Child migrants, 1949

Child migrants, 1949

After the Second World War many thousands of children, predominantly English, were taken from institutions and foster homes and sent out to the white commonwealth. Most went to Australia but between 1949 and 1953, 593 were sent to New Zealand. In some cases this forced migration was emotionally and psychologically damaging. In the 1990s moves began to restore the full legal rights of the former child migrants, and to assist them to rediscover their English families. Here we see some of the first arrivals learning of the arrangements made for them by the Child Welfare Department.