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African Australians Project: Migration between Africa and Australia: a demographic perspective (2010)

Migration between Africa and Australia: a demographic perspective

Background paper for African
Australians: A review of human rights and social inclusion issues

Professor Graeme Hugo

December 2009

This background paper was commissioned by the Australian Human
Rights Commission, however this paper is an independent piece of research and
reflects the views of the individual author only.


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Table of Contents


About the
author

Graeme Hugo is a University Professorial Research Fellow, Professor of
Geography and Director of the National Centre for Social Applications of
Geographical Information Systems at the University of Adelaide. He is the author
of over two hundred books, articles in scholarly journals and chapters in books,
as well as a large number of conference papers and reports. In 2002 he secured a
$1.125 million ARC Federation Fellowship over five years for his research
project, "The new paradigm of international migration to and from Australia:
dimensions, causes and implications".

1 List
of tables

Table 1: Immigration and ethnicity-related topics included in Australian Population Censuses, 1911-2006

Table 2:  Stocks of Africa-born persons in OECD nations around 2000

Table 3:  African countries: Size of diaspora in OECD nations, 2000

Table 4:  Africa-born persons in Australia, 1861-2006

Table 5:  Change in the composition of the Australian population by place of birth, 1947-2006

Table 6:  Australia:  Growth of the Sub-Saharan population of Australia, 1981-2006

Table 7:  Australia: Number of persons born in Southern and Eastern African nations, 1986 to 2008

Table 8:  Australia, Sub-Saharan Africa-born: Ancestry groups, 2001-06

Table 9:  Multiple ancestry response by English/other language spoken at home, 2006

Table 10:  Australia: Estimated resident population, 1996-2008

Table 11:  Australian Africa-born population: Ten fastest growing and ten slowest growing birthplace groups, 2001-06

Table 12:  Program Management Structure (2005-06) Migration (non-Humanitarian) Program

Table 13:  Settler arrivals born in Sub-Saharan Africa compared with total intake according to eligibility category, 2007-08

Table 14:  Australia: Arrivals and departures of skilled health workers, 1993-2007

Table 15:  Australia: Offshore settler arrivals from Africa under the Refugee-Humanitarian Program, 1992-93 to 2007-08

Table 16:  Australia: Africa-born settler arrivals, 1997-98 to 2007-08

Table 17:  Australia: Students present by region of birth, 30 June 2005

Table 18:  Australia: Origins of the Australian foreign-born total and temporary resident populations, 2008

Table 19:  Australia: Long-term movement to and from Africa and Australia, 1994-2008

Table 20:  Australia: Short-term movement to and from Africa and Australia, 1994-2008

Table 21:  Australia: Settlers and long-term migration, 1987-2007

Table 22   Australia: Birthplace of permanent arrivals and departures, 2008-09

Table 23:  Australia: Permanent movement by financial years, 1991-2009

Table 24:  Permanent and long-term out-movement of Australia-born departures to Africa, 1994-95 to 2007-08

Table 25:  Australia: Africa-born birthplace groups, sex ratio, 2006

Table 26:  Australia: Settler arrivals, birthplace Africa, sex ratios,  1993-94 to 2007-08

Table 27:  Australia: Australia-born and Sub-Saharan Africa-born: Selected occupational and educational characteristics, 2006

Table 28:  Longitudinal Survey of Immigrants to Australia: Employment experience

Table 29:  Australia: Australia-born and Sub-Saharan Africa-born: Selected socio-economic indicators, 2006

Table 30:  Australia: Australia-born and Sub-Saharan Africa-Born: Spatial distribution, 2006

Table 31:  Settlement locations of migrants from Ethiopia, Eritrea and Congo, 2000‑05


2 List
of
figures

Figure 1:  Distribution of South Africa-born, Nigeria-born, Congo Democratic Republic-born and Angola-born expatriates in OECD Nations, 2000

Figure 2:  Australia: Africa-born population, 1861 to 2006

Figure 3:  Australia: Migration Program outcomes by stream, 1976-77 to 2008-09

Figure 4:  Australia: Immigrants from Africa, 1945-2009

Figure 5:  Immigrants from Africa as a percentage of total immigrants, 1945-2009

Figure 6:  Distribution of birthplace of settlers to Australia, 1970

Figure 7:  Distribution of birthplace of settlers to Australia, 2007-08

Figure 8:  Africa: Birthplace of settler arrivals, 1993-2008

Figure 9:  Australia: Onshore residence visa grants, 1989-90 to 2007-08

Figure 10:  Temporary Migration to Australia by Category, 1986 to 2009

Figure 11:  Australia: Temporary resident arrivals, 2005

Figure 12:  Africa: Country of birth of long-term arrivals to Australia, 1994-2008

Figure 13:  Africa: Birthplace of short-term moves to Australia, 1994-2008

Figure 14:  Australia: Permanent departures of Australia-born and overseas-born persons from Australia, 1959-60 to 2008-09

Figure 15:  Africa: Birthplace of permanent departures from Australia to Africa, 1994-2008

Figure 16:  Australia: Age-sex structure of the Sub-Saharan Africa-born and Australia-born populations, 2006

Figure 17:  Australia: Age structure of South Africa-born population, 2006

Figure 18:  Age-sex distribution of the Africa-born permanent and long-term arrivals 1994-95 to 2006-07 and the total Australian population in 2006

Figure 19:  Age of entrants to Australia from Liberia, Ethiopia and Eritrea, 2000-05

Figure 20:  Australia: Sex ratios of settler arrivals, 1959-2009

Figure 21:  Selected African group arrivals in Australia, 2000-05, by self-reported English proficiency

Figure 22:  Australia: Distribution of the Sub-Saharan Africa-born population, 2006



3 Introduction

One of the fastest growing and most important types of African population
mobility is that directed out of the continent toward so-called
‘north’ countries. However, it is neglected by many examinations of
African migration and little is known of its nature and impact. Yet unlike the
situation with respect to much migration within Africa, there is high
quality data available to examine the migration collected at the destination.
This paper demonstrates that the high quality of both flow and stock
international migration data, as well as a national longitudinal survey in
Australia, provide an excellent opportunity to examine in depth the nature of
‘south-north’ migration from Africa and also the
‘north-south’ movement from Australia to Africa. Moreover, the
highly developed Australian international migration data system provides some
useful lessons for the enhancement of such systems in African nations.

International migration between Africa and Australia has a long history.
However, it has accelerated in recent years and now incorporates a number of
components. These are analysed here in some detail since, to some extent, they
exemplify the diverse types of south-north migration which are assuming
increasing significance in Africa. In addition the paper demonstrates the
potential of high-quality stock and flow data on international migration,
together with a national longitudinal survey, to shed light on patterns of
migration and inform the development of effective and timely migration and
settlement policy. A number of different types of African migrants moving to
Australia are identified, their movements analysed and the implications for
origin and destination countries discussed.

The largest and most long-standing flow is from South Africa, although this
has undergone some change following the abolition of apartheid. In recent years
an increasing numbers of refugee and humanitarian settlers have come to
Australia from Africa, especially Ethiopia and Sudan. Their experiences are
examined and some of the implications discussed. Another recent and significant
flow has involved medical professionals; this is examined and some implications
explored. Flows of other high-skill groups from Africa to Australia are
examined in the context of increased global movement of professional and
managerial people and discussion of a ‘brain drain’. On the other
side, some doctors in Australia have expressed concern about the numbers of
doctors from African countries coming to Australia.

