The Promised Land ~ Australia

The POD for this TL is a change in policy by Australian politicians after WWI.
IOTL "Enemy Aliens " especially non English speaking ones had had strict quotas even after the initial five year ban from 1920.

My POD is that instead of this ban it is replaced by one where only "white Aliens" are allowed visas regardless of nationality.

In the 1930's this policy is expanded to encourage educated or wealthy "white aliens" to migrate to Australia.
The appointment of Sir Isaac Isaac's as Australian Governor General and his widely published views that Jewishness was a religious identity not an ethnic or national one won him many converts to this view in Australia and the Australian public slowly lost their fear of the Jews.
The result of this policy change and Sir Isaac's term as Governor General is that by the time the Nazis start passing anti-Jewish laws the trickle of 'white aliens' has becomes a steady flow particularly Jews looking for a safer home.
Now the Nazis of Germany are happy to let the Jews leave.

As the 1930's come to an end Jewish migration turns for a flow to a flood and not only from German lands but also Poland and Russia.

So what happens now?

Australia has a steady growing population some of which are highly skilled.

What effect does this have on Australia and the war in general?

Lets discuss?
 
Very interesting idea -- a much larger Jewish minority. A model minority, of course, but one entirely disproportionate to any other non-British minority in Australian history.

Initially, I expect we'd see a lot of opposition. It was long rumoured that Menzies was anti-Semitic, and there was a considerable deal of minor anti-Semitism amongst the Melbourne Club and elites in society. Plus, of course, the standard working-class resentments.

How large a minority were you expecting? Millions? If millions of Jews come to Australia, then that would be so disproportionate to OTL that all bets are off. Yiddish newspapers in Melbourne? The development of ethnic enclaves? Anti-Semitic movements mirroring modern resentments against Chinese and Vietnamese minorities? How would an educated, anti-fascist population affect the development of Australian politics?
 
I don't think you'd get millions of them. But after a couple hundred thousand successful immigrants, I'd wager other places seeking immigration (Canada, USA, South Africa, New Zealand, Argentina) would also boot the doors open. But even say, 500,000 Jews in Australia would be equivalent to 8-9% of the population, which is a big shift in a distant society such as pre-WWII Australia.
 
Some snippets of information that show just how disparate Australian views to Jews were.

Monash changed attitudes to Jews, particularly among the working class, before Issacs did. Indeed, there is considerable anacdotal evidence that it was because of his leadership in WWI that anti-semitism did not become a major plank in the right wing secret armies and socities between the wars.

Melbourne Club members called Issacs the 'Jew G.' Of course they hated catholics too. There appears to be no evidence of this sentiment being wide-spread in the general community and it seems Issacs was well respected by the population as a whole.

When Caldwell as Immigration Minister suggested that Australia welcome increased Jewish immigration he was attacked by many in the press. One famous cartoon has him portrayed as the 'New Moses' and the Jewish immigrants were drawn in typical, almost Nazi like style with large hooked noses and in ultra orthodox dress.

BlackMage are you saying the Irish were British?:)
 
Yes this idea originally jumped into my head when a very non politically correct friend made a comment better Jews then blacks in reference to an attack by some somali refugees at a local pub.

This started me thinking what if Jews weren't looked down upon at the time and if they were just looked at as non anglo whites.

Now if these laws were written in such a way as it inadvertently made it easier for Jews to enter the country after WWI what effects would happen when the Nazis acme to power and more Jews left Germany.

It is possibly with slight tweaks to the immigration laws they could be a sizable minority of Jews in Australia come the rise of the Nazis and with their voting power could even make it easier for more Jewish people to enter.

More importantly these Jewish Australians would increase Australia's overall population by a few percentage points which could also boost Australia's industrial development.
 
hmm, this proposed 'White Aliens only' policy sound suspiciously like the white australia policy that actually existed. Australia had a very strong sentiment that it was a british nation. though other groups existed within society, politics was defined by Britishness. I dont think that encouraging non british immigration would have been possible before the shock of the second world war.

My Grandfather did alot of work with immigrants and integration and worked with the whitlam government to end the White Australia policy. (on a lighter note he beat up bob hawke in a drunken brawl). and in his opinion it was the second world war that enraged the fear of the yellow peril that changed public opinion enough that greeks and italians would not only be welcomed but helped over.


on the actual ATL, i think if immigration was large enough Australia's role in the second world war would be greatly increased. if you could increase the population to, say, 10 million by 1942, then australia would be a major power int the pacific theatre. the army would probably be large enough to fight in europe and asia given the usual aussie proficiency for joing the army
 

Valdemar II

Banned
There's a lot of thing which could happen, if most of these emigrant were from Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia, I could see them integrate well, adopt English and in short being a model minority, but Othodocs from Russia, Lithuania and Poland, they wouldn't integrate, they would keep Yiddish, they would live in enclave away from the rest of the Australians and in short being a pain in the ass. I see a growth in antisemitism, and later a close down of this policy. But it would have the effect to remove many of founders of Israel, and that would keep Israel from being founded, and would likely result in a Europe with a signifant post WWII Jewish population.
 
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