Mass Migration and the Mass Society: Fordism, Immigration Policy and the Post‐war Long Boom in Canada and Australia, 1947–1970

Abstract

The immediate post‐war period was defined by shifts in capitalism's socioeconomic and institutional underpinnings. Commonly known as Fordism, until the early‐1970s models of standardized industrial mass‐production and robust state planning and intervention were relatively successful in maintaining secular growth in employment, productivity and demand as well as establishing the national economy and society as unified, governable fields. This paper considers how migration controls in Canada and Australia enhanced and extended such arrangements. In simultaneously boosting production and demand, diversifying and integrating industrial activities and assimilating European migrants into a mass consumer culture while excluding non‐Europeans perceived as disruptive of material and sociocultural homogeneity, such policies provided central vectors of economic and cultural nationalism that complemented other monopolistic and redistributive interventions.

Clinging to a knife’s edge: the Live-in Caregiver Program

“…However, now it is increasingly recognized that not only do women have as long a history of migration as men (Ehrenreich & Hockschild, 2003;Lindio -McGovern, 2004;Pickles, 2000) but, they are on the move as never before in history (Anju, 2011). This observation is shared by many scholars, who note that millions of women are migrating from poor to rich countries (Lenard & Straehle, 2010;Sheldon, 2004;Walsh, 2012). The number of women recruited under the LCP have increased with the majority being from the Philippines (Lindio-McGovern, 2004).…”

“…In the 1960s, multiple reasons prompted Canada to refocus its immigration lens to non-European countries to welcome immigrants to Canada. Walsh (2012) explains that after WWII the Canadian economy, the rich and middle classes expanded as less European immigrants came to Canada. Walsh (2012) further explains that the Canadian demand for domestic workers remained high with more Canadian families able to afford live-in caregivers.…”

“…Walsh (2012) explains that after WWII the Canadian economy, the rich and middle classes expanded as less European immigrants came to Canada. Walsh (2012) further explains that the Canadian demand for domestic workers remained high with more Canadian families able to afford live-in caregivers. As a result, the government adopted new immigration policies that allowed people from different racial groups to enter the country.…”

“…As a result, the government adopted new immigration policies that allowed people from different racial groups to enter the country. The change in immigration policy saw the arrival of the Caribbean and Filipino women to Canada (Armacost, 1995;Walsh, 2012). Thus as history shows, domestic workers have played an important role in shaping Canadian society to -date.…”

Report and deport: Public vigilance and migration policing in Australia

“…Despite commitments to diverse immigration and multiculturalism beginning in the 1970s, by the mid-1990s a nativist turn was apparent (Walsh, 2014b). Citing foreigners’ presumed effects on social services, employment, and collective identity, resurgent xenophobia was linked to the pervasive anxiety unleashed with the erosion of the ‘Australian settlement’: a nation-defining regulatory template that, since Federation, combined protectionism, class abatement, and white hegemony to broker consent and encourage social and economic integration (Kelly, 1994; see also Walsh, 2012).…”