Vystěhovalectví z Československa do Austrálie v podmínkách světové hospodářské krize (1929–1932)

The study offers an insight into the life of first Czech and Slovak immigrants in Australia during the existence of the First Czechoslovak Republic. After the hard beginnings in the new milieu most of the Czechoslovak immigrants could eventually make a good career there. Many of them started working in agriculture, mostly in private land-cultivating business. Their life conditions in Australia were very hard and it became soon clear that they had not reckoned with so harsh conditions before leaving for Australia. The worst period of time for them was the turn of the 1920s as many of them became unemployed. The Czechoslovak Foreign Office tried to monitor the general living conditions in the countries where Czechs and Slovaks lived. The Office paid special attention to the social and economic conditions in Australia in the late 1920s and the early 1930s. Detailed information on the situation in Australia was sent to Czechoslovakia. Starting from the end of the 1920s emigration was not recommended. The bad situation started to improve in the latter half of the 1930s.