upon entering Australia, was involuntary. They could not understand the requirements of the unfamiliar culture they had entered, and monolingual Anglo/Celtic administrators and mainstream community organisations found it difficult to understand and respond to their needs. The learning process involved in assisting large numbers of aliens along the path from migrant to settler to citizen not only caused cultural change within the responsible department, it also led to a slow but profound reconceptualisation of Australian national identity.