Migration seldom represents an easy decision, and its consequences always reflect on the migrated people. Having to adapt to a new environment, migrants inevitably face the question of accepting the established norms or keeping particular features unaltered. In this context, forced migration often motivates people to prefer the latter option. Such was the case with Jewish (Rutland, 9) and Italian (Ricatti, 29) migration waves to Australia during and after World War II. In particular, Italian and Jewish cultural peculiarities in the areas of food and sport showcase this tendency, as their development played an important role in distinguishing migrants from locals in their new homes.
The first main point behind the argument is how Jews and Italians used their cooking traditions simultaneously for socialisation, cultural preservation, and business purposes. Regarding socialisation, it is essential for migrants to establish relationships with locals. Consequently, sharing food with people in the neighbourhood and a wider community aids in confronting the issues of xenophobia by breaking cultural stereotypes. In turn, the tendency to preserve eating patterns derives from several reasons, such as homesickness, pride, financial insecurity, language or cultural barriers or their combinations. Finally, the majority of the dishes served in culturally unique restaurants provided an upper hand in terms of competition in the food market.
From the perspective of Jewish migrants, cultural preservation and business purposes seemed to be the main priorities. In her autobiography, Judy Wasserman highlights how the kosher food restaurant became a landmark in Melbourne (471). She reminisces childish memories of her parents settling down and opening the Victory Mansions Kosher Restaurant in St Kilda, one of Melbourne’s neighbourhoods. This restaurant contributed to cultural preservation not only by choice of cuisine – it also greeted many other Jews, both newcomers and already living in the city. In the meantime, the restaurant brought reasonable profit to its owner. According to Wasserman, all the tables in the restaurant were frequently occupied, and sometimes there even were lines of people waiting to take a sit (473). Apart from that, despite the clientele being mostly Jewish, Wasserman encountered many other nationalities, including locals (473). Several languages have been spoken within the restaurant, creating a pleasant multicultural atmosphere.
Regarding the Italians, the food industry is one where they have increasingly partaken in Australia. They have brought traditions and skills that invoked change and enriched Australian style, tastes, and culture. For instance, countless new words, such as bruschetta, cappuccino, or tortellini, have become frequently spoken in the Australian language (Boccabella 31). The documentation of the notable presence of Italian small businesses in Australia confirms their concentration in specific food-related niches, with Italian restaurants beginning to operate in Australia from the 1920s onwards (Boccabella 32, 34). The provision of food services created ideal conditions for the incremental bridging of Italian and Australian cultures. This way, Italians contributed to the process of change in Australian society from monocultural to multicultural. The Italian food on Australian soil started to represent the Italian community in the natives’ minds, simultaneously creating and helping break down stereotypes of Italian migrants. Boccabella directly states that “through their foods, and the communal enjoyment of foods, the Italians not only asserted their ethnic heritage but won the approval of Anglo-Australians” (33). Thus, Italians managed to achieve all three mentioned goals through the food industry.
In the case of food customs, both Jewish and Italian migrants’ experiences can be considered relatively similar. The differences mostly lie in the impact of their food traditions on the local society and culture. Based on the studies conducted by Boccabella, the wide and ubiquitous recognition of Italian food customs had a positive impact on their migrant society (33). Not only did it operate on a psychological level, inducing the feeling of acceptance and belonging, but it also contributed to multiculturalism in Australia, which is apriori positive in the context of migration. On the other hand, Jews might not have achieved the same levels of socialisation and recognition. Nevertheless, they preserved their cultural traditions and used them to their advantage in a similar fashion.
The second main point illustrates the case with the difference in sports rule set’s preferences between the locals and migrants. In particular, while Australian football rules represented the mainstream option, many Italians chose to follow soccer (Klugman and Ricatti, 527). Due to its linkage to the European style, the latter managed to connect the hidden and peripheral parts of Sydney and Melbourne, fostering the atmosphere of multicultural ethnic diversity (Klugman and Ricatti, 527). At the same time, migrants viewed the choice in the former’s favour as a way for transcultural exchange and, to some extent, as a part of the assimilation process. It can be understood as a specific form of re-orientation and re-identification for Italian migrants. While communities, cities, households, or families tended to be monocultural, the sport was a vital space where the migrants could establish and foster their relationships with people working and living around them.
