HOST AUSTRALIAN SOCIETY ATTITUDES TOWARDS HELLENIC

As the preceding chapter indicated, centtal to Austtalia's immigration policy was the question of the origins of migrants. This pre-occupation with origins reflected broader social attitudes towards the settiement of different ethnic groups. Until the mass migration of the post-WWII period, Austtalian attitudes to non-British migrants had remained largely unchallenged, for two reasons. Firstly, the British were themselves the colonisers and, secondly, until WWII there was an adequate supply of migrants from the United Kingdom. Coupled with Austtalia's isolation from Europe, these two factors inhibited migration by non-British Europeans and the White Australia policy ensured that non-European migration was never seriously considered. This chapter will explore how the social, economic and cultural structures that emerged from Australia's pro-British immigration policies affected Australian attitudes towards the settlement and subsequent social mobility of non-British migrants. In particular, it will ttace the social mobility of Greeks in the context of the host society's formal and popular attitudes during the inter-war and post-WWII period, and indicate how socia