A Story of Settlement

Abstract

When I migrated to Australia with my husband and my youngest son in 1986 from Malaysia, we came to settle. This hope for settlement was set in a historical context of mobility. In my case, some of this mobility had been forced, when my family moved from Rawalpindi to Delhi at the Partition of India in 1947.¹ I went to the USA to study for a year and a half, returned and then migrated from India to Malaysia. Migration itself is a significant act of mobility. But for 19 years I thought I had settled in Malaysia. This was until I migrated again to Australia. My family had permanent residence visas for Australia. My husband came before us to take up his new position. We bought a house, shipped our furniture so that by the time my younger son and I arrived, we had a home in Melbourne. My husband came to a professional position and I had already been approached for a job in my field of journalism. Only my son’s high school needed to be finalized.