Welcome back to another episode of the Immigrants and Exiles series recorded at the Beachcomber Café in St.Kilda. Today we hear about the early adventures of young Arthur in a country schoolyard, about the value of ‘bi-linguism’ in brain development but also how being cosmopolitan was a barrier to being socially acceptable or ‘integratable’. Inclusivity was, and still remains, largely elusive in a country like Australia that measures the worth of people by their resemblance to the cultural establishment. At many levels - at the institutional and the popular - there continues a resistance movement against difference. New arrivals need to fit an old template.

Music: “Why Bother” by Walter Musolino & Davide Musolino.

Welcome back to another episode of the Immigrants and Exiles series recorded at the Beachcomber Café in St.Kilda. Get ready for some history lessons on the impacts of war, on Italian repopulation of the planet and on citizen historians, all of which brings to light the colour and wonder of migration. Through stories retold and benign memories shared between generations, we hear how sentimental bonds are forged between the original adventurers and their descendants. But we also discover how the offspring listening are inevitably infected by an incurable disease: a niggling sense of their own displacement, of cultural deprivation and even loss of identity because part of them belongs elsewhere. And so, communicable nostalgia - an intense desire for a fictional place never experienced - is born. And grows.

Music: “Runaway” by Walter Musolino & Davide Musolino.

Welcome back to another episode of the Immigrants and Exiles podcast series recorded at The Beachcomber Café in St. Kilda. Today our chat revolves around a truism about migration. You won’t find a better life in another country – yes, it’s ‘out there’ – rather you have to make your life better. Like gold, it’s not waiting for you, you have to fossick and pan, dig and extract: invest, struggle, fail and go again. In other words, a better life is a determination, a state of mind, not a dream, a form of escapism. Dreamers, wake up!

Life Coming Down On You Today (remix) by Walter Musolino and Davide Musolino.