12 September 2024
On Thursday 22 August, Year 10 EAL students embarked on a visit to the Migration Museum. Prior to the excursion, students completed a unit on international migration, mainly focusing on global immigrants and their barriers to assimilating into society. This visit enabled students to deepen their comprehension of integrating migrants in Australia.
During the visit, students found out some interesting points. The ‘White Australia’ policy in the 20th century limited non-white immigrants, particularly Asian, from emigrating to Australia. Another historical event is the displaced persons migrating to Australia during post-WWII. Australia agreed with the Displaced Persons Program to arrange immigration for the unsettled refugees. Australia accepted 170,000 displaced persons over five years, which was the largest number of non-British migrants in that time frame in the history of Australian migration.
Besides the main exhibition showing the history of immigration, there are also a few temporary exhibitions. The settlement square at the centre of the Migration Museum contains countless bricks with names and years of migration carved onto them. Students had an amusing idea of finding the oldest year they could find. We found a couple of bricks from the 1830s! Next to the front desk, there was a mysterious room containing an old-style car with hand painting on it. The glass animation shows the story of ‘Haza’, the Hungarian word for ‘home’. Loneliness and connection of immigrants were explored throughout the short film.
This excursion highlighted the hardship of immigration and records how the past has created a better environment for future immigrants. Special thanks to Ms Harvey for organising the excursion and Ms Spiby for accompanying the group.
Matthew Wong
Y10 EAL Student
