Immigration can be defined as the action of individuals coming to live permanently or for a period in another country. With a forecasted population of 40 million by 2050 in Australia, the population growth in Australia remains at a steady rate of 1.6%. According to the Bureau of Statistics, each year, Australia's population increases about 350,000 where 190,000 of them are immigrants.
Australia is the currently ranked first amongst the major developed countries for its rapidly increasing population growth rate. Since 1851, when the discovery of gold was found in Bathurst, NSW, a significant number of continental Europeans, North Americans and Chinese migrated to Australia with the hope of making a fortune. Moreover, during the second half of the nineteenth century, the Australian government decided to subsidise migration to increase the immigration of Europeans to Australia. With the "White Australian Policy" in place, in 1938, the Australian Government agreed to accept 15,000 Jewish refugees, as a large proportion of the Jewish community were seeking to leave Germany and Austria due to the forced removal of Jews, "The Nazi policy of Judenrein." The "White Australia Policy" began to be abandoned in 1966, under Prime Minister Harold Holt. The last reside of the system was finally abolished in 1973 under the Government of Gough Whitlam.
Then, in the mid-1940s up to about 1964, during the period of World War II, there was a period of a noticeable growth in birth rate, known as the "baby boomers generation." In this era, these boomers grew up at a time of dramatic social change, where the Australian economy had an unemployment rate of 2% due to the free tertiary education.
Furthermore, during the 1970s and 1980s, around 120,000 southern Asian refugees migrated to Australia, transforming Australia into a "multicultural" nation. As of this period, immigration to Australia in the late twentieth century was influenced by a number of world events, including ( "the fall of Saigon in 1975"; "the fall of East Timor" to Indonesian's troops in 1975; "dictatorships in South America" and "the Lebanese Civil War" of 1975-1990. At that time, in 1977, 20% of the Australian population was born overseas. In the 1990s, the
During the years from 1914 - 1918 Australia was at constant battle all over the world fighting for the british. With battles deaths always follow. So many people say, “what did we ever gain from WW1 we lost so many people as a country”. Although we lost almost 60,000 men and 150,000 wounded or taken prisoner. After the war the British Government offered ex-servicemen free transportation to some of the colonies, 17,000 migrants arrived in Australia between 1919 and 1922. Community organisations paid for migrants to come over to Australia. Small numbers also arrived independently. It was also said that up to 300,000 men came over from britain post war to live. The British government gave an incentive to migrate over because so many people
as New South Wales. “On the 13th May 1787 a fleet of eleven ships left Britain with two
Immigration has had the most dramatic effect on the current religious landscape of Australia, leading to an increase in some groups and the decline of others. The origins of the decline of the first doctrines that came to Australia can be traced back to the to the relaxation of the White Australia Policy. This in turn led to an increased population of Immigrants in Australia from countries other than Britain, Italy, Ireland and European countries in general.
Australia “The Lucky Country”; a stepping stone to a better life. The words of social critic Donald Horne stated in 1964 have been used to describe Australia’s wonderful culture, history and lifestyle. For many 20th century migrants this is what they only knew about the country creating an outburst of migrants arriving into Australia with the desire to seek a better life, escape poverty, war or persecution. They brought along with them a mix bag of emotions; fear and worry, happiness and joy alongside the expectations of the typical Australian life hoping to find acceptance, belonging, freedom and a promising future. However, due to the impact of many polices and historical events that have taken place in the past, the migrant experience has
I believe that the two topics that I have chosen relate to each other in many ways. The racial tension came from the migrating races to Australia, and the issues that the Australians of the time had with the “new people”. The migration occurred because there was a growing business in a new country, there were more opportunities for trade and everyone wanted to try their luck on the gold fields. I found the migrating story’s from the Chinese to be more of an interesting theme. This is the same with the racial tension, the mass groups of Chinese were the main targets with the racism.
Naturally many Hungarians fled during the revolution and so 200 000 fled to Western Europe to escape persecution. Australia, along with more than ten other countries, reached out to the Hungarian refugees and offered settlement assistance to approximately 14 000 refugees (History Learning Site, n.d). Another factor that influenced Hungarian refugees’ immigrationt to Australia was that Australia was the furthest country away from the Soviet Union that were able to escape to because of their desperation.