Data from the Longitudinal Survey of Immigrants in Australia are analysed to
examine the causes of African migration to Australia. Moreover, this source
allows some exploration of the patterns of settlement and adjustment to the
labour market among groups of migrants from Africa. It also allows for
consideration of the linkages that migrants have maintained with their countries
of origin to be made, as well as some examination of the applicability of
diaspora ideas in this context. In particular, the argument that the diaspora
can have positive developmental effects in origin countries is discussed.

Australia’s international migration has undergone a transformation in
the last decade, which has seen non-permanent migration increase in significance
(Hugo 1999). Australian migration flow data allows a detailed analysis to be
made of the complex two-way flows of long-term and short-term movers between
Australia and African countries. The implications of this mobility, both for
the African countries of origin and Australia, are discussed. One of the key
features of the Australian international migration data system is that it
provides accurate information on movement out of and into Australia.
Accordingly, a short section of this paper will analyse movement from Australia
to Africa and its implications.

4 Some
data considerations

Australian data on both stocks and flows of movement between Australia and
Africa are used here. These are comprehensive and of high quality by
international standards. In relation to flows, the source employed is
the Movements Data Base (MDB) maintained by the Department of Immigration and
Citizenship (DIAC). Each person entering or leaving Australia is required to
complete arrival or departure cards containing questions on citizenship,
birthplace, birth date, gender, occupation, marital status, type of movement,
origin/destination, reason for move (for short-term movers only) and location in
Australia. This information forms the basis of the MDB, which is one of the few
in the world to contain comprehensive information on both immigrants and
emigrants. People leaving or coming to Australia are classified into three
types of categories according to their intended length of their stay in
Australia or overseas:

  • Permanent movements
    • Immigrants are persons arriving with the intention of
      settling permanently in Australia.
    • Emigrants are Australian residents (including former settlers)
      departing with the stated intention of staying abroad
      permanently.
  • Long-term movements
    • Overseas arrivals of visitors with an intended or actual length
      of stay in Australia of 12 months or more.
    • Departures of Australian residents with an intended or actual
      length of stay abroad of 12 months or more.
  • Short-term movements
    • Travellers with an intended or actual stay in Australia or
      abroad of less than 12 months.

Clearly there are
problems associated with the use of ‘intentions’ as a key element in
the definitions of the different types of movement. It is apparent that there
are no guarantees that intentions will become reality and a significant amount
of category-jumping does occur (Hugo 1994, Chapter Three). Zlotnik (1987,
933-934) has also been critical of the concept of ‘residence’ used
in these definitions, describing it as a ‘fertile breeding ground for
confusion’. Nevertheless the MDB provides a valuable source of
information on flows of people into and out of Australia, which has few equals
globally in terms of accuracy and comprehensiveness.

Turning to information about the stocks of migrants, this paper draws
on the quinquennial national censuses of population and housing. Table 1 shows the
immigration-related questions asked at Australian censuses. It indicates that a
comprehensive range of questions has been asked, especially in post-war
censuses. Of particular interest was the introduction in 1971 of a
‘birthplace of parents’ question (which has been in each subsequent
census) and the experiment with an ancestry question in 1986, 2001 and 2006.
The latter has been excluded from several censuses because, although it produced
a great deal of new insight into the diversity of Australia’s population,
it generally failed in its objective to identify third-generation and older
generations of immigrants (Khoo 1989). Censuses have been conducted in
Australia every five years since 1961 and have a low rate of under-enumeration
(less than two per cent).

Table 1: Immigration and ethnicity-related topics
included in Australian Population Censuses, 1911-2006

Source: Paice 1990; ABS, 2006a

Topics -

Persons
1911 1921 1933 1947 1954 1961 1966 1971 1976 1981 1986 1991 1996 2001 2006
Birthplace * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Birthplace of parents
*




* * * * * * *(1) *
Year of arrival * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
(Period of residence in Australia)












Citizenship * * * * * * * * *(2) *(2) *(3) * * * *
Aboriginal/TSI origin * * * * * * *(4) *(5) *(5) * * * * * *
(Race)














Ethnic origin









*(6)

* *
Number of overseas






* * * * * * * *
residents or visitors














Language use
*(7) *(8)




*(9) *(10) *(11) * * * *
Religion * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

 

\Notes:

(1) In 2001 and each subsequent census the ‘country of birth of
parents’ questions were replaced by questions asking whether a
person’s parents were born in Australia or overseas.

(2) Prior to 1976 ‘nationality’, rather than
‘citizenship’, was asked.

(3) Since 1986 a person has been asked whether or not they are an Australian
citizen.

(4) In all censuses prior to 1971 a person was required to state their race
and, where race was mixed, to specify the proportion of each.

(5) In the 1971 and 1976 censuses a question with response categories of
‘European’, ‘Aboriginal’, ‘Torres Strait
Islander’ and ‘other’ was included.

(6) A question on a person’s ancestry was asked for the first time in
1986.

(7) Question asked whether a person could read and write.

(8) Question asked whether a person could read and write a foreign language
if unable to read and write English.

(9) The 1976 census asked for ‘all languages regularly used’.

(10) In 1981 ‘ability to speak English’ was asked.

(11) Since 1986 two separate questions have been asked: ‘language
used’ and ‘ability to speak English’.

The census allows us to identify, with a high degree of accuracy,
first-generation migrants and their Australia-born children and a number of
their characteristics. However, the census does not provide information on
former residents who have emigrated out of Australia. With respect to people
travelling out of Australia on a temporary basis, some information can be
obtained if they left households who could report their absence in a question
relating to usual residents who are absent on the night of the census. Visitors
to Australia who happen to be in the country on the night of the census are
counted in the de-facto enumeration but excluded from most census
tabulations.

The Longitudinal Survey of Immigrants in Australia (LSIA) is a major source
of information which has been used extensively in the development of Australian
immigration policy. It involved interviewing a sample of 5,912 settler arrivals
arriving between September 1993 and August 1995 soon after arrival, a year later
and a further two years later. A second cohort of 3,000 people who arrived in
1999 and 2000 were interviewed soon after arrival and again 18 months later.
LSIA 3 involved a sample of 9,800 migrants arriving between December 2004 and
March 2005, with follow-up interviews after six and 18 months. The LSIA has
been used extensively in fine-tuning and developing Australian immigration and
settlement policy (Hugo 2004a).

5 Migration
from Africa

One approach to measure diasporas is to use the censuses of destination
nations to compile a picture of the numbers of expatriates residing in those
nations. This is facilitated by the synchronisation of national censuses,
recommended by the United Nations to occur around the beginning of each decade
and followed by most countries. However such approaches will often
underestimate the size of expatriate populations because:

  • some countries do not conduct censuses or have appropriate registration
    systems
  • censuses may seek to exclude persons who are not citizens and/or permanent
    residents, which will exclude some expatriates
  • in some cases, expatriates do not have full working rights and avoid being
    counted in an official census
  • some expatriates avoid being counted because they perceive that it is not
    relevant to them
  • the census may only include a question on birthplace, which doesn’t
    necessarily identify expatriates, or it may only have a question on citizenship
    which has similar problems
  • it excludes second and later generations
  • some censuses do not include birthplace or citizenship
    questions.

For example, the 2001 census of the United Kingdom
counted the number of Australians as 107,817 but other estimates place the
number closer to 300,000 (MacGregor 2003).

