| If my memory serves me correctly, Vietnamese boat people of 1976, my primary school ( Footscray west ) was the first school in Australia to have Vietnamese students. As the Maribyrnong immigration detention centre was close by, and once the refugee's were processed and given permission to reside in Australia, they were released into mainstream society. Most of them lived in Maidstone, Sunshine and Maribyrnong and pretty much converted a previously Yugoslav and Italian Footscray into their own vibrant enclave.
All Vietnamese refugee families that were processed at the Maribyrnong refugee centre were also given a once off $10,000 eqv payment to help start a new life and were also given a housing commission home to live, probably not indifferent to the UK and what some Pakistani immigrants were given in the past.
It was a great display of helping people who really had nothing more than the shirts on their back. And i witnessed it as it happened growing up amongst it all.
Last edited by Skyhook : 28-04-2008 at 11:58 AM.
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