With the already little population of 5 million Australian people and the loss of 300,000 men, this should have been a dark time, but to make up on that loss Australia received 300,000 migrants. These Migrants came from Britain. As there was a large amount of unemployment the British government encouraged the people of britain to migrate to Australia. Also the
However when communist forces captured Saigon and the Vietnam war ended, prompting the mass immigration to Australia. In 1976 the first boat (Fishing Boat KG4435) arrived in Australia with the first Vietnamese refugees on board. Those refugees aboard were accepted on humanitarian grounds, by 1981 a total of 56 boats would arrive with over 2100 illegal Vietnamese refugees. By 1981 a total of 43,400 Vietnamese had arrived in Australia (95% Legally, 5% via boat). In 1990 the Vietnamese Government relaxed departure restrictions creating a jump in migration arrival numbers to Australia. By 1991 there were 124,800 Vietnamese born residents in Australia. In the 2011 the census indicated that there were 185,000 Vietnam born Australian Residents. These numbers show us that Australia was definitely the number 1 choice for immigration.
For many years Asian Migrants were restricted from entering Australia and found it difficult to migrate due to discriminatory political policies. The main policies were the ‘dictation test’, the policy of ‘Assimilation’ and the ‘White Australia’ policy. The main Asian Migration wave occurred in 1976 after the Vietnam War forced many people to leave there homes and come here to Australia. These Asian Migrants arrived in Australia by boat which was usually very over crowded. The cause of
The Gold Rush made Australia largely colonised and continually expanding. In 1852, 370,000 immigrants arrived in Australia from many different countries. The economy boomed and many different cultures were introduced. Countries like England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, America, China and Germany showed up as the majority of diggers on the Australian census. The population continued to grow
After WW2, the Labour Prime Minister, Ben Chifley, launched Australia’s largest immigration program ever. Along with the program, the catchphrase ‘Populate or Perish’ was widely used to imply that more immigrants, preferably white, were necessary to fight of the steady stream of Asian immigration. As part of Immigration policy, these immigrants were expected to assimilate – meaning that they had to give up their preceding culture and embody Australian customs. This was simple for those who come from Britain but was very much a difficult task for those few immigrants who were not of British descent.
Today, immigration is a heated topic and everyone views it in a different way. Immigration is the movement of people to a different country where they were not originally from. This should not be mixed up with emigration, which has a different meaning. While immigration is when someone joins a new group, emigration occurs when someone leaves that group. With that being said, there are many reasons why people immigrate to a different place. Some of these reasons may include better opportunities, to connect with families, or the freedom of religion. Whatever the reason is, immigration is an important reason and it affects everyone involved. Between 1950 and 2010, 92 million people moved from their original country to someplace else. They came
As a result of the war, 2 million Indochinese citizens became refugees, fleeing from Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam for political, religious and economic reasons, due to the rise of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge. Nearly 140,000 of them were Vietnamese, who fled their country in the years after 1975, 55 000 of them came as refugees between 1975 and 1982, while 95 000 came through family reunion (an initiative set up by the government to keep families together). The White Australia Policy and the fear of Asian communism, with their discriminatory impacts had been abolished and Australia began to accept Asian migrants and political refugees after realising their vital link to Australia, the enormous trade opportunities and the declining links to Britain. By 1985, Asian–born Australians made up 2% of the population, which by 2005 had increased to nearly 7%. In 1977, multiculturalism became a firm government policy, giving funding and licences to foreign language radio stations and starting language schools for the new immigrants. By the 1980s, newspapers in Australia were being printed in over 100 different languages. The 2011 Census indicated that 185,000 people born in Vietnam were residents in Australia and 219,000 people spoke Vietnamese at home. Australia has also adopted many traditional Asian customs, including celebrating Chinese
Australia has arguably the most restrictive immigration control in the world and has very tough policies in place for asylum seekers who arrive by boat. Under Australia 's system of mandatory detention, all non-citizens who are in Australia without a valid visa must be detained, including children. In 2012, offshore processing of asylum seekers commenced and detention centres in Nauru and Manus Island (Papua New Guinea) were established. This new system enforced policies that transferred asylum seekers who arrive by boat without a valid visa to a third country. Once the processing of asylum seekers was completed, those found to be genuine refugees will be resettled in Papua New Guinea or Cambodia, not Australia. The Abbott Government stated that no immigrant who arrives in Australia by boat will be grated a visa, no matter the legitimacy of their claim. In April 2016, the Manus Island detention centre was closed after the Supreme Court of Papua New Guinea found it to be illegal. Current immigration Peter Dutton has made it clear that asylum seekers on Manus Island are the responsibility of Papua New Guinea and would not come to Australia. As well as the hundreds of immigrants in offshore detention centres, there are hundreds more in community detention in Australia. There are currently over 26,800 visa applications from those who are awaiting the outcome of their refugee application whilst living on a bridging visa in Australia.
Australia’s population is culturally and ethnically diverse. As at June 2010, there were 22.3 million residents in Australia, around one-quarter of the population was born overseas and many residents who were born in Australia have a parent who was born in another country. Aboriginal people and Torres Strait Islanders represent 2.3% of the population