Overview
This open access book offers an unprecedented analysis of child welfare schemes, situating them in the wider context of post-war policy debates about the care of children. Between 1945 and 1970, an estimated 3,500 children were sent from Britain to Australia, unaccompanied by their parents, through child migration schemes funded by the Australian and British Governments and delivered by churches, religious orders and charities. Functioning in a wider history of the migration of unaccompanied children to overseas British colonies, the post-war schemes to Australia have become the focus of public attention through a series of public reports in Britain and Australia that have documented the harm they caused to many child migrants.Whilst addressing the wide range of organisations involved, the book focuses particularly on knowledge, assumptions and decisions within UK Government Departments and asks why these schemes continued to operate in the post-war period despite oftenfailing to adhere to standards of child-care set out in the influential 1946 Curtis Report. Some factors – such as the tensions between British policy on child-care and assisted migration – are unique to these schemes. However, the book also examines other factors such as complex government systems, fragmented lines of departmental responsibility and civil service cultures that may contribute to the failure of vulnerable people across a much wider range of policy contexts.
Full Product Details
Author: Gordon Lynch
Publisher: Springer Nature Switzerland AG
Imprint: Springer Nature Switzerland AG
Edition: 1st ed. 2021
Weight: 0.585kg
ISBN: 9783030697273
ISBN 10: 3030697274
Pages: 338
Publication Date: 22 April 2021
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
Professional & Vocational
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: Manufactured on demand
We will order this item for you from a manufactured on demand supplier.
Reviews
UK Child Migration to Australia is a significant and revealing book that presents a meticulously crafted and compelling explanation for a sorry episode in British and Australian history. Its findings, including those pertaining to individual homes, offer new insights to former child migrants and their families who want to understand their own histories more fully. Of equal importance, it shows how history can be used to prevent mistakes now and in the future. (Caroline Evans, The Journal of the History of Childhood and Youth, Vol. 15 (3), 2022)
“UK Child Migration to Australia is a significant and revealing book that presents a meticulously crafted and compelling explanation for a sorry episode in British and Australian history. Its findings, including those pertaining to individual homes, offer new insights to former child migrants and their families who want to understand their own histories more fully. Of equal importance, it shows how history can be used to prevent mistakes now and in the future.” (Caroline Evans, The Journal of the History of Childhood and Youth, Vol. 15 (3), 2022)
Author Information
Gordon Lynch is Michael Ramsey Professor of Modern Theology at the University of Kent, UK. In addition to writing books and articles on the history of child migration, he has also given extensive evidence on this history as an expert witness to two national child abuse inquiries in the United Kingdom.
