When I lived at Finsbury Hostel (1954-57) I knew residents who had come from UK, South Africa (maybe via UK), Germany, Holland, Poland, France (only 1 single woman) & maybe Yugoslavia. To my knowledge there were no migrants from Greece or Italy, rather surprusing in so far as there was a significant Itslian population at Mt Csrmel, the local Catholic girls' school then situated at the end of Helen St (off Addison Rd away from The Hostel). My understanding was that Greeks & Italians could migrate to Australia but were given no assistance: a family in the home country would allocate all available resources to one family member to enable that one person's migration. That person would then work and save until they could afford bring another, and then another, family member (as often happens in asylum seeker/refugee families today).
by kmtay (score: 1|69) 3516 days ago