Asian Australians
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| 2.4 million (2011) 12% of Australian population |
|
| Regions with significant populations | |
|
Capital cities of Australia Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide External territories of Australia Christmas Island (More than 90%) |
|
| Languages | |
| Australian English · Asian languages | |
| Religion | |
| Buddhism · Christianity · Islam · Hinduism · Sikhism · East Asian religions · Indian religions · other religions |
Asian Australians refers to Australians of Asian ancestry.
For the purposes of aggregating data, the Australian Bureau of Statistics in its Australian Standard Classification of Cultural and Ethnic Groups (ASCCEG) has grouped certain ethnic groups into certain categories, including East Asian (e.g. Chinese Australians), Southeast Asian (e.g. Vietnamese Australians), South Asian (e.g. Indian Australians) and Central Asian (e.g. Afghan Australians).
At the 2011 Census 2.4 million Australians declared that they had an Asian ancestral background. This represents about 12% of all responses.
Early Chinese migration stemmed from the phenomenon of the Victorian gold rush. This was met with some considerable opposition due to existing sinophobia and anti-Chinese sentiment. Racial tensions escalated into several riots at Lambing Flat and Buckland. Later, entry taxes, killings and segregation in the short term and became the foundations of the White Australia policy.
In the 1870s and 1880s, the trade union movement began a series of protests against foreign labour. The union movement was critical of Asians, mainly Chinese, who did not join unions, and who were prepared to work for lower wages and conditions. Wealthy land owners in rural areas countered with the argument Asians working on lower wages and conditions were necessary for development in tropical Queensland and the Northern Territory. It was claimed that without Asian workers these regions would be abandoned. Under growing pressure from the union movement, each Australian colony enacted legislation between 1875-1888 excluding further Chinese immigration.
The government began to expand access to citizenship for non-Europeans in 1957 by allowing access to 15-year residents, and in 1958 by reforming entry permits via the Migration Act 1958. In March 1966, the immigration ministry began a policy of allowing the immigration of skilled and professional non-Europeans, and of expanding the availability of temporary residency to these groups. These cumulatively had the effect of increasing immigration numbers from non-European countries. In 1973 Whitlam took steps to bring about a more non-discriminatory immigration policy—temporarily bringing down overall immigration numbers. The eventual evolution of immigration policy has been along a trajectory of non-discrimination, dismantling European-only policies, and the broadening of pathways to citizenship for Asians. During the Fraser government, with the increasing intake of Vietnamese refugees in the aftermath of the Vietnam War, Australia experienced the largest intake of Asian immigrants since the arrival of the Chinese gold miners during the gold rush of the 1850s and 1860s. In 1983, the level of British immigration was below the level of Asian immigration for the first time in Australian history.
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