Despite this, much can be gained from bringing together census data of
countries with immigration questions in their censuses to build up
origin/destination matrices of migration. One important initiative in this area
has been undertaken by the OECD, which launched a project in July 2003 to
collect data from all OECD National Statistics Officers (NSO) on the stocks of
foreign-born populations in order ‘to obtain by aggregating across
receiving OECD countries, data on expatriates by country of origin’
(Dumont and Lemaitre 2005, 9). This data set makes it possible to obtain the
numbers of Africa-born persons living in OECD nations.

The OECD study (Dumont and Lemaitre 2005, 31) found that the stock of Africa-
born people in OECD nations was 7.1 million around the turn of the century,
compared with 16.8 million from Asia, 15.6 million from Latin America and 5.3
million from the Caribbean. The estimates provided in Table 2 show that the largest
stocks are in France, which accounts for 40% of Africans in OECD countries.
Clearly this is a function of the long-standing colonial and cultural ties
between Francophone African countries and France. There are almost a million in
the United States and the United Kingdom, with large numbers in Spain, Canada,
Belgium, Portugal and the Netherlands. Colonial ties, as well as proximity in
the case of the Mediterranean nations, are important factors. The fact that the
OECD data does not include Italy is unfortunate since there is a substantial
African population in that country. Table 2 also shows that North
African countries account for almost half of the south-north migrants (45.1%),
with the bulk of the North African flow to France (72%), Spain (10.8%),
Netherlands (5.1%) and Belgium (4.4%), which together account for 92% of the
total. Australia is home to 191,501 Africa-born persons, although only 1.3% are
from the north.

Table 2: Stocks of Africa-born persons in OECD nations
around 2000

Source: Dumont and Lemaitre 2005, 31

Country Africa-Born
Number Number from North African Countries Percentage
Australia 191,501 2,573 1.3
Austria 19,934 3,560 17.9
Belgium 247,515 139,799 56.5
Canada 323,580 52,485 16.2
Switzerland 68,801 21,153 30.7
Czech Republic 2,374 588 24.8
Germany 175,665 51,230 29.2
Denmark 31,875 6,520 20.5
Spain 423,082 343,819 81.3
Finland 9,713 1,783 18.4
France 2,862,569 2,296,979 80.2
Great Britain 838,459 26,088 3.1
Greece 58,275 1,416 2.4
Hungary 2,687 517 19.2
Ireland 26,650 1,238 4.6
Japan 5,742 421 7.3
Luxembourg 5,692 1,134 19.9
Mexico 1,214 262 21.6
Netherlands 280,007 163,658 58.4
Norway 31,278 5,665 18.1
New Zealand 39,351 273 0.7
Poland 2,962 741 25.0
Portugal 349,859 1,596 0.5
Slovak Republic 404 50 12.4
Sweden 78,039 9,962 12.8
Turkey 12,686 1,627 12.8
USA 988,253 58,530 5.9
Total 7,078,167 3,193,667 45.1


 

Table 3: African countries: Size of diaspora in OECD
nations, 2000

Source: OECD database on immigrants and expatriates

Country of Birth
South Africa 405,434
Nigeria 278,446
Kenya 213,164
Angola 211,823
Africa 195,388
Somalia 174,483
Ghana 171,991
Ethiopia 132,682
Congo, Dem. Rep. Of 113,509
Senegal 111,789
Cape Verde 103,137
Mauritius 88,413
Mozambique 86,775
Zimbabwe 86,585
Madagascar 80,028
Congo 75,266
United Republic of Tanzania 73,434
Cameroon 63,332
Côte d'Ivoire 62,427
Liberia 48,843
Mali 48,225
Sierra Leone 46,347
Zambia 38,003
Eritrea 37,953
Guinea-Bissau 32,750
Gambia 22,691
Guinea 22,584
Togo 20,079
Comoros 19,876
Rwanda 19,387
Mauritania 16,670
Malawi 16,095
Benin 14,910
Equatorial Guinea 14,015
Sao Tome and Principe 13,177
Gabon 12,552
Burundi 12,482
Central African Republic 11,119
Seychelles 8,043
Djibouti 7,157
Burkina Faso 6,984
Chad 6,337
Niger 5,453
Botswana 5,386
Namibia 4,057
Saint Helena 2,570
Swaziland 2,500
Lesotho 1,263
Western Sahara 132


 

Figure 1: Distribution of South Africa-born,
Nigeria-born, Congo Democratic Republic-born and Angola-born expatriates in OECD
Nations, 2000

Source: OECD database on immigrants and expatriates

South African-born

map South African Born migrants

Nigeria-born

Map Nigeria born migrants

Congo Democratic Republic-born

Map Congo Democratic Republic migrants

Angola-born

Map Angola born migrants

Putting together census data from OECD nations, Table 3 shows the number of
persons born in African countries living in those nations around 2000. These
substantially understate the size of the diaspora in each country but do give
some important indications. South Africa has the largest community of
expatriates in OECD nations, while another 10 countries have more than 100,000
people living in ‘north’ nations. This represents substantial
potential for development of linkages, remittances and the like (Hugo
2003a).

The OECD nation censuses allow a substantial level of analysis to be made of
African diaspora. It is interesting in Figure 1, for example, to look at the
distribution of four African birthplace groups in OECD nations. The largest
diaspora is from South Africa; formerly a part of the British Empire, its
colonial connections are evident in the concentration of its diaspora in the
United Kingdom, Australia, Canada and New Zealand. This is also apparent in
Nigeria’s expatriate community, although its largest single concentration
(140,235 persons) is in the United States and reflects the increasingly
significant West African flow to that country. The significance of colonial
connections is strongly apparent in the diaspora of Angola, with 82.2% of the
211,823 Angolans in OECD nations living in Portugal. In addition, almost half
of the Congo’s expatriates are in Belgium (43.9%). The two overwhelming
south-north flows are clearly along colonial lines on the one hand and to North
America, especially the United States, on the other. It is also possible to
examine the characteristics of the expatriate community and Dumont and Lemaitre
(2005) have shown how these movements are very selective of highly educated
groups.

6 Stocks
of African migrants in Australia

There is a long history of population movement between Africa and Australia
but the data needs to be carefully interpreted. This is because many
Africa-born people moving to Australia, especially in the period prior to 1991,
were not of African ethnicity; rather they were the children of European-origin
parents from South Africa and Zimbabwe who subsequently moved to Australia.
Clearly, the fact that Australia’s states and South Africa, Zimbabwe,
Kenya, etc ,were colonies of England and part of the British Empire (and later
the British Commonwealth) meant they shared more linkages than Australia had
with African countries that were not British colonies. Nevertheless, Table 4 indicates that in
1861 there were only 1,590 Africa-born persons in Australia. The mix between
people from Northern Africa, South Africa and other Sub-Saharan Africa countries
in the stocks of Africa-born in Australia has changed over the last century (see Figure 2). Prior to World
War Two, South Africa was the dominant origin of the Africa-born population in
Australia. In 1861 they made up 56.6% of all Africa-born people in Australia
and that proportion remained steady until Federation in 1901, when the total
Africa-born population had increased to only 2,840. Indeed it had declined from
2,923 in 1890 due to the effects of economic depression. One of the earliest
initiatives of the new Australian Government was the introduction of a
‘White Australia’ policy which effectively prevented the settlement
of Africans and others of non-European origin in Australia. Accordingly, in
1947 there were only 75,506 Africa-born people in Australia and 78.3% of these
were South African. Hence, in the period before World War Two, there were only
small numbers of Africa-born persons and they were overwhelmingly the children
of colonial functionaries and Anglo Saxons from Southern Africa.

