DOCUMENT 2
Former Catholic Child Migrants from the
UK to Australia
SOME BACKGROUND
INFORMATIONFrom 1938 to 1963 Catholic
agencies in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland co-operated
with the British and Australian governments in nominating children
for migration to Australia. The total number of children sent
under the scheme was approximately 3,000 of whom about 1,250 came
from Catholic children's homes and agencies. Two thirds of these
went to Western Australia; the remaining third were spread thinly
over the other States.We now recognise that the experience of
being sent to a country at the other side of the world, away from
familiar faces and environments, with no knowledge of their birth
families and without any possibility of access to them, had a
profoundly adverse effect on many of these migrants. Many are
still suffering from a lack of identity and even those who objectively
did better by going to Australia still have a need to find out
about their birth origins and to understand them.CCWC has a central
record for many, but not all, of the Catholic child migrants to
Australia. Most children were sent either by the diocesan child
care agencies or by religious orders, such as the Sisters of Nazareth.
A few individual children were sent at the request of their families.
Some were recruited by Australian institutions in direct contract
with Catholic children's homes in England; some of these children
became known to CCWC later. The Catholic agencies in the UK have
always provided an information service for former child migrants
but the whole subject has been given a much higher public profile
in recent years, and the result of this is that more former child
migrants are coming forward to seek help of information. We endeavour
to work both with individuals and with organisations advocating
on their behalf, to share as sensitively and responsibly as possible
what information is available. Our practice is guided by standards
of good social work practice and pastoral care.Making contact
with family in the UK has normally been the main priority for
most former migrants and we assist with this in whatever way we
can. If the migrant was in the care of one of the diocesan children's
societies here, that agency works with both its own records and
others to try to discover living family for the migrant, or, if
this proves impossible, as much information about the background
as possible. If she/he came straight to Australia from a children's
home or orphanage run by one of the religious orders here (normally
the Sisters of Nazareth) or if we cannot identify him/her as having
been in the care of a diocesan agency, then CCWC undertakes the
search.[1]
Many former migrants have by now successfully found their mother
of other family and have visited them. However, for others it
will simply prove impossible to find any family at all, and this
can be very difficult for them to accept. Perhaps even harder
are the cases where a mother or family members are found, who
turn out to be unwilling to open up any contact with the former
migrant, or where the kinship is not even acknowledged, and there
is therefore a need to be prepared for profound disappointments.In
all enquiries from former child migrants we co-operate as fully
as possible over records, locating family, requests for counselling,
hospitality and general support, as part of an ongoing aftercare
service.
1 This service is made possible by financial assistance
from the Sisters of Nazareth and from the Christian Brothers in
Western Australia.
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