Many of the physical, cultural, and social spaces that Italian migrants made and found through Australian Rules football and soccer were rarely present in their day-to-day lives in Australia. In this context, the football codes served as sites of immense and active gatherings where people could both socialise and express territorialism. It applied not only to individuals since families and communities gathered publicly as well, experiencing and performing interests and passions. Consequently, regardless of socialising either with Italians, other migrant communities, or locals, Italian migrants had options of founding and creating a specific form of public belonging based on sports preferences.
However, in cases when negative attitudes toward migrants hindered their integration into society, migrants could adopt local customs while still remaining within their cultural diaspora. Therefore, the last main point refers to the Jewish sport clubs that emerged despite antisemitic tendencies, which led to their strong cultural detachment. Despite Australia providing a mostly safe and secure place to live, it has not been free of anti-Semitism and discrimination. It resulted in Jews being denied the same opportunities to participate in economic and civic life fully as other Australians could (Cherny, xii). Understandably, this tendency included sports as well, along with other recreational activities.
For instance, during the first half of the 20th century, Sydney’s and Melbourne’s leading established golf clubs did not accept Jews. Consequently, Jews in both cities had to find the Monash and Cranbourne golf clubs and Randwick-Coogee social clubs due to the lack of options to be accepted elsewhere (Cherny, xii). These and other clubs across Australia served an important socialising function – they became places for dancing, meeting, playing, and social sports. Cherny provides another example of such a form of cultural isolation in the Saints football club that significantly contributed to the arousal of Jewish passion (15). By securing a win on the holiest day of Judaism, Yom Kippur, the Saints established a bridge between the original Jewish communities of Melbourne and newcomers that came to Australia fleeing from World War II. Altogether, these initiatives were aimed at the preservation of Jewish life on Australian land despite unfavourable circumstances.
In the case of sports, Italian and Jewish communities showcased different tendencies from the perspective of socialisation and assimilation. Based on the discussed issues, it seems that the latter community is more prone to isolation and cultural preservation than the former. One possible reason for it might lie in the discrimination levels these communities had to experience. In this context, it is noteworthy that Australia had experienced more waves of Jewish immigration than Italian, implying significant differences in the frequency and numbers of arriving people. According to Rutland, there have been three immigration waves between 1850 and 1930 (22). Additionally, there was also an immigration wave caused by Holocaust and World War II (Wasserman, 469). In turn, Ricatti mentions a single wave of Italian mass migration between 1950 and 1960; however, it represented only 1,5% of the total number of people leaving Italy (17, 18). Thus, the Australian community might have perceived Italian and Jewish immigration waves differently, ultimately producing unique migration experiences.
Overall, the tendency to preserve cultural identity proves to be common in the cases of Italian and Jewish migrants. Having abandoned their home, people have experienced great shock and stress due to the collapse of what they thought to be their support and safe haven. In this regard, Martin and Mahmoud make a very accurate connection between the migration experience and the desire to feel “home” again (730). This concept is inseparable from cultural identity as it reflects the environment that has constantly shaped people over the years. Thus, it comes as no surprise that people wish to hold on to their “home” in order to manage the possible devastation brought by migration. As a result, they express themselves in ways they were previously used to, including food preferences and sports activities.
Bibliography
Boccabella, Zoë. “Bridging Two Cultures: Italian Migrant Food in Australia.” Italian Historical Society Journal 12, no. 1 (2004): 31-34.
Cherny, Daniel. “1966 and All That.” In People of the Boot: The Triumphs and Tragedy of Australian Jews in Sport, edited by Dashiel Lawrence and Ashley Browne, 15-27. Melbourne: Hybrid Publishers, 2018.
Klugman, Matthew, and Francesco Ricatti. “Re-creating home and exploring away in new cities: Italian migration and football codes within Australian urban centres.”The International Journal of the History of Sport 36, no. 6 (2019): 513- 531.
Martsin, Mariann, and Hala Mahmoud. “Never at home? Migrants between societies.” In The Oxford handbook of culture and psychology, edited by Jaan Valsiner, 730-745. New York: Oxford University Press, 2012.
Ricatti, Francesco. Italians in Australia: History, Memory, Identity. Cham: Springer International Publishing. 2018.
Rutland, Suzanne D. The Jews in Australia. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006.
Wasserman, Judy. “My Mother Never Cooked for Me.” Australian Jewish Historical Society Journal 23, no. 3 (2015): 468-475.