Table 4: Africa-born persons in Australia,
1861-2006

Source: Australian censuses

Census Percentage

South Africa-born
Africa-born

population
Intercensal percentage

Per annum growth
1861 56.6 1,590
1871 55.3 1,767 1.1
1881 47.5 1,986 1.2
1891 47.2 3,044 4.4
1901 53.0 2,869 -0.6
1911 79.3 4,958 5.6
1921 80.5 6,775 3.2
1933 79.5 7,821 1.2
1947 78.3 7,537 -0.3
1954 37.9 15,826 11.2
1961 27.7 28,559 8.8
1966 23.3 41,605 7.8
1971 20.4 61,935 8.3
1976 22.1 70,510 2.6
1981 29.9 90,237 5.1
1986 34.1 108,547 3.8
1991 37.2 132,548 4.1
1996 37.7 147,876 2.2
2001 43.1 184,180 4.5
2006 41.9 248,699 7.0


 

Figure 2: Australia: Africa-born population, 1861 to
2006


Source: Australian censuses

Australia: Africa-born population, 1861 to 2006

Figure 2 shows that
African migration to Australia has increased with each intercensal period
following World War Two. The first post-war intercensal period (1947-54) saw
the Africa-born population in Australia double but virtually the entire increase
was from North Africa, with the Egypt-born population in Australia increasing
from 803 in 1947 to 8,150. The number of Africans in Australia doubled again
between 1954 and 1961, and then again between 1961 and 1971 to reach 61,936.
Once again the growth in this period was mainly driven by a substantial
immigration of Egyptians (numbering 28,226 in 1971), who were predominantly
Coptic Christians (Ham 2001, 274). There was also an increase in migration
during this period by Anglo-Saxon-origin people from South African and other
former British colonies in Africa – a result of the decolonisation process
taking place in that continent and in Asia. There was also a significant
movement of East Africans of European origin during this period. Adler (2001,
273) writes:

The effects of the Mau Mau uprising (1953-60), the Africanisation of land,
particularly in the ‘White Highlands’ of Kenya, restrictions on the
employment of non citizens and uncertainties about the future for themselves and
their families caused them to emigrate. Similar facts affected all of the East
African countries.

With the final dissolution of the White Australia policy in the 1960s and
early 1970s, Australian immigration underwent a massive change as discrimination
on the basis of race was removed. However, the change in composition of
migration in the 1970s and 1980s was much more marked for the flows from Asia
than the flows from Africa (Hugo 2003b). The proportion of South Africans in
the flow, which had fallen from 78.3% in 1947 to 20.4% in 1971, began to
increase again. Figure 2 shows that after 1971 the numbers arriving from North Africa (mainly Egyptians)
stabilised, while numbers from Sub-Saharan Africa (both South Africans and other
groups) began to grow.

Increasing African immigration has been part of the post-war transformation
of Australia from an overwhelmingly British-dominated population to a
multicultural society. Table
5
indicates this, showing that the proportion of the population born in
dominantly non-English speaking nations declined from 98.1% to 86% between 1947
and 2006. During the same period, the proportion of people born in South Africa
increased from 0.1% to 0.5% and from elsewhere in Africa it rose from less than
0.1% to 0.7%. It is clear that South Africa has dominated Sub-Saharan African
migration to Australia. Table
6
shows that the South Africa-born population doubled in the 1980s to 49,421
in 1991, more than doubling again in the next 15 years to reach 104,132 in 2006.
Its share of the intake from Sub-Saharan African rose from 45.2% to 56.1% in
2001 but fell back to 54.3% in 2006. Much of this migration has involved South
Africans of European decent. In the exodus of European-origin South Africans
over the last two decades to other predominantly English-speaking countries,
Australia has been the second most significant destination after the United
Kingdom (Khoo and Lucas 2004; Van Rooyen 2000; Kalule Sabiti et al.
2003). In the 1980s and the early

Table 5: Change in the composition of the Australian
population by place of birth, 1947-2006

Source: ABS, 1947 and 2006 Censuses



2006
Number of Persons
Number of Persons Percentage
English speaking origin 7,438,892 98.1 15,748,287 85.2
Australia 6,835,171 90.2 14,072,937 76.2
United Kingdom and Ireland 543,829 7.2 1,088,421 5.9
New Zealand 43,619 0.6 389,467 2.1
United States and Canada 10,304 0.1 93,330 0.5
South Africa 5,969 0.1 104,132 0.6
Non-English speaking origin 140,466 1.9 2,730,042 14.8
Other Europe 109,586 1.4 989,498 5.4
Asia* 23,293 0.3 1,402,395 7.6
Other Africa 1,531 0.0 144,567 0.8
Other America 1,323 0.0 86,663 0.5
Other Oceania 4,733 0.1 106,919 0.6
Total 7,579,358 100.0 18,478,329 100.0

 

* Includes Middle East

Note: Excludes country of birth not stated, ‘Inadequately
described’, ‘At sea’ and ‘Not elsewhere
classified’.

Table 6: Australia: Growth of the Sub-Saharan population
of Australia, 1981-2006

Source: ABS Population Censuses

Year South Africa-born Zimbabwe-born Other Sub-Saharan Africa-born Total Sub-Saharan Africa-born South Africa-born as % of Total Sub-Saharan
Africa-born
Zimbabwe-born as % of Total Sub-Saharan Africa-born Other Sub-Saharan Africa-born as % of Total Sub-Saharan
Africa-born
1981 26,965 4,110 28,517 59,592 45.2 6.9 47.9
1986 37,061 6,479 34,374 77,914 47.6 8.3 44.1
1991 49,421 8,352 36,657 94,430 52.3 8.8 38.8
1996 55,755 8,957 42,705 107,417 51.9 8.3 39.8
2001 79,425 11,733 50,538 141,696 56.1 8.3 35.7
2006 104,132 20,155 67,540 191,827 54.3 10.5 35.2

 

1990s the outflow was overwhelmingly of South Africans of English-speaking
European descent, although Van Rooyen (2000, 36) argues that by 1999 the split
was around half English-origin and half Afrikaan. The dominance of the
English-origin South Africans is evident in the fact that, at the 2001
population census when an ancestry question was asked of the 79,421 South
Africa-born people in Australia, 36,029 (45%) gave South Africa as their
ancestry; 25,605 (32%) as English; 2,694 as Indian (three per cent); and 1,838
as Dutch (two per cent) (Khoo and Lucas 2004, 42). While there is no data
collected on the ethnic background of immigrants arriving in Australia, it would
seem that there are more African-origin immigrants among the South African
arrivals.

