Immigration
Scope of collection
Immigration encompasses the journeys, settlement, activities and contributions of migrants in New South Wales. It commences with the first European settlement in New South Wales by convicts and free settlers, and covers post-World War II European migration through to contemporary accounts of migrants, including refugees and asylum seekers.
Collecting aims and intentions
The Library collects materials relating to all aspects of immigration to document its impact on Australian culture and socio-economic development, in particular, the contribution of immigration to New South Wales' development and all aspects of life in the State, and to ensure the preservation of the State's multicultural heritage.
Material is collected to document the cultural, economic and social diversity of immigrants to New South Wales, providing insights into their backgrounds and factors surrounding their decision to leave their country of birth. Most importantly, the Library aims to acquire materials that provide information on the activities and experiences of immigrants in their adopted country to enable researchers to identify the influences and contributions of specific groups to the development of the State and the life of its people.
Of particular interest are materials that document current events produced by community groups and societies based in New South Wales. Commentary on issues relating to Australian immigration and cultural diversity is widely collected, especially as published in journal literature.
The Library collects materials documenting government policy, including migration and humanitarian programs, associated with immigration, particularly the output of key State agencies such as the Community Relations Commission for a Multicultural New South Wales, formerly the Ethnic Affairs Commission of New South Wales.
The Library augments its collection of materials relating to migrants of non-English speaking background (NESB) through targeted collecting programs in collaboration with other State and national collecting institutions and ethnic community groups, to identify community archives for preservation by the Library.
Existing collection
- Extensive collection of over 200 non-English language newspapers published in Australia, chiefly in New South Wales, documenting the lives and activities of migrants
- Journals and printed materials published by migrant communities, community groups and organisations in New South Wales such as Australian Jewish News and Australian Muslim News
- Federal and State government publications outlining policy, programs and issues relating to immigration, including parliamentary reports and records of parliamentary debates, legislation, statistical information and the publications of key agencies
- Directories of social services, community organisations and societies, including charitable organisations involved with assisting migrants
- Census and statistical data, including community profiles, produced by government agencies and research centres, including the Australian Bureau of Statistics, Bureau of Immigration, Multicultural and Population Research, Centre for Immigration and Multicultural Studies (ANU), and Community Relations Commission
- Guides, handbooks and manuals from the early nineteenth century to the present day, offering a range of advice and information to emigrants and new arrivals
- Biographies of migrants, particularly those of non-English speaking background
- Pamphlets, circulars, leaflets and other ephemera consolidated under the topic Multiculturalism in the Library's general ephemera collection Broad range of posters promoting multiculturalism
- Electronic resources, including online databases such as MAIS: Multicultural Australia & Immigration Studies, providing bibliographical access to information on all aspects of Australian immigration and multicultural issues
- Facilitated access to Internet sites, selected for the Library's Electronic Resources, especially those under the headings Law, Social Sciences, Family History and Statistics
- Microform records of passenger lists and naturalisation lists and registers of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, available in The Genealogical Kit, issued by the State Records Authority of New South Wales
- Personal papers, including correspondence, diaries and memoirs of migrants ranging from those of working and professional classes to community 'gatekeepers'
- Records of cultural, social and political groups and associations, and businesses
- Images of emigrant and passenger ships; and photographs of ethnic groups, their arrivals by ship and air, and their community activities and lifestyles
Some examples of unique or significant items
- First Fleet journals and letters, including the journal of Ralph Clark; the journal of William Bradley; and the letters of Newton Fowell
- Papers of:
- Scottish Presbyterian minister and emigration publicist John Dunmore Lang.
Mitchell Library: A 2221 - A 2249, D 293 - Russian scientist and explorer Nikolai Miklouho-Maclay
- Chinese businessmen and community leaders Quong Tart (1850-1903) and William Liu (1893-1983)
- German Jewish refugees the Heidemann family; and Dunera transportee Henry Lippmann
Mitchell Library: MLMSS 5896; MLMSS 7026 - Karl Bittman, regarding the Little Viennese Theatre, Sydney
- Papers of politician Franca Arena
- Italian radio broadcasters and welfare workers Dino and Lena Gustin.
Mitchell Library: MLMSS 5288; MLOH 133; MLMSS - Viennese-born architect Harry Seidler
Mitchell Library: MLMSS 7078; MLMSS 5467
- Scottish Presbyterian minister and emigration publicist John Dunmore Lang.
- Diaries of nineteenth-century shipboard emigrants such as George Leslie and Atwill Kenrick
- Diary of convict William Noah.
Dixson Library: DLMSQ 49 - Diaries of Ivan Kobal, Slovenian labourer on the Snowy Mountains Scheme
- Records of the Captive Nations Council of New South Wales
- Records of the Great Synagogue, Sydney
- Records of Italia Libera (Australia) - New South Wales State Committee, an Australian-Italian anti-Fascist movement
- Records of the Australian Council for International Social Service, 1925-1955
- Records of GLITF NSW Inc., Gay and Lesbian Immigration Task Force.
Mitchell Library: MLMSS 7218 - Photographs of the Armenian community 1996, photographed by Teny Aghamalian
Mitchell Library: PXE 755; PXE 733; Vietnamese community 1995, photographed by Phong Nguyen; East Timorese refugees at East Hills Safe Haven 1999, and Kosovar refugees at Safe Haven, Singleton Army Base 1999, photographed by John Immig; and Greek community, photographed by Effie Alexakis; Jewish community 1996, photographed by Suzon Fuks; and Vietnamese, Laotian and East Timorese communities 1996, photographed by N.M. Tiet Ho - Woodcut prints by Salvatore Zofrea depicting his Italian family's post-war migration to Australia and their life and work in the cane fields of North Queensland
Special collections
- The Italians in New South Wales Project.
Also ask at the Mitchell Library information desk for the Guide to this collection: Italians in New South Wales: a guide to archives in the Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales, compiled by James Andrighetti, 1995. - German Collecting Project.
- Ukrainian Community Archives.
- Australian Joint Copying Project, a cooperative project to microfilm private and official records relating to Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific located in Great Britain and Ireland between 1945 and 1998. The Mitchell Library holds a complete set of microfilms totalling 10,419 reels. Subject coverage includes colonisation, convict transportation, free emigration and public administration. Ask at the Mitchell Library information desk for Guides to this collection.
- Percy J. Marks Collection of Judaica, a private collection of Australian and non-Australian books, pamphlets and periodicals relating to Judaism. Ask at the Mitchell Library information desk for the Guide to this collection.
- Ethnic Affairs Commission of New South Wales - Oral Histories Project; Suzanne Rutland - Interviews with members of the Jewish community in Australia; Siobhan McHugh - Interviews with people who worked on the Snowy Mountains Hydro-electric Scheme; Astrid Kirchhof - Interviews with women Holocaust survivors in Sydney
- Pictorial: Australian Photographic Agency (APA) Collection; New South Wales Government Printing Office collection of copy negatives, 1870-1988.
