Better Life or the Empire Fodder?
Better Life or the Empire Fodder?
Written by Troy Lennon, The Daily Telegraph
Sunday, 12 June 2011 09:54
IN THE 1980s, British social worker Margaret Humphreys discovered a dark secret about generations of Australians who had arrived here as child migrants. Her discovery caused hundreds of people to come forward with harrowing tales of children torn from their families and homeland to be sent to the other end of the world.
History shows that while there were some who benefited from the journey, many were condemned to a life of misery. The practice of hunting for migrants in orphanages or amongst the destitute goes back to at least the 17th century, when the British were trying to build their empire. In 1618, King James I wrote to Thomas Smyth - one of the men in charge of the Virginia Company, the private corporation colonising America - that he was sending a number of "idle young people" to Virginia. The purpose was to "clear our court from them".
One hundred children were sent and more would follow whenever the need arose to clear the streets and to provide child labour.
In 1620, the London Council authorised people to take street urchins to be "bound apprentice" in Virginia. Council officers could "receive and carry these persons against their will". These children became servants or agricultural labourers.
In 1645, English parliament passed an ordinance against the practice of forced migration, but it continued regardless. In the 1740s, about 500 Scottish children were kidnapped and sent to the colonies.
When Britain colonised Australia the practice continued, but initially child labour was provided by juvenile offenders. Between 1788 and when transportation ceased in 1868, about a quarter of the convicts sent to Australia were under 18.
Several charitable institutions also came into existence in the mid 19th century raising money amongst middle class moralisers to transplant street urchins from the grimy, crime-ridden alleys of English cities to the sunnier climes of Australia. Most were simply misguided, thinking that every child living in poverty would be better off without their destitute family around them.
The government tended to agree with self-appointed benefactors to underprivileged children. Legislation passed in the British parliament in 1850 allowed Poor Law Guardians, those appointed to administer the Poor Law Act of 1834, to fund child emigration as long as permission was sought from a surviving parent or from the child. Government migration schemes were relatively few compared to the schemes of private institutions.
An 1891 Custody of Children Act gave societies, such as Thomas Barnardo's children's homes or Father Richard Seddon's "Crusade of Rescue", authority to send destitute children to the colonies. From 1870 to the outbreak of World War I some 80,000 children were sent to the colonies.
After the war, doubts were raised about unaccompanied minors being shipped overseas and the sometimes lax efforts to police migration schemes to prevent children being exploited or abused.The emphasis shifted to recruiting teenage boys to voluntarily migrate. During the Depression the flow of child migrants all but stopped but after World War II the Australian government had ambitions to recruit 50,000 children a year to help build up the population during the "populate or perish" push.
This target was never met because it relied on the belief that there would be thousands of displaced children and orphans after the war. Most were being cared for by relatives or in institutions reluctant to further traumatise children by sending them across the globe.
The British allowed some institutionalised children to be sent but there were soon complaints of exploitation and abuse. There had also been children sent illegally, taken from institutions without consent. By 1967 the schemes had all but ended.
Humphreys began an investigation into the migration schemes in 1987 and her findings, that many children had been deported despite having living parents, shocked many. She established the Child Migrants Trust to provide counselling and to try to reunite wrongly deported children with their families.
Copyright 2011 thetelegraph.com.au
Written by Troy Lennon, The Daily Telegraph
Sunday, 12 June 2011 09:54
IN THE 1980s, British social worker Margaret Humphreys discovered a dark secret about generations of Australians who had arrived here as child migrants. Her discovery caused hundreds of people to come forward with harrowing tales of children torn from their families and homeland to be sent to the other end of the world.
History shows that while there were some who benefited from the journey, many were condemned to a life of misery. The practice of hunting for migrants in orphanages or amongst the destitute goes back to at least the 17th century, when the British were trying to build their empire. In 1618, King James I wrote to Thomas Smyth - one of the men in charge of the Virginia Company, the private corporation colonising America - that he was sending a number of "idle young people" to Virginia. The purpose was to "clear our court from them".
One hundred children were sent and more would follow whenever the need arose to clear the streets and to provide child labour.
In 1620, the London Council authorised people to take street urchins to be "bound apprentice" in Virginia. Council officers could "receive and carry these persons against their will". These children became servants or agricultural labourers.
In 1645, English parliament passed an ordinance against the practice of forced migration, but it continued regardless. In the 1740s, about 500 Scottish children were kidnapped and sent to the colonies.
When Britain colonised Australia the practice continued, but initially child labour was provided by juvenile offenders. Between 1788 and when transportation ceased in 1868, about a quarter of the convicts sent to Australia were under 18.
Several charitable institutions also came into existence in the mid 19th century raising money amongst middle class moralisers to transplant street urchins from the grimy, crime-ridden alleys of English cities to the sunnier climes of Australia. Most were simply misguided, thinking that every child living in poverty would be better off without their destitute family around them.
The government tended to agree with self-appointed benefactors to underprivileged children. Legislation passed in the British parliament in 1850 allowed Poor Law Guardians, those appointed to administer the Poor Law Act of 1834, to fund child emigration as long as permission was sought from a surviving parent or from the child. Government migration schemes were relatively few compared to the schemes of private institutions.
An 1891 Custody of Children Act gave societies, such as Thomas Barnardo's children's homes or Father Richard Seddon's "Crusade of Rescue", authority to send destitute children to the colonies. From 1870 to the outbreak of World War I some 80,000 children were sent to the colonies.
After the war, doubts were raised about unaccompanied minors being shipped overseas and the sometimes lax efforts to police migration schemes to prevent children being exploited or abused.The emphasis shifted to recruiting teenage boys to voluntarily migrate. During the Depression the flow of child migrants all but stopped but after World War II the Australian government had ambitions to recruit 50,000 children a year to help build up the population during the "populate or perish" push.
This target was never met because it relied on the belief that there would be thousands of displaced children and orphans after the war. Most were being cared for by relatives or in institutions reluctant to further traumatise children by sending them across the globe.
The British allowed some institutionalised children to be sent but there were soon complaints of exploitation and abuse. There had also been children sent illegally, taken from institutions without consent. By 1967 the schemes had all but ended.
Humphreys began an investigation into the migration schemes in 1987 and her findings, that many children had been deported despite having living parents, shocked many. She established the Child Migrants Trust to provide counselling and to try to reunite wrongly deported children with their families.
Copyright 2011 thetelegraph.com.au