There has, however, been an increase in the diversity of the Sub-Saharan
African migration to Australia in the last decade; Table 7 shows the growth of
the largest Africa-born populations in Australia
o[1]er the 1986-2006 period.1 The
large number of South Africans is evident, as are substantial groups from
Zimbabwe and Mauritius, who are in many ways similar to the South Africans in
the pre-dominance of European-origin groups. Those born in the groups from
Kenya, Zambia, Tanzania and Uganda also include significant numbers of
European-origin migrants, although most recent immigrants have been of African
origin. It is noticeable, however, that there have been significant increases
in the numbers from some countries where the immigrants are of African origin
– most notably Ethiopia, Eritrea, Sudan and Somalia. Many of these
immigrants have arrived in Australia under the refugee-humanitarian migration
category. The most spectacular increase has been in the Sudan-born population,
which increased from 4,900 in 2001 to 24,796 in 2008 and reflects the fact that
they were an important group in refugee arrivals throughout the 2000s. However,
there have also been substantial increases in a large number of smaller African
birthplace groups, many of which include a large proportion of
refugee-humanitarian arrivals, such as Burundi, Congo, Democratic Republic of
Congo, Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

Table 7: Australia: Number of persons born in Southern
and Eastern African nations, 1986 to 2008

Source: ABS Population Censuses 1986 to 2006 and ABS 2008 Estimated Resident
Population data

Birthplace 1986 1991 1996 2001 2006 2008 % Overseas-born 2006 Rank 2006
Angola - 328 344 353 396 na 0.01 144
Benin - 7 12 24 20 na 0.00 210
Botswana - 159 225 706 865 na 0.02 120
Burkina Faso - 0 10 23 27 na 0.00 201
Burundi - 16 23 25 753 na 0.02 124
Cameroon - 14 35 66 125 na 0.00 176
Cape Verde -

22 22 na 0.00 209
Central African Republic - 6 14 3 8 na 0.00 229
Chad - 15 21 36 30 na 0.00 200
Comoros - 3 6 18 13 na 0.00 218
Congo - 9 22 135 521 na 0.01 136
Congo, Democratic Republic of -

267 620 na 0.01 134
Cote d'Ivoire - 36 52 69 253 na 0.01 157
Djibouti - 31 75 68 97 na 0.00 180
Equatorial Guinea - 0 3 6 11 na 0.00 222
Eritrea -
1,161 1,599 2,017 na 0.05 99
Ethiopia - 1,341 2,353 3,544 5,635 na 0.13 78
Gabon - 11 19 19 26 na 0.00 203
Gambia - 23 26 53 130 na 0.00 174
Ghana - 998 1,495 2,040 2,769 na 0.06 92
Guinea - 18 19 28 333 na 0.01 153
Guinea-Bissau - 6 10 15 9 na 0.00 225
Kenya 4,170 4,724 5,333 6,869 9,935 na 0.22 62
Lesotho - 43 58 54 80 na 0.00 183
Liberia - 64 84 125 1,525 na 0.03 108
Madagascar - 148 137 156 189 na 0.00 169
Malawi - 364 423 485 685 na 0.02 129
Mali - 13 15 29 47 na 0.00 192
Mauritania -

16 14 na 0.00 215
Mauritius 13,086 16,882 17,083 16,962 18,174 23,379 0.41 47
Mozambique - 391 428 551 634 na 0.01 133
Namibia - 264 303 437 703 na 0.02 125
Niger - 12 10 14 15 na 0.00 213
Nigeria - 966 1,260 1,738 2,498 na 0.06 96
Reunion - 62 64 71 127 na 0.00 175
Rwanda - 12 22 46 201 na 0.00 164
Sao Tome and Principe - 6 12 11 9 na 0.00 225
Senegal - 149 170 185 196 na 0.00 167
Seychelles - 2,610 2,561 2,448 2,508 na 0.06 95
Sierra Leone - 118 164 363 1,811 na 0.04 104
Somalia - 357 2,058 3,713 4,315 na 0.10 83
South Africa 37,058 49,383 55,756 79,425 104,128 136,201 2.36 12
St Helena - 34 25 25 38 na 0.00 196
Sudan - 1,259 2,417 4,900 19,050 24,796 0.43 45
Swaziland - 120 145 202 232 na 0.01 159
Tanzania - 1,432 1,561 1,714 2,298 na 0.05 98
Togo - 6 9 16 35 na 0.00 198
Uganda - 930 1,178 1,217 1,710 na 0.04 106
Zambia - 2,333 2,565 3,072 4,079 na 0.09 84
Zimbabwe 6,479 8,352 8,957 11,733 20,155 27,369 0.46 43

 

The post-war outflow of Southern Africans to Australia gathered momentum with
events such as the Sharpeville shootings in 1960, the 1976 Soweto riots and the
general increase in tension and violence in the 1980s (Kennedy 2001a). Lucas
(2001, 689) points out that “[p]rior to the 1990s some South Africans left
because they could not tolerate apartheid. Others were worried about the
political uncertainty in South Africa epitomised by the indefinite state of
emergency declared in July 1985.”

The second largest group of countries of origin of Africans in Australia
include Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia and Somalia in the Horn of Africa, with
arrivals coming predominantly as refugees since the 1980s. Some earlier
arrivals born in Eritrea and Ethiopia are of Italian origin, while more recent
settlers are of African background (Pateman 2001). Most Ethiopians arrived
after 1990 and were predominantly refugees (Gow 2001). There were only 359
Somali-born persons in Australia in 1991 but this increased to 2,057 in 1996 and
3,713 in 2001, following the settlement of a substantial community of refugees
(Kennedy 2001b, 688) especially between 1994 and 1998. The Sudanese community
has also increased substantially due to the influx of refugees since 1992 and
especially since 2006; it is now the third largest African birthplace group in
Australia.

There number of West Africans living in Australia is relatively small by
comparison. Their immigration began in the mid-1960s with the arrival of
students under the Special Commonwealth African Assistance Plan, mostly from
Ghana and Nigeria (Okai 2001). The removal of the last vestiges of the White
Australia policy saw small numbers of skilled African-origin immigrants but
there also has been an inflow of refugees. In 1996 there were only 3,077 West
Africans – increasing to 5,641 in 2001 – with Nigeria and Ghana the
main countries of origin. However, by 2006 their numbers had expanded to
11,255, with most coming under the skilled or family streams of the migration
program.

There are larger communities of people from East Africa in Australia but, as
indicated earlier, much of this movement involved European-origin descendents of
former colonial functionaries. The largest community is from Kenya, which
numbered 6,869 in 2001, and recent migration has been dominated by people of
African origin (Njuki 2003). Moreover, the period between 2001and 2006 saw a
substantial inflow from East Africa, with numbers increasing by 35.6% to
74,228.

Table 8: Australia, Sub-Saharan Africa-born: Ancestry
groups, 2001-06

Source: Khoo and Lucas 2004; ABS Table Builder 2006

Ancestry Group 2001 2006 Percentage Change 2001-06
No. Percentage No. Percentage
Sub-Saharan African 68,204 41.8 95,717 41.2 40.3
English 40,210 24.7 50,207 21.6 24.9
Other UK 10,547 6.5 18,927 8.2 79.5
Other European 27,336 16.8 28,282 12.2 3.5
Indian 6,888 4.2 10,672 4.6 54.9

 

The Australian censuses of 1986, 2001 and 2006 included questions on
ancestry, which shed some light on the ethnic origin of African migrants to
Australia. The ‘ancestry’ responses of Sub-Saharan Africa-born
people (summarised in Table
8
) indicate the importance of non-African heritage among Africa-born
migrants to Australia, even after the substantial increase in numbers of
Sub-Saharan African migrants between 2001 and 2006. The main Sub-Saharan
African ancestries mentioned by the Africa-born in 2006, according to whether
they spoke English or another language at home, are included in Table 9. Among
the large groups in Australia, only 5.1% of Sudanese spoke English compared with
85.8% of South Africans.

