Post-WWII Italian Migration from Veneto (Italy) to Australia and Transnational Houses in Queensland

Abstract

This paper explores the phenomenon of post WWII Italian migration (from the Veneto region) to the State of Queensland in Australia. The exploration is linked with the topic of the accommodations where respondents resided since their arrival in Australia. The data was collected in Australia from semi-structured interviews conducted with ten families native to the Veneto region, who migrated to Australia after WWII. All interviews were conducted in the language preferred by participants, which corresponded to their regional dialect and the Italian language interpolated with some Austral-Italiani words. The interviews have been transcribed and subjected to the first level of analysis - thematic analysis - following orthodox practices (Kitchin & Tate, 2000; Seale, 2004). The analysis of the transcript material generated a number of themes, which, after being subjected to a second level of analysis using phenomenological hermeneutics, have been validated by the respondents. The themes have been ordered into two groups corresponding to first and last (or permanent) dwellings’ migration experiences.