From Heroes to Whingers: Changing Attitudes to British Migrants, 1947 to 1977

Abstract

Shifts in attitudes towards British migrants from the late 1940s to the late 1970s chart the development of a non-British Australia. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, British migrants were accorded a special prestige based on a belief that Australia and Britain had fought to defend shared imperial British values. Although British migrants protested at hostel conditions, public sympathy remained on the side of the migrants. The rise of the Whingeing Pom stereotype around 1960 reflects the declining weight of British wartime experience and a strengthening of the idea of an independent non-British Australia. The 1970s saw the ending of British preference, and the debate surrounding British activism in Australian trades unions raised the question of whether British migrants were now merely an ethnic group within a multicultural Australia.

Migration, Ethnicity and Privilege

“…In addition a lack of social services such as the national health scheme and free public education were also felt keenly by many British migrants of the time (Varley 1974). Hassam's (2005) and Hammerton and Thomson's (2005) historical explorations have revealed a level of tension and conflict between British migrants, Australian government bureaucracies, and the Australian media in this period that is startling given the rhetoric of sameness. This included a number of rent strikes by British migrants who were residents in government hostels, and in one case this even involved both state and federal police being called to break up a strike (Hassam 2005).…”

“…Hassam's (2005) and Hammerton and Thomson's (2005) historical explorations have revealed a level of tension and conflict between British migrants, Australian government bureaucracies, and the Australian media in this period that is startling given the rhetoric of sameness. This included a number of rent strikes by British migrants who were residents in government hostels, and in one case this even involved both state and federal police being called to break up a strike (Hassam 2005). Hassam's quite specific analysis involved tracking the shift from a media portrayal of British migrants as ''heroes'', to ''whingers''.…”

Ambiguous immigrants? Examining the changing status of the English in New Zealand

“…4 Interviewees were drawn from soccer clubs, paid work sites, voluntary associations (including Morris dancers), pubs and schools and using personal contacts, predominantly beyond academia. 5 Several studies recount periodic negative attitudes towards 'Poms', see Hassam (2005 andJupp (2004). 6 Most people ticked the box for 'New Zealand European' since they saw it as roughly applying to them.…”