It is clear that the stock of African immigrants has increased substantially
in Australia since the 2006 census. This is evident in the estimates of
birthplace groups produced by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS 2006b).
Unfortunately African birthplaces are not available as a group. However Table 10 shows that there
has been very rapid growth of the African population, especially since the turn
of the century. The growth of the Sudanese population is especially marked,
with the population increasing by almost six times between 2000 and 2005.

Table 9: Multiple
ancestry response by English/other language spoken at home, 2006

Source: ABS Table Builder 2006

Ancestry Multi Response Language

English Other Number % Speaking English





Sub-Saharan African, nfd 41 31 72 56.9
Central and West African, nfd 100 71 171 58.5
Akan 48 101 149 32.2
Ghanaian 1030 1402 2432 42.4
Nigerian 1144 719 1863 61.4
Yoruba 43 121 164 26.2
Ivorean 32 69 101 31.7
Liberian 471 373 844 55.8
Sierra Leonean 167 508 675 24.7
Central and West African, nec (includes Fang, Fulani, Kongo) 832 1652 2484 33.5
Central and West African 3867 5016 8883 43.5
Southern and East African, nfd 303 84 387 78.3
Afrikaner 1584 1403 2987 53.0
Angolan 54 83 137 39.4
Eritrean 274 2240 2514 10.9
Ethiopian 1136 4169 5305 21.4
Kenyan 993 1130 2123 46.8
Malawian 69 106 175 39.4
Mauritian 12767 7134 19901 64.2
Mozambican 30 96 126 23.8
Oromo 45 457 502 9.0
Seychellois 1961 202 2163 90.7
Somali 616 5512 6128 10.1
South African 67647 11180 78827 85.8
Tanzanian 171 193 364 47.0
Ugandan 342 194 536 63.8
Zambian 603 309 912 66.1
Zimbabwean 5433 2117 7550 72.0
Amhara 14 120 134 10.4
Batswana 77 362 439 17.5
Dinka 42 1205 1247 3.4
Hutu 3 11 14 21.4
Masai 26 10 36 72.2
Nuer 14 270 284 4.9
Tigrayan 10 82 92 10.9
Tigre 5 20 25 20.0
Zulu 136 126 262 51.9
Southern and East African, nec (includes Afar, Namibian, Tutsi) 591 2123 2714 21.8
Southern and East African 94946 40938 135884 69.9
Algerian 301 565 866 34.8
Egyptian 10685 20699 31384 34.0
Coptic 271 1594 1865 14.5
Sudanese 861 16003 16864 5.1

 

Table 10: Australia: Estimated resident population,
1996-2008

Source: ABS 2006b, 39-40; ABS 2009, 31-32

Region/Country 1996 2000 2005 2008 Percentage Change
2007-08 1996-2008 (average annual)
North Africa/Middle East 211,824 231,741 284,998 315,524 3.0 3.4
Sub-Saharan Africa 118,405 145,867 204,955 245,139 4.6 6.3
South Africa 61,749 80,718 113,783 136,201 7.9 6.8
Egypt 37,875 36,948 38,102 39,940 1.8 0.4
Sudan 2,637 4,199 23,787 24,796 7.3 20.5
Zimbabwe 9,960 11,702 19,655 27,369 11.0 8.8
Mauritius 18,949 18,503 19,149 23,379 7.4 1.8
Kenya 5,924 7,037 10,574 12,361 7.3 6.9
Ethiopia 2,662 3,703 6,925 6,981 7.9 9.2
Somalia 2,305 4,069 5,431 5,286 5.5 7.8
Zambia 2,855 3,315 3,886 4,970 5.2 5.2

Note: 2008 data is not available for Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia and Zambia;
2007 data is shown.

Percentage change/growth is shown to 2006-07/1996-2007.

Table 11: Australian Africa-born population: Ten fastest
growing and ten slowest growing birthplace groups, 2001-06

Source: ABS 2001 and 2006 Population of Census and Housing

Ten fastest growing

Ten slowest growing
Country Growth Rate
Country Growth Rate
Burundi 97.6
Guinea-Bissau -11.8
Liberia 64.9
Comoros -7.8
Guinea 64.2
Chad -5.6
Sierra Leone 37.9
Niger -4.7
Rwanda 34.4
Benin -4.6
Sudan 31.2
Sao Tome and Principe -3.9
Congo 31.0
Cape Verde 0.0
Cote d'Ivoire 29.9
Mauritania 0.0
C. African Republic 27.2
Mayotte 0.0
Gambia 19.7   Egypt 0.0

 

Recent changes in African birthplace groups are evident in Table 11, which shows the
ten fastest growing and ten slowest growing groups over the 2001-06 intercensal
period. It will be noticed that, of the largest groups in Australia, only Sudan
appears in the ‘fastest growing’ category. Refugee-humanitarian
groups are especially represented among the fastest growing groups, while many
of the slowest growing groups are relatively small in number, except for the
Egyptian community.

7 Flows
of African migrants to Australia

Thus far we have examined African immigration to Australia using census stock
data. It is also possible to analyse flow data, which is collected as migrants
pass through Australia’s borders. Immigration to Australia is a highly
planned and controlled process. In the first three post-war decades, the
imperatives of Australian immigration policy were both economic and demographic.
On the one hand, there were massive labour shortages in the post-war boom period
and labour – skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled – was needed for
the massive growth in manufacturing. There was also the ‘populate or
perish’ argument, which followed the near invasion of the country by
Japanese forces during World War Two. With the end of the ‘long
boom’ in the 1970s, the reduction in manufacturing employment and
increases in unemployment, immigration policy was redefined to involve a planned
numerical intake made up of a number of policy components:

  • refugee and humanitarian movement, to support the resettlement of
    refugees
  • family migration, to enable family members to join earlier generations of
    immigrants
  • economic migration, to recruit people with skills in short supply in the
    economy
  • special categories, mainly involving New Zealanders, people with special
    talents, etc.

Over the years there has been a fluctuation in the
significance of the various components of immigration. In the most recent
period there has been a deliberate policy to increase the proportion of skilled
workers in the immigration intake.

Table 12: Program Management Structure (2005-06)
Migration (non-Humanitarian) Program

Source: DIMIA 2006, 19

Skill Family Special Eligibility
Business Skills, ENS and Distinguished Talent Spouses and Dependent Children Can be capped
Demand Driven Demand Driven
State-Specific and Regional Migration Exempt from capping
Demand Driven

Skilled Independent and Skilled Fiancés and Interdependents
Australian Sponsored Can be capped subject to demand for
Generally points tested spouse and dependent child places
Planning level adjusted subject to demand in Business Skills, ENS and
State-Specific and Regional Migration Categories
Parents and Preferential/Other Family

Can be capped subject to demand in

all other Family categories

 

Australia’s current migration program operates within set planning
levels and is made up of humanitarian and non-humanitarian components. The
Skilled Migration Program forms part of the latter and its various elements are
summarised in Table 12.
Within the program some components (ie Business Skills, Employer Nominated
Scheme, Distinguished Talents, Spouses and Dependent Children) are demand-driven
and not subject to capping. There are three main eligibility migration
categories in the Migration Program – Family, Skill and Special
Eligibility. Family migration consists of a number of categories under which
the potential migrant can be sponsored by a relative who is an Australian
citizen or permanent resident of Australia. In recent years there has been a
significant shift away from the family category toward the skilled category, as
shown in Figure 3.

