Counting ‘China’ Russians: Building a Dataset of Russian Migration from China to Australia, 1946–54

Abstract

This article sets out the process involved in building a dataset of ‘China’ Russians who, doubly displaced by first the Bolshevik Revolution and then the Communist takeover of China, arrived in Australia from 1946 to 1954. It has been difficult to build a profile of this group because Australian statistical data did not generally draw a distinction between those Russians who arrived from China and those who arrived from Europe as Displaced Persons. This article details the methods used to identify these arrivals, provides a preliminary discussion of the two main groups who arrived within this period (those who were part of a group who were transported to Tubabao, Philippines by the International Refugee Organisation, and those who came directly from China via individual sponsorship), and makes the case that constructing a dataset can assist in drawing attention to, rather than obscuring, individual lives.