|Regions with significant populations|
|Greece||100,000 (Greek Australians)|
|Italy||30,000 (20,000 Italian Australians)|
|Lebanon||20,000–25,000 (Lebanese Australians)|
|United Arab Emirates||16,000|
|Papua New Guinea||15,000|
The term Australian diaspora refers to the approximately 1,000,000 Australian citizens (approximately 5% of the population) who today live outside Australia. The majority of Australian expats, 48 per cent, are based in Europe and the UK, and 24 per cent of Australians are currently in Asia. The Trans-Tasman Travel Arrangement enables Australians and New Zealanders to migrate between Australia and New Zealand.
The term may also be used to refer to the population of Indigenous Australians who have been displaced within Australia - from their traditional homelands by colonisation, or from their families by child removal policies.
History of Australians aboard
A survey in 2002 of Australians who were emigrating found that most were leaving for employment reasons.
For the period 1999-2003 it was estimated that there were 346,000 Australian-born people living in other OECD countries: of these 96,900 lived in the United Kingdom, 65,200 lived in the United States and 42,000 lived in New Zealand.
Origin of the term
The term Australian diaspora was used in reference to Australian citizens living abroad in a 2003 Committee for Economic Development of Australia (CEDA) research report, "Australia's Diaspora: Its Size, Nature and Policy Implications". This report both identified the phenomenon and argued for an Australian government policy of maintaining active contact with the diaspora. The term has been picked up by others.
In 2005 Senate Legal and Constitutional References Committee (a standing committee) reported into the issue of Expatriate Australians and made recommendations that the "Australian Government needs to make greater efforts to connect with and engage our expatriate community".
The diaspora has been the focus of policy concerns over a so-called "brain drain" from Australia. However the 2003 CEDA report argued the phenomenon was essentially positive: rather than experiencing a "brain drain", Australia was in fact seeing both "brain circulation" as Australians added to their skills and expertise, and a "brain gain", as these skilled expatriates tend to return to Australia and as new skilled immigrants arrive. Between 1999 and 2003, there were seven highly educated migrants to Australia for every one highly educated Australian who was living elsewhere in countries within the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Levels of skilled immigration to Australia reflect Government policies to "practise a selective immigration policy based on human capital criteria".
In December 2001, the Department of Foreign Affairs estimated that there were 106,000 Australian citizens resident in the United States of America. The major places of residence were: 25,000 living in Los Angeles, 17,000 in San Francisco, 17,000 in Washington DC and 15,000 in New York. For the period 1999-2003, it was estimated that 22% of Australian expatriates, 65,200, were living in the United States. According to a 2010 estimate, in Los Angeles there are now 40,000 Australians.
Australian migration to the United States is greater than Americans going to Australia. At the 2006 Census 71,718 Australian residents declared that they were American-born, a smaller population than the population estimate of Australians living in the United States.
Comparison with the expatriate populations of other countries
The ratio of expatriate Australians in 2005 was 2.8 Australian-born people aged 15 years or over per 100 Australian born people aged 15 years and over within Australia. This ratio is much lower than many other countries in the OECD - the highest ratios in 2005 were for Ireland (29 Irish-born people aged 15 years and over in other OECD countries for every 100 in Ireland) and for New Zealand (19 per 100). The Australian ratio was higher than that of the United States (less than one person in other OECD countries per 100 USA-born within the USA).
Education levels of Australian expatriates were high: 44% of Australian expatriates in other OECD countries had a high level of education. Japanese expatriates had the highest proportion with 50% having a high level of education. 49% of expatriates from the USA had a high education as did 45% of expatriates from New Zealand.
References and notes
- "British paper pleads with Aussies not to go home". The Sydney Morning Herald. 26 November 2008.
- "Special Feature: Australians in New York". Newyork.usa.embassy.gov.au.
- "Greeks Seeking Economic Opportunity Migrate to Australia". Au.greekreporter.com. 27 December 2011.
- "ERT online, Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation". Greece.embassy.gov.au.
- "New Consul-General gets down to business". Shanghai.china.embassy.gov.au. 6 October 2011.
- "Brief for the Minister of Foreign Affairs March 2012" (PDF).
- Sam Worthington. "Anzac Day AFL match the start of big things". Stuff.co.nz.
- "Estimates of Australian citizens living overseas" (PDF).
- "Australians in Italy: The long view". Books.publishing.monash.edu.
- "Diplomatic appointment – Ambassador to Lebanon, 8 September 2010, Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade". Foreignminister.gov.au. 8 September 2010.
- Simon Santow (6 February 2013). "Australia helps track down Bulgarian bombers". Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
- "AsiaLIFE HCMC February 2013: Australians in Vietnam". Issuu.com. 1 February 2013.
- "Lee Hsien Loong: Singapore in an Ever-More Connected World | Australia". Asia Society. 12 October 2012.
- "WA making most of Singapore love affair – The West Australian". Yahoo! News. 28 May 2012.
- "Speech to the Australian-Thai Chamber of Commerce, Bangkok – The Hon Stephen Smith MP, Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs". Foreignminister.gov.au. 3 July 2008.
- "Ambassador\'s Welcome – Australian Embassy". Uae.embassy.gov.au.
