Migration in Australia
Here is some information on the topic of migration in Australia. Australia’s Aboriginal history probably began around 60 000 years ago when the Aboriginal people began to arrive from the north. In 1788 the first fleet of Europeans arrived in Sydney. Most of them were convicts from England, Ireland and Scotland. More than 3000 convicts were transported from other countries too, such as China, Germany, France and Portugal. Transportation of convicts stopped in 1868.
(Australian Government poster displayed
between 1949 and 1951 in reception rooms
and dining halls at various migrant reception
centers in Australia. Source: Wikipedia)
After World War II, Australia launched a massive immigration programme, believing that having narrowly avoided a Japanese invasion, Australia must "populate or perish." Hundreds of thousands of displaced (heimatvertriebene) Europeans migrated to Australia and over 1,000,000 British Subjects immigrated under the Assisted Migration Scheme, colloquially becoming known as Ten Pound Poms.
The scheme was initially open to citizens of all Commonwealth countries and after the war, was gradually extended to other countries such as the Netherlands and Italy. The qualifications were straightforward: you needed to be in sound health and under the age of 45 years. There were initially no skill restrictions, although under the White Australia Policy, people from mixed race backgrounds found it very difficult to take advantage of the scheme.
Around 1970 there was a fundamental change in immigration policy, since for the first time since 1788 there were more migrants wanting to come (even without a subsidy) than the government wanted to accept. All subsidies were abolished, and immigration became progressively more difficult.
131,000 people migrated to Australia in 2005-06[5] and migration target for 2006-07 was 143,000.[6] The planning level for the 2007–08 Migration Programme has been set in the range of 142 800 to 152,800 places, plus 13 000 in the Humanitarian Programme.
In 2008-09 about 300,000 new migrants were expected to arrive in Australia, the highest number since World War II.[8][9] However, in March 2009, the Australian Government announced a 14 per cent cut in the 2008-09 permanent skilled migration program intake from 133 500 to 115 000 in response to worsening economic conditions.
In November 2009, specific skills are still in shortage in Australia, especially in the areas of Health and Social Welfare. Wolds Agencies (Migration) is seeing an increase in the number of Job vacancies in these areas. Wolds Agencies also started to illustrate that some of the non-capital cities in Australia should be considered by intending migrants, not least those with specialised skills.
The Australian government has in recent times detained unauthorized asylum seekers in detention centres, where they often stay for three to four years while their application is being considered. The conditions in these detention centres are poor, and has lead to serious concerns about mental illness among asylum seekers. The current government has reduced the numbers of asylum seekers going in to detention centres, however, they still exist.
During the 2001 election campaign, asylum-seekers and border protection became a hot issue, as a result of incidents such as the 11 September 2001 attacks, the Tampa affair, Children overboard affair, and the sinking of the SIEV-X. This incident marked the beginning of the controversial Pacific Solution. The Howard government's success in the election was largely due to the strong public support for its restrictive policy on asylum-seekers. However, the overall level of immigration increased substantially over the life of the Howard Government.
The Pacific Solution was introduced as a deterrent (Abschreckung) to asylum seekers travelling by boat to Australia without the authorisation of the Australian government. In support of the policy, Prime Minister Howard famously stated, "We will decide who comes to this country and the circumstances in which they come."
By redefining the area of Australian territory that could be landed upon and then legitimately used for claims of asylum (the migration zone), and by removing any intercepted people to 3rd countries for processing was made as a deterrent for future asylum seekers from making the dangerous journey, once they knew that their trip would probably not result in a legitimate claim for asylum in Australia.
The Pacific Solution was highly successful in its goal of reducing the amount of illegal entrants arriving in the Australian waters by boat. Arrivals dropped from a total of 5516 people in 2001 to only 1 arrival in all of 2002 after implementation of the policy. The low level of boat arrivals continued all the way through the Pacific Solution period. Since the abolition of the policy there has been a sharp increase in boatpeople arrivals with over 1500 arriving in 2009 alone.
During the Pacific Solution period, the Howard Government was able to begin closing detention centres due to the lower amount of unauthorised arrivals, this technically meant less people were kept behind the razor wire and in detention. Christmas Island detention centre was built and finished during the Pacific Solution but was never opened by the Howard Government due to the very low level of arrivals. Baxter, Woomera and Curtin detention centres were all closed during the Pacific Solution.
The Labor government opened Christmas Island detention centre late 2008 after a wave of boatpeople, and has since expanded facilities accommodation there, importing donga's from the Northern Territory.
Country of Birth - Estimated Resident Population
United Kingdom 1,153,264
New Zealand 476,719
China 279,447
Italy 220,469
Vietnam 180,352
India 153,579
Philippines 135,619
Greece 125,849
Macedonia 120,649
South Africa 118,816
Germany 114,921
Malaysia 103,947
Netherlands 86,950
Lebanon 86,599
Sri Lanka 70,913
Serbia and Montenegro 68,879
Indonesia 67,952
United States 64,832
Poland 59,221
Fiji 58,815
Ireland 57,338
Croatia 56,540
Bosnia-Herzegovina 48,762
Kevin Rudd's Labor government announced in July 2008, that The "majority" of asylum seekers would no longer be detained and that "A person who poses no danger to the community will be able to remain in the community while their visa status is resolved".
Mandatory detention will now apply to three groups who "pose a risk to the wider community": those who have repeatedly breached their visa conditions or those who have security or health risks.
However, asylum seekers who arrive at Christmas Island will still also be detained for health and security checks and will also continue to be processed at Christmas Island.
Boat arrivals dramatically increased during 2009, as did reports of drownings on people smuggling boats and controversy re-emerged surrounding the issue of the best way to process unauthorised immigration arrivals and to dissuade people-smugglers from profiteering from dangerous voyages to Australia.
Mr Patrick McGorry, Australian of the Year 2009 and mental health advocate, called for an end to the policy of mandatory detention on Australia Day 2010. In response, Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard re-affirmed the Rudd Government's commitment to the policy: "We believe mandatory detention is necessary when people arrive unauthorised, for security reasons, in order to do health checks and in order to check identity, and we will continue to have a mandatory detention policy".
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics in mid-2006 4,956,863 of the Australian resident population were born outside Australia, representing 24% of the total Australian resident population. (see above)
Since 2006 more migrants have been arriving from central Africa.
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