Summary

Newsclipping entitled 'A victim of the White Australia policy' dated 23 April, 1983 (newspaper unknown). The article tells the story of Philippines-born US army sergeant Lorenzo who was refused permission to enter Australia to visit his Australian-born wife Joyce and their children in 1943 due to the White Australia policy. Finally, in 1949 after a change of government, Lorenzo was granted permission to come to Australia. By that time he had re-enlisted with the US Army and was serving in Korea so the couple were not reunited in Melbourne until 1952. They later relocated to regional Victoria and then Queensland. Lorenzo obtained his Australian citizenship in 1983.

This item is part of a collection of material relating to the migration and settlement experiences of seamen from the Philippines during the post World War II era in Australia; and the experiences of the local Anglo-Australian women they married.

Physical Description

Newsclipping, black type with photograph

Significance

This collection and story represents an important narrative in Australia's migration history, regarding the challenges faced by seamen from the Philippines caught in Melbourne during the outbreak of World War II and unable to return home, trying to settle in Melbourne and marry locally-born women of Anglo-Australian background. It also shows the prejudice these women themselves faced. The collection reveals a community of these men and women and their families, connected through family relationships; and it demonstrates the vagaries of bureaucracy, and the influence of the White Australia policy, still officially in force at that time.

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