Cathar Country Info

As a child I was blissfully unaware of the economic crisis which continued to shadow Britain after WWII - my mother  worked several part time jobs so we had the things we needed for school and musical activities. By today's standards we were poor, but many people around us were equally as poor. In fact we didn't think of life in terms of rich or poor - we were just like everyone else, living in a house, and although we didn't have a lot we certainly didn't go without the basics.

A combination of pull factors to NZ and push factors from UK prompted my parents to decide to emigrate to New Zealand, one of the great lands of opportunity in the 50s and 60s.

During the 1960s New Zealand was growing quickly economically and looked mainly to the UK for people to populate the country who would move there to satisfy the increase in the labour market. The government in UK introduced a scheme whereby a subsidy for travel to live in NZ could be had if you qualified - it was dubbed the Ten Pound Pom scheme. Britain's economic prospects were still gloomy and having people leave the country would lessen the load financially, create more employment (as those who left the country usually left a job opening) and so on.

Being amongst the last of the £10 Poms, meant that with the help of the subsidised scheme, we could travel cheaply to the other side of the world provided we fulfilled certain criteria. My father needed a written job offer guaranteed for at least two years, we had to have interviews with the New Zealand High Commission representative in Somerset House in London (which meant a very long trip by car there and back), and we went through a series of health tests, vaccinations and inoculations (such as smallpox and cholera), to cover our health in transit, which in those days took around 3-4 days by plane!

We children were told we were going and had no say in the matter. I can honestly say I didn't think too much of it at first, but as time drew closer I didn't want to leave my friends, family and familiar surroundings. At the same time I was excited by the prospect of discovery and being able to do lots of new things in a new and distant country. With not many resources to hand, we were sent a small brochure about New Zealand, its people, health, education, opportunities and way of life. All this on an A4 sized piece of paper.

New Zealand had a wonderful health system, was in the top 10 countries for education, there was plenty of work which meant hardly any unemployment, stability as a part of the Commonwealth, a thriving export market with dairy products, meat and wool. Its world ranking was envied by many other countries. I can understand the attraction this held for many people who chose to settle there.

You can't explain to a local what it's like to be an immigrant. You look different (clothes, hair, way of doing things), you sound different - not many people in NZ speak with a "young girl from the valleys" accent! You behave differently as you continue with your old country habits which were imposed as a matter of courtesy, religion, class or status.

We were told by my mother - "don't speak in Welsh in case people think you are talking about them". "Make sure you only speak English". "Don't talk too much about where you are from". I found out later other immigrants to NZ, such as the Dutch, were also advised only to speak in English to their children so they would fit into the NZ way of life quicker. As a result, we and lots of people lost a second language or mother tongue.

For centuries, people have moved some distance around the world in hope of a better life, whether it was for the opportunities in the new country or to escape war, poverty, unemployment, political unrest or persecution in their mother country. Such an enormous move - having to leave loved ones and familiarity, being restricted to what you can carry or put into a trunk, having to learn a different language and new ways. It is not an easy decision to reach and the emigrant does not necessarily want to make the move but knows it is the only option at that time.

The flow of people around the world must be in the hundreds of thousands. Take a look at this clip depicting immigrants to US in the early 1900s - set to Neil Sedaka's 'The Immigrant'.

Finding your feet in a new country, especially with language problems and varying levels of bureaucracy, can be challenging at the best of times. The support of a same-language community is very helpful - the people who arrived before you have either experienced or heard of similar pitfalls and often have good advice.

Our move back to Europe means we are once again a family separated by distance. With cheaper phone calls, emails and skype, keeping in touch with family and friends is far easier than thirty years ago. We are grateful for this new technology as it does help the world to feel like a smaller place.

While researching this article I came across some interesting [and sad] facts and figures (these stats for USA):

• between 1891 and 1915, more than 17 million people arrived in USA, which totalled more than the previous 70 years
• in 1907 more than 866,000 people were processed as immigrants through Ellis Island
• officers could only afford to spend 2 minutes processing each immigrant due to the backlog of people waiting
• some people not admitted for various reasons [health, intelligence, age] were held in detention for deportation - a high number of people chose suicide rather than deportation