- "13102011speech – Australian Embassy, China". China.embassy.gov.au. 13 October 2011.
- "The Netherlands country brief – Australian Government Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade". Dfat.gov.au.
- "High alert in Papua New Guinea as defence chief Brigadier General Francis Agwi held". The Courier-Mail. 27 January 2012.
- "Third explosion hits Fukushima". Today.ninemsn.com.au. 15 March 2011.
- Evacuation plans for 7000 Australians living in South Korea as North prepares for nuclear strike against US
- "ROC, Aussie ties ‘dynamic,’ says rep". China Post.
- "Consular Services for Foreign Residents of Switzerland – AngloINFO Geneva, in the Geneva region (Switzerland)". Geneva.angloinfo.com.
- Macgregor Duncan, Andrew Leigh, David Madden, and Peter Tynan (2004). Imagining Australia. Allen & Unwin. p. 44. ISBN 9781741143829.
- Belinda Merhab (2013-10-31). "Aussie expats ditch Europe, head for Asia". Sydney Morning Herald.
- 'Archaeology, diaspora and decolonization' by Ian Lilley in Journal of Social Archaeology, Vol. 6, No. 1, 28-47 Published by Sage (2006)
- Indigenous Experience Today by Marisol de la Cadena, Orin Starn, Published by Berg Publishers, 2007 ISBN 1-84520-518-9, ISBN 978-1-84520-518-8
- The Pain of Unbelonging: Alienation and Identity in Australasian Literature By Sheila Collingwood-Whittick, Germaine Greer Published by Rodopi, 2007 ISBN 90-420-2187-X, 9789042021877 2003
- The archaeology of ‘lost places’: ruin, memory and the heritage of the Aboriginal diaspora in Australia. By Rodney Harrison Historic Environment 17(1): 18-23
- David Day (April 2008). "Disappeared". The Monthly: 70–72.
- name="bth1">"Bringing them home: The 'Stolen Children' report". Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission. 2005. Archived from the original on 2 January 2008. Retrieved 2008-01-08.
- "Australian expatriates in OECD countries". 4102.0 - Australian Social Trends, 2006. Australian Bureau of Statistics. 20 July 2006. Retrieved 2008-10-29.
- Hugo, Graeme; Dianne Rudd and Kevin Harris (2003). "CEDA Information Paper 80: Australia's Diaspora: Its Size, Nature and Policy Implications". CEDA (Committee for Economic Development of Australia). Archived from the original on 2006-08-20. Retrieved 2006-08-22.
- For example:
Julianne Schultz, ed. (2004). Griffith Review : our global face: inside the Australian diaspora. Meadowbrook, Qld.: Griffith University.
Democratic Audit of Australia, Australian National University (2004). "New voting rights for the Australian diaspora".
"The Australian Diaspora in Britain since 1901: An Exploration (workshop agenda)". Monash Institute for the Study of Global Movements. 2005.
- The Senate: Legal and Constitutional References Committee (2005). "They still call Australia home: Inquiry into Australian expatriates" (PDF). Department of the Senate,Parliament House, Canberra. Archived from the original on 3 January 2006. Retrieved 2006-01-08.
- Dumont, Jean-Christophe Dumont; Georges Lemaître (2005). "Counting immigrants and expatriates in OECD countries: a new perspective" (pdf (34 pages)). Paris: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development: Directorate for Employment Labour and Social Affairs, DELSA. Retrieved 2008-10-29.
- "Estimates of Australian Citizens Living Overseas as at December 2001". Southern Cross Group (DFAT data). 2001-02-14. Archived from the original on 20 July 2008. Retrieved 2008-07-15.
- Australian Bureau of Statistics - Ethnic Media Kit
- Notes on education levels from the ABS: (c) High level includes ISCED5A: Academic tertiary, ISCED5B: Vocational tertiary, ISCED 6: Advanced research. (d) Overall, 3% of OECD expatriates in the OECD had no information on educational attainment. These have been excluded from the total in calculating the proportion. (e)The migrant to expatriate ratio for people with a high level of education for a particular country is: the ratio of the number of migrants from other OECD countries with a high level of education living in that country, to the number of that country's expatriates with a high level of education.
- Graeme Hugo (2006-02-13). "An Australian Diaspora?". International Migration (International Organization for Migration) 44 (1): 105–133. doi:10.1111/j.1468-2435.2006.00357.x.
- Graeme Hugo (2006). "Australian experience in skilled migration". In Christiane Kuptsch, Pang Eng Fong, Eng Fong Pang. Competing for Global Talent. International Labour Organization. pp. 143–145. ISBN 9789290147763.
- "Senate Inquiry into Australian Expatriates: Overview. Final Inquiry Report Tabled on 8 March 2005". Southern Cross Group. 2005. Archived from the original on 27 December 2005. Retrieved 2006-01-08.
- Harry Heidelberg (2003-01-13). "What to make of the Australian diaspora". Sydney Morning Herald. Archived from the original on 15 January 2006. Retrieved 2006-01-08.
- "The Extent and Diversity of the Australian Diaspora". Southern Cross Group. 2003. Archived from the original on 2005-08-29. Retrieved 2006-01-08.