ABSTRACT
A drastic change occurred in 1948 in the type of immigrants coming to Australia, and this was to have considerable implications for the education of their children. British immigrants continued to arrive at a steady rate, and over a million have arrived from 1945. During the long period of post-war economic growth, which has greatly diminished from 1974, the Australian government actively recruited immigrants with offers of assistance, frequently in conjunction with the governments of the countries of emigration. Thirty years ago, the Australian community held comfortable ethnocentric and xenophobic attitudes. It was assumed that only a few immigrants, mostly British, would be admitted, and that all would quickly be assimilated to the prevailing, 'superior' Anglo-Celtic-Australian way of life. In the last decade, the Australian Council for Educational Research has completed two major projects directly related to the academic and linguistic achievement of children from immigrant backgrounds.
