How and why did the movement of peoples reshape the world after 1945?
The movement of peoples since 1945, including migration, refugees and displacement, and its causes and consequences
A thematic answer to the WACE Modern History Unit 4 content on the movement of peoples since 1945, examining migration, refugees and displacement, their causes, and their consequences for societies and the world order.
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What this dot point is asking
A theme running through several Unit 4 electives is the movement of peoples since 1945. SCSA wants you to understand the great migrations and displacements of the post-war world, why people moved, and what consequences their movement had for the societies that sent and received them and for the international order. This content area connects to decolonisation, the Cold War, the changing world order and Australia's engagement with Asia. It is examined through source analysis and essays.
The immediate post-war years saw vast forced movements. The Second World War left tens of millions displaced across Europe, and the post-war settlement uprooted millions more, including ethnic Germans expelled from Eastern Europe. Partition produced some of the largest movements in history: the partition of India in 1947 displaced around ten to fifteen million people, and the creation of Israel in 1948 displaced hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, creating a refugee population that remains central to the Middle East conflict.
Decolonisation drove further movement. As empires ended, settlers and officials returned to the former colonial powers, and people from the former colonies migrated towards them, drawn by labour shortages and citizenship rights. Migration from the Caribbean, South Asia and Africa transformed Britain; migration from North Africa transformed France. This post-colonial migration remade the populations of the former imperial nations and made questions of race, identity and integration central to their politics.
Labour migration reshaped prosperous economies. As Western Europe boomed, it recruited "guest workers" from southern Europe, Turkey and North Africa to fill labour shortages, with many settling permanently. Similar patterns appeared elsewhere as economies grew. These movements brought economic benefits but also social tension, as host societies debated integration, citizenship and identity, debates that intensified as the post-war boom ended.
For Australia, the movement of peoples was transformative, as examined in the engagement with Asia elective. The post-war "populate or perish" immigration program brought large numbers of European migrants, the dismantling of the White Australia Policy by 1973 opened immigration to Asia, and the acceptance of Indochinese refugees after the Vietnam War reshaped Australian society and entrenched multiculturalism. Migration changed who Australians were and how they understood their nation.
The consequences of these movements were profound. Societies became more diverse, generating both the enrichment of multiculturalism and new tensions over identity, race and resources. Diasporas linked distant places and shaped politics across borders. Refugee crises tested the international system and the consciences of nations. By the early 21st century the movement of peoples, driven by conflict, persecution, inequality and globalisation, had become one of the defining and most contested features of the modern world.
Historiographically, debate surrounds how to understand post-war migration: as a story of economic forces and labour markets, of the legacies of empire, or of human rights and humanitarian obligation. Historians also debate the success and limits of multiculturalism, and how far receiving societies were genuinely transformed by, or resistant to, the peoples who moved into them.