For many years the focal point for hundreds of the migrants who came to live in Orange was the Emmco whitegoods factory (later known as Email). Opened in 1946 just three years before the first New Australians were sent to work there, its fortunes were inextricably bound with those of the migrants. As the factory prospered, so did the migrants; when it laid off workers through industrial action or shortages of raw materials, migrants were among the worst affected. Emmco and its adjacent plant Elcon, both part of the Email Group, produced in the early days various whitegoods from refrigerators to washing machines, electric fans and kitchen ranges.

The first group of migrants to work at Emmco were twenty-six displaced men who arrived in Orange on September 7, 1949. They had been staying temporarily at the Wallgrove Migrant Camp west of Sydney. Most were from the Baltic countries and Poland.

Recently arrived from the chaos of postwar Europe, the men probably did not have great expectations. It was just as well, because there had been no time to build suitable accommodation for them and the best that could be managed was hastily erected two-man tents near the railway line adjacent to the factory at the southern end of Edward Street, not far from the stock saleyards. The men were given instructions in English and German about their jobs and the tent accommodation, which, they were assured, was only temporary. In fact, a Commonwealth hostel was not built in Orange until February 1952 and hundreds of migrant men lived in the tents, summer and winter, for many months before finding better accommodation in the city.

Other migrants found work at Bloomfield Hospital, Orange Base Hospital, Wangarrie Sawmill, the Woollen Mills, the railways, and district orchards. Some started their own businesses, such as cafes and shops.