African Australians

African Australians are Australians of African ancestry.^[1][2] Large-scale immigration from Africa to Australia is only a recent phenomenon, with Europe and Asia traditionally being the largest sources of migration to Australia. In 2005–09, permanent settler arrivals to Australia included 4,000 South Africans and 3,800 Sudanese, constituting the sixth and seventh largest sources of migrants, respectively.^[3]

African Australians are of diverse cultural, linguistic, racial, religious, educational, and employment backgrounds.^[4] The majority (72.6%) of African emigrants to Australia are from southern and eastern Africa.^[5] The Australian Bureau of Statistics classifies all residents into cultural and ethnic groups according to geographical origin, including the many Afrikaner migrants from Southern Africa in the Sub-Saharan region.^[6]

Africans may have come to Australia as retired soldiers, skilled migrants, refugees, through family reunion, or as secondary migrants from other countries.^[7]

History

An agricultural officer from Ghana visiting Queensland under the Special Commonwealth African Assistance Plan, 1962

People from Africa, including those of Black African heritage, arrived in Australia with the First Fleet, notable examples are Billy Blue and John Caesar.^[8][9] Migrants from Mauritius have been arriving in Australia since before federation in 1901. They came as convicts, prospectors who sought Victoria's goldfields, or skilled sugar workers who significantly helped to develop Queensland's sugar industry.^[10]

The Special Commonwealth African Assistance Plan enabled students from Commonwealth African countries, including from Ghana, to travel to Australia during the mid-1960s. More than 70 percent of those from West African countries remained in Australia following military coup d'états in their countries of birth.^[11] Ultimately, however, immigration from Africa to Australia generally remained limited until the 1990s.

Demographics

Migration streams

People of South African ancestry whose parents were both born in Australia as a fraction of total residents

The largest number of African immigrants in Australia come from South Africa and are largely of Afrikaner and British descent. Many migrants born in Zimbabwe left the country after major land reforms were begun in the 1980s by the Robert Mugabe government. Two thirds arrived after 2001, following economic uncertainty in their country of birth. Of the Zimbabwe-born migrants who moved to Australia, the largest proportion are of English (30.6%) ancestry, with some individuals of Scottish (7.3%) background present as well. More recent migration from Zimbabwe has included increasing numbers of people of Shona and Ndebele ethnicities.^[12]

Other immigrants from Africa arrived via humanitarian programs. In the 2011–2012 fiscal year, these individuals were mainly from Burundi (44/79), Congo (143/158), the Democratic Republic of the Congo (370/454), Eritrea (244/294), Malawi (57/71), Rwanda (44/62), and Tanzania (40/67).^[7]

Additionally, other immigrants from Africa arrived through a family migration stream. In the 2011–2012 fiscal year, these individuals were primarily from Ethiopia (412/802), Ghana (152/202), Guinea (33/62), Liberia (82/129), Sierra Leone (106/140), Somalia (164/420), Sudan (313/513), and Uganda (37/67).^[7]

The embassy of Libya in O'Malley, Australian Capital Territory

A significant number of African migrants have come to Australia through a skill migration stream. In the 2011–2012 fiscal year, these individuals were chiefly from Egypt (417/773), Kenya (188/415), Mauritius (228/303), Nigeria (126/250), South Africa (4,239/6,307), Zambia (35/115), and Zimbabwe (467/848).^[7]

Some African immigrants have also arrived via a secondary migration from New Zealand, where they are citizens. In the 2011–2012 fiscal year, these New Zealand nationals were mainly originally from Libya (31/76).^[7]

Across Australia's major cities, immigration from Africa is varied depending on country of origin. While Egyptian, Nigerian, and Ghanaian migrants overwhelmingly head for Sydney,^[13][14][15] Mauritian and Sudanese migrant communities are largest in Melbourne.^[10][16]

As of 2013, the Australian Special Broadcasting Service broadcasts in six new languages spoken by the growing migrant and refugee communities from Africa and Asia. Among these are Dinka of South Sudan, Swahili of Tanzania and the African Great Lakes region, and Tigrinya of Eritrea and Ethiopia.^[17]

Countries of birth

In the 2015 Australian Census, 380,000 residents declared that they were born in Africa.^[18]

Notable African Australians

See also

• African immigration to Europe
• Egyptian Australians
• Ethiopian Australians
• Ghanaian Australians
• Kenyan Australians
• Nigerian Australians
• Somali Australians
• South African Australians
• South Sudanese Australians
• Sudanese Australians
• Zimbabwean Australians

Notes

External links

• AfricanOz – Africa Australia online resource
• Africa to Australia – videos and articles documenting the African migrant and refugee experience within Australia
• Sudanese Stories – an oral history project recording the migration journeys and settlement experiences of southern Sudanese refugees now living in Blacktown, Western Sydney

African Australians
Culture of Africa Ethnic groups of Africa
East	Kenyan Mauritian Ugandan
Horn	Ethiopian Somali
North	Coptic Egyptian South Sudanese Sudanese
Southern	South African Zimbabwean
West	Ghanaian Nigerian