Assyrian Australians

Assyrian Australians

Assyrians standing next to the genocide monument in Western Sydney.
Total population
30,631 (by ancestry, 2011)
Regions with significant populations
Sydney, New South Wales Melbourne, Victoria
Languages
Mostly Assyrian Neo-Aramaic Some Chaldean Neo-Aramaic A few Turoyo speakers Knowledge of English, Arabic and/or Persian
Religion
Mainly Assyrian Church of the East, Chaldean Catholic Church, Ancient Church of the East A few Protestants, Evangelicals, Syriac Orthodox and irreligious
Related ethnic groups
Assyrian Americans, British Assyrians, Assyrian Canadians

Assyrian Australians are Australian citizens of Assyrian descent. According to the 2011 census, 30,631 persons identified themselves as having Assyrian or Chaldean ancestry. The majority of Assyrian Australians have mainly immigrated from Iraq, Jordan and Syria. Historically, Assyrian people were indigenous to northern Iraq (Assyrian homeland), northwest Iran, northeast Syria and southeast Turkey.

Of the 30,000 Assyrians in Australia, 21,000 are members of the Assyrian Church of the East and 9,000 are members of the Chaldean Catholic Church. The City of Fairfield, in Sydney, has the most Assyrians in Australia. 95% of Fairfield’s Iraqi-born population are of Assyrian ancestry. Fairfield LGA also has one of the most predominant Assyrian communities in the diaspora, where one in every ten person would be Assyrian.

During the 1980s war between Iraq and Iran, large numbers of Assyrians fled Iraq and applied for refugee status. In the early 2000s, 5% of Australia’s humanitarian immigrants identified as being adherents of Syriac churches. In May 2013, the Assyrian genocide was recognised by the New South Wales state parliament. Assyrian-Australians have established various clubs, social organisation, churches and language schools. Representing only 0.13% of Australia's overall population, Assyrians are considered to be a successful minority group.