The Australian Women's Register

Anastasia, like millions of other women who arrived in the waves of post war migration, had few skills, little, if any English but a strong desire to work. In the 1960s and 70s, when the provision of post-arrival migrant services and programs was demonstratively inadequate, this combination was a never-ending source of frustration for women who wanted to make a contribution. Anastasia describes this frustration in an interview done for the Thebarton Community Arts Network Project:

‘My sister said that young people were being brought here to help the country prosper. I couldn’t speak English, it was hard when my family wasn’t there to help me. My brother in law could speak English a bit. I wanted to work but he said it would be hard with no English. He helped me go to Social Security but I had to go to the interview by myself on the bus. I didn’t know how much to pay on the bus, the conductor took the right money from my hand. I didn’t understand anything at the office – they sent me home. I cried and cried. Then I got a letter telling me I had to go to school to learn English. I went to Thebarton Primary School two nights a week but we only learned words like bread, water, hello. I wanted to learn words that would help me to get a job. I had to persuade our teacher to teach these words.’