Assimilation of European immigrants : a study in role assumption and fulfilment

Abstract

Among the 850,000 immigrants who have come to Australia since the end of the war are included some 171,000 “Displaced persons”, war-time and post-war emigrants resettled in this country by arrangement with the International Refugee Organisation. These immigrants are now scattered in cities and country areas throughout Australia. The process of their incorporation into the Australian social structure is a matter of considerable practical importance, because their incorporation is still very far from complete, and because this experience should presumably provide a useful guide for official policy and the behaviour of individuals and private groups towards the new arrivals who continue to settle in this country under a variety of schemes. But this unprecedented influx of Europeans also allows the sociologies to pursue further the theoretical problem of the process of assimilation. The present study was designed as a contribution to the understanding of this problem. Because little sociological material was available, either on the general position of immigrants in this country, or on the Displaced Persons in particular, no attempt was made in advance to formulate rigid hypotheses. The study was, rather, an exploratory one, designed to analyse the relation between the immigrant’s social background. His social relations in this country both with other immigrants and with Australia (social assimilation), his acquisition of new cultural patterns (cultural assimilation), his attitude and beliefs about his country of origin and about the new society (identifications with and orientations towards groups), and his own perception of his present position, particularly in terms of worthiness and success (adjustment). It was expected that it would be possible to identify recurring combinations of these several aspects of the assimilation process, that is, general patterns or modes of organisation of the individual’s behaviour, attitudes and values (types of adaptation). The concepts used in the analysis will be discussed in some detail in the relevant chapters. The concluding chapter briefly relates the findings of this study to the general body of knowledge on assimilation.