The Catholic Episcopal Migration and Welfare Association (CEMWA) in Western Australia was the state-based receiving agency for post-World War II child migrants who were sent to WA under the Catholic child immigration scheme. After 1965, the child migration program to WA ceased and the welfare functions of the CEMWA were taken over by the Catholic Family Welfare Bureau which was established in 1970.
A newspaper article, dated 11 December 1945 from The West Australian, describes the membership of the Catholic Episcopal Migration and Welfare Association (CEMWA) that had been recently formed in Western Australia to renew pre-World War Two Imperial [British], Commonwealth and State agreements to facilitate the migration of children from Britain to Catholic institutions in WA. ‘Temporary’ premises were noted as being in City Mutual Buildings, second floor, 62 St. George’s Terrace, Perth.
It is likely that the CEMWA was a ‘branch’ of the Federal Catholic Migration Committee which was a sub-committee of the Catholic Bishop’s Conference.
The CEMWA held the records of children who came to WA under the Catholic child migration scheme and correspondence from a child’s family in Britain or Malta usually came to the CEMWA. The Secretary of the CEMWA, Miss Sanderson, also liaised with the institutions and the Child Welfare Department about subsidies paid for the children. In later years, the CEMWA also coordinated the subsidies for children who were Wards and who had been placed in Catholic institutions.
In the early 1990s, the records relating to child migration were located by a social worker and brought into the care of the Catholic Migrant Centre.
This page was written by Debra Rosser, last updated 16 April 2024. Sources used to create this entry:
From
1947?
To
1970
Alternative Names
CEMWA
Catholic Immigration Society
Episcopal Migration Association
Subsequent
