Migration to and from Australia

Abstract

From the beginning of settlement until quite recently Australia was thought of as one of the main countries where families from the overcrowded British Isles could find room to make new homes and develop a new British society. Indeed, it could be argued that with the American colonies achieving independence, Canada treating the French culture and people as equal with the English, South Africa becoming increasingly Afrikaner, the East African highlands becoming more and more African and New Zealand being limited in size, Australia has for long been the major British ethnic home overseas. Certainly up to the Second World War some 90 per cent of the population was of British ethnic descent; in 1947 they numbered about 6.8 millions in a total population of 7.6 million. It is sometimes forgotten, though, that British families do not always migrate directly from the United Kingdom to Australia: an appreciable number come after some years, or even generations, in other British countries, notably New Zealand. Moreover, particularly in recent years, Australia has received numerous settlers of non-British ethnic descent from other parts of the Commonwealth, notably Malta, Mauritius, India and Malaysia. Contrariwise, many British settlers with their Australian-born children, as well as numerous persons of Australian parentage, have left Australia to settle permanently in other parts of the Commonwealth. In short, though not so important as the United Kingdom, Australia has become, as both importer and exporter, an increasingly significant centre of Commonwealth migration.