In 1830s Great Britain, emigration to the colonies was touted as a way for the poor to overcome large-scale un- and under-employment caused by industrialisation. The rapidly growing economy of New South Wales, in particular, needed labour. Intending to address the needs of both labour markets, the government launched a program of ‘assisted emigration’, providing free passages to labourers in select occupations. However, working-class emigrants to New South Wales did not find acceptance in their new home. The colonial press denigrated the immigrants, claiming they were ‘immoral’ and ‘useless’ and criticised British authorities for ‘shovelling out the paupers’. This disconnect between the ostensible needs of the colony and the reception of assisted immigrants can be explained, as this paper argues, by the very definitions used. Working-class immigrants could never be deemed ‘respectable’ because class and worth were conflated, a convention taking root in both colony and Mother Country. Thus, cultural constructions of worth determined acceptance, a convention that has long determined which types of migrants are wanted and which are not.