Australia Celebrates 50 years of Turkish Migration

[Guest The Pom Queen]

Sunday marks 50 years since the first group of Turkish migrants landed in Australia, following a 1967 agreement signed between the two countries.

The agreement came at a time when Australia was questioning its commitment to the White Australia Policy.

At the Kaya household in Sydney three generations reflect on life in Australia

Now 97, Yasser Kaya arrived on the first flight from Turkey on 14 October 1968 after a migration agreement was signed a year earlier.

“Actually, I liked Australia in every aspect. It’s a beautiful country.  It’s multicultural. People from different cultures are getting along very well. They see each other as brothers and sisters. Because of this, there is no problem.”

 

Turkish migrant Yasser Kaya.

SBS News

 

He came hoping to save enough money to buy a house in Turkey but decided to make Australia his home.

While life in Australia was generally good, Australia's role in Gallipoli during World War One did taint some of his early experiences with an Australian workmate.

“We often talked but when he learned that I was Turkish, he stopped talking to me. I asked him why he didn’t talk to me anymore and he told me that my grandfather killed his grandfather ... I asked him where he was killed and he said it was in Gallipoli.”

Also on board the 1968 flight was Mr Kaya's wife Fatima and their children.

Initially Ms Kaya also thought the family would stay for a few years and eventually return to Turkey.

“In the beginning, we wanted to earn money then go back to Turkey to buy a house. But it didn’t happen. We worked here and my kids grew up here. When they started to go to school, I thought we were too settled for them to go back to the school in Turkey ... But we went to Turkey frequently for holiday wıth my family.”

 

Fatima came to Australia in 1968. 

SBS News

 

The signing of the agreement saw recruitment campaigns launched in Turkey encouraging people to migrate with promises of work, open spaces, affordable housing and endless sun and surf.

Around 19,000 assisted Turkish migrants arrived in Australia between 1968 and 1974 through the agreement.

It represented a significant step in the gradual dismantling of the White Australia policy after a migration review in 1966 and which officially came to an end in 1973.

Andrew Jakubowicz is Emeritus Professor of Sociology at the University of Technology Sydney. He said Australia was on the lookout for more workers.

“After the recession of the early 1960s, many of the Italians and Greeks and other Southern Europeans started to go back to Europe because the European economy was starting to pick up. So Australia was looking for new workers, particularly industrial workers.”