The Skilled Migration Program consists of a number of categories of
prospective migrants, where there is a demand for particular occupational
skills, outstanding talents or business skills. These categories are:

  • Independent migrants: not sponsored by an employer or relative in Australia,
    they must pass a points test which includes skills, age and English language
    ability (44,594 arrivals in 2008-09).
  • Skilled-Australian Linked: commencing on 1 July 1997 (replacing the
    Concessional Family Category), applicants must pass a points test on skills, age
    and English language ability and receive additional points for sponsorship by
    relatives in Australia (10,504 arrivals in 2008-09) (also includes Regional
    Linked for applicants sponsored by relatives in regional areas; not points
    tested).

Figure 3: Australia: Migration Program outcomes by
stream, 1976-77 to 2008-09

Source: DIAC Population Flows: Immigration Aspects, various issues and
DIAC 2009

Australia: Migration Program outcomes by stream, 1976-77 to 2008-09


  • Employer-sponsored: employers may nominate (or ‘sponsor’)
    personnel from overseas through the Employer Nomination Scheme (ENS), Regional
    Sponsored Migration Scheme (RSMS) and Labour Agreements. These visas enable
    Australian employers to fill skilled permanent vacancies with overseas personnel
    if they cannot find suitably qualified workers in Australia (38,030 arrivals in
    2008-09)
  • Business skills migration: encourages successful business people to settle
    permanently in Australia and develop new business opportunities (7,397 arrivals
    in 2008-09)
  • Distinguished talent: for distinguished individuals with special or unique
    talents of benefit to Australia (200 arrivals in 2008-09).

In recent
times there has been greater government intervention to shape the content of the
intake of immigrants to better contribute to Australia’s development
goals. This has seen greater emphasis placed on skills in migrant selection, as
well as the development of business migration programs to attract entrepreneurs
with substantial capital to invest in the country. Australia, like Canada, has
micro-managed the qualifications of its migrant intake since the 1970s with the
introduction of points assessment schemes.

The Skill Stream of the Australia’s migration program aims to attract
people with qualifications and relevant work experience to address specific
skill shortages in Australia and enhance the size, skill level and productivity
of the Australian labour force. In 2007-08 a total of 108,540 people were
granted visas under this category, increasing to 114,777 in 2008-09. In 2001-02
22.6% were ‘onshore’ applicants, compared with 42.7% in 2007-08.
India accounted for 22% of all 2008-09 Skill Stream visa grants. Other major
source countries included the United Kingdom (18%), China (ten per cent), South
Africa (seven per cent) and Sri Lanka (seven per cent).

The annual flows of arrivals of Africa-born immigrants since World War Two
are set out in Figure 4.
There has been a steady growth, with peaks around 1970, 1982 and 1987; however
the highest levels have been recorded in recent years. There was an increase
from 9,988 in 2000-01 to 11,814 in 2003-04, followed by a record 15,781 in
2004-05, which then fell back to 11,841 in 2005-06. The African migration
intake has increased numerically and also as a proportion of all immigrants.
People born in Africa made up only two per cent of immigrants in 1950s but, as
Figure 5 shows, reached an unprecedented 12.8% in 2004-05.

Figure 4: Australia: Immigrants from Africa,
1945-2009

Source: CBCS Demography; DIMIA Australian Immigration Consolidated Statistics
and DIAC Immigration Update, various issues; DIAC unpublished data

Australia: Immigrants from Africa, 1945-2009

Figure 5: Immigrants from Africa as a percentage of total
immigrants, 1945-2009

Source: CBCS Demography; DIMIA Australian Immigration Consolidated
Statistics
and DIAC Immigration Update, various issues; DIAC
unpublished data

Immigrants from Africa as a percentage of total immigrants, 1945-2009

Table 13: Settler arrivals born in Sub-Saharan Africa
compared with total intake according to eligibility category, 2007-08

Source: DIAC 2008, 21

Eligibility category Sub-Saharan Africa

Number
Total

Number
Percentage of total from Sub-Saharan Africa
Family 1,984 38,404 5.2
Skill


Sponsored 968 11,330 8.5
ENS 588 4,263 13.8
Business 296 5,370 5.5
Independent 3,319 44,441 7.5
Special Eligibility - 131 0.0
Humanitarian Program 2,444 9,507 25.7
Non-Program Migration


NZ Citizen 966 34,491 2.8
Other 38 1,428 2.7
Total 10,603 149,365 7.1

 

Table 13 shows that in
2007-08 Sub-Saharan Africa, in which South Africans are the dominant group, was
over-represented in the following areas of immigration eligibility to Australia:
the ‘Independent’ and ‘Employer-sponsored’ categories
and the ‘Humanitarian’ group. Whereas some 29.8% of all settlers
that year were independent migrants who entered Australia via the points test,
this applied to 31.3% from Sub-Saharan Africa. The growth of refugee migration
in recent years has seen a considerable dilution in the proportion of African
migrants in the skill categories. In 2007-08, 48.8% of all migrants from
Sub-Saharan Africa were accepted through the skill categories. This reflects
the substantial migration from South Africa, along with the small, highly
skilled outflow from other nations such as Kenya and Nigeria, which raises the
spectre of ‘brain drain’. For example, Table 14 shows the
substantial net flow of doctors and nurses from Africa, especially South Africa,
to Australia. Many of them go to rural and remote areas of Australia, where
there is an overall shortage of medical personnel (Australian Institute of
Health and Welfare 2004). This has led to a debate in Australia about the
ethics of such mobility and raises issues such as:

  • developing a code of conduct for ethical recruitment
  • possible reimbursement of the sending country for costs incurred in training
    personnel
  • the need for more training of health workers in Australia
  • selectively limiting proactive recruitment of skilled health
    professionals
  • better supporting health care training systems in less developed
    countries
  • encouraging the return of these doctors to their countries of origin after
    they complete a period in Australia.

(Reid 2002; Scott et al. 2004)

Table 14: Australia: Arrivals and departures of skilled
health workers, 1993-2007

Source: DIAC unpublished data


Other Africa South Africa

Doctors Nurses Doctors Nurses
Permanent Arrivals 58 314 316 696
Permanent Departures 15 37 22 63
Net +43 +277 +294 +633





Long Term Arrivals 633 1686 1461 1624
Long Term Departures 305 781 587 495
Net +268 +905 +874 +1129

 

At the 2006 population census 3.6% of the Australian medical workforce was
born in Africa or the Middle East (12,241 persons) and 10.4% in Asia (35,551
persons) (AIHW 2003; ABS 2006 Census). It has been argued by some doctors in
Australia that a more ethical approach to recruitment of health workers should
be adopted (Scott et al. 2004). However Australia, like other OECD
nations, has through its contemporary immigration policies, encouraged the flow
of skilled personnel from less developed nations, including many of those in
Africa. Under the Colombo Plan and other later programs to train students from
Asia and Africa in Australia, students were compelled to return to their
homeland for at least two years following completion of their studies. This is
no longer the case; indeed, in recent years, Australia has facilitated
completing students in some skill areas to gain permanent residence in Australia
without returning home. Moreover, the increased skill focus in
Australia’s migration program has encouraged the outflow of skilled
workers from less developed nations.

