Immigration In Australia

Since the end of world war two, migration has played a fundamental role in transforming the Australian society as a whole. A large portion of the population in Australia consists of people from a number of other countries or descendants of immigrants to Australia. Up to a fifth of the overall population in Australia is made up of those who were born in outside of Australia, which translates to about 23 percent. Other countries such as the United States has about 10 percent of its population being from overseas while Canada has about 17 percent. Most of this country’s population rise has occurred between 1945 and 2000 as a result of immigration. It is expected that Australia will become continuously diverse since immigrants will continue to

The gold rush of the 1850s, created a fear of xenophobia and miscegenation. The riots that followed led to the creation of laws that were restrictive hindering the importation of labour from countries such as China. However, with continued interaction with people from other countries, the locals have come to see the necessity of immigration. Formation of the federation back in 1901 accompanied the implementation of a national policy that has been responsible for Australia’s cultural development. The enactment of the immigration restriction act which was considered a white Australian policy was purposely meant to help fight the perception Australians had towards immigrants, particularly from Asia (Cronin & Mayall, 1998). There has been continued debates as regards the definition of who a true Australian. Although a lot of the indigenous communities, particularly of aboriginal and Asian descent are still facing some element of alienation, there have been efforts from both the locals and the authority to encourage acceptance of this members of the community. New Zealand, being a close neighbour of Australia has contributed significantly towards shaping Australia’s culture through social interactions such as sports. These two countries have a close cultural relationship as a result of migration

A large portion of migrants is from China and India both of which are Australia’s major trading allies. Such immigrants have brought about a shift is socio-cultural ties (Mercer, 2012). Other than English, which is widely spoken in Australia, mandarin has taken over from Italian as a widely spoken language in a majority of homes in Australia. The Australian society is continually taking on a diverse path since the government has endeavoured to structure multiculturalism with the scope of the law. Currently, there are a range of views as regards the aspect of multiculturalism, as there is globally. Since the end of world war two, immigration has made a significant contribution towards the advancement of Australia’s faith. Migration from countries such as India has brought about the introduction of Hinduism which is currently thought to be one of the few fast spreading religions (Symons, 2014). Although a large proportion of Australians identify with Islam, the other that was born in Australia claim to ascribe to no particular