The other major area of concentration is in the refugee-humanitarian area. Table 13 shows that while
6.4% of all settlers were accepted under this category in 2007-08, a total of
23.1% of this group were from Sub-Saharan Africa. There has been a shift in the
origin of refugee-humanitarian settlers toward the Horn of Africa. Table 15 shows that in 1997
only eight per cent of Australia’s offshore refugees came from Africa, the
number had increased to 70.6% in 2003-04 and 34.5% in 2007-08. In 2004 the
Minister of Immigration announced that Australia would substantially increase
its refugee intake from Africa, especially Sudan (Vanstone 2004). This resulted
in a considerable increase in the number of refugee-humanitarian settlers from
Africa. Table 14 shows
that there was almost a doubling between 2003 and 2004 and the share of Africans
of the total refugee intake also doubled to 70.6 percent. However, the last
Immigration Minister of the Howard Government reduced the African intake of
refugees because of concerns regarding their ability to adjust to Australian
society (see Table 15) and
their numbers reduced somewhat after 2004-05. The growth of these groups
presents challenges for their successful settlement since they are culturally
very different to the host community; they often lack English language, may have
a history of broken or limited education and have large families which can
sometimes lead to difficulties in finding suitable housing. This group of
migrants also experience considerable problems in entering the Australian labour
market.

The trends in permanent settler arrivals from Africa over the last decade are
shown in Table 16. It
indicates that of more than a million permanent arrivals between 1998 and 2009,
some 11% (132,000 people) came from Africa. The trend is of particular interest
as it increased from six per cent of the total intake in 1993-94 to 14.4% in
2003-04, before declining to 11.2% in 2005-06 and to 11% in 2007-08. The
dominance of arrivals from South Africa is evident, accounting for 41.4% of the
total. The flow has been consistent over the period but increased substantially
in 1997-98. The dominance of South Africa in immigration stocks from Africa has
reduced significantly since the turn of the century. In the period between 1993
and 2000 South Africans made up 55.8% of all African settler arrivals. However,
from 2001-06 it dropped to 33% and fell again in 2005-07 to 26.8%, before
recovering in 2007-08 to 41.8%. In 2004-05 there were more settler arrivals
from Sudan (5,654) than from South Africa (4,594). In subsequent years,
however, South Africans were again the largest group of African settler
arrivals. The outflow from Zimbabwe increased sharply in 2001-02, following the
increased pressure on European-origin Zimbabweans from the Mugabe regime. The
number of Kenya-born arrivals has also increased in recent years, however this
probably includes some children born to Sudanese or Ethiopian parents in UNHCR
refugee camps in that country.

Table 15: Australia: Offshore settler arrivals from
Africa under the Refugee-Humanitarian Program, 1992-93 to 2007-08

Source: DIAC, Population Flows: Immigration Aspects, various issues
and Immigration Update, various issues

Year Europe Asia(3)
America Africa Middle East(1)(2) Total % Africa
1992-93 4,875 3,207
393 742 1,690 10,907 6.8
1994-95 6,258 3,204
164 845 3,163 13,364 6.2
1995-96 6,843 2,392
234 940 3,415 13,824 6.8
1996-97 4,131 2,084
88 772 2,577 9,652 8.0
1997-98 5,307 649
83 1,476 2,952 10,467 14.1
1998-99 4,724 1,038
30 1,457 2,267 9,526 15.3
1999-2000 3,421 113
30 1,733 2,205 7,502 23.1
2000-01 3,437
399
1,998 2,158 7,992 25.0
2001-02 2,707
422
2,622 2,707 8,458 31.0
2002-03 1,166
699
5,478 4,313 11,656 47.0
2003-04 354
236
8,332 2,880 11,802 70.6
2004-05 21
416
8,435 3,174 12,096 30.2
2005-06 51
1,263
7,106 4,338 12,758 55.7
2006-07 58
3,586
6,473 2,123 12,240 52.9
2007-08 54
4,011
3,279 2,147 9,491 34.5


(1) Includes North Africa in 1992-93 until 1998-99

(2) Includes South Asia
in 1999-2000 to 2004-05

(3) Excludes South Asia in 1999-2000 to 2004-05

The most striking pattern in Table 16 has been the
increasing flow of refugee-humanitarian settlers, especially those from Sudan,
which was the second largest birthplace group in the flow from Africa over the
last decade. However, more than three quarters (78.4%) of the 21,433 arrivals
from Sudan between 1996 and 2006 arrived in the last four years. The reduction
in the refugee intake from Africa is shown in the decline after that time, from
5,654 in 2004-05 to 1,018 in 2007-08. The flow from Ethiopia and Somalia, while
smaller, has also increased in recent years. However, declines in each of the
source countries of refugees have been evident since 2004-05.

Table 16: Australia: Africa-born settler arrivals,
1997-98 to 2007-08

Source: DIAC unpublished data

Country of Birth Year ending June 30
1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 Total
ALGERIA 35 32 25 59 34 36 29 28 27 16 24 345
ANGOLA 1 3 5 2 10 3 1 3 3 12 4 47
BENIN 1





2 1 11 23 38
BOTSWANA 70 12 10 19 16 26 27 29 24 36 21 290
BURKINA FASO



3 1 1

1 2 8
BURUNDI
1 1 5 5 8 51 259 442 440 228 1,440
CAMEROON 1 1 2
4 9 4 4 5 11 29 70
CAPE VERDE







1 1 2 4
CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC




1
1 13 15
CENTRAL AND WEST AFRICA, NFD








0
CHAD






1 2 4 4 11
COMOROS


3
1


3
7
CONGO
3 3 20 8 23 137 276 91 103 32 696
CONGO, DEM. REP OF 4 7 3 4 8 8 26 21 155 569 474 1,279
COTE D IVOIRE 3 2 1 2
5 2 111 55 83 77 341
DJIBOUTI 1 9 5 7 6 6 2 9 1 6 3 55
EQUATORIAL GUINEA









0
EGYPT 310 358 360 423 354 551 736 857 812 756 627 6,144
ERITREA 67 187 142 137 133 109 148 125 168 138 128 1,482
ETHIOPIA 280 371 357 397 396 570 718 586 429 575 466 5,145
GABON


1 1

2 1
1 6
GAMBIA 2 4

1 3
2 4 6 3 25
GHANA 87 137 94 84 76 95 137 143 217 245 180 1,495
GUINEA 1 1 1 4 8 25 16 152 101 147 87 543
GUINEA-BISSAU



3 1

1

5
KENYA 165 297 231 256 413 574 617 806 648 701 459 5,167
LESOTHO


2 7 3 1 8 2 4
27
LIBERIA 4 2
18 113 145 114 851 564 539 255 2,605
LIBYA 15 8 12 18 9 19 24 18 20 19 24 186
MADAGASCAR
7 4 4 5 8 3 1 4 6 5 47
MALAWI 3 15 9 14 32 19 32 40 17 35 39 255
MALI

1

1 1 1 1
1 6
MAURITANIA
1




1 3 3 42 50
MAURITIUS 84 64 118 138 153 170 238 227 260 308 388 2,148
MAYOTTE










0
MOROCCO 24 25 31 18 24 41 39 41 45 49 53 390
MOZAMBIQUE 17 10 7 14 18 21 20 15 8 13 18 161
NAMIBIA 17 27 27 37 39 48 23 53 39 36 28 374
NIGER 15 1 7 7 6 1 1 2 9 6 3 58
NIGERIA 43 82 56 86 126 89 102 111 160 187 185 1,227
R'EUNION
5 5
2
2 1 3 1 1 20
RWANDA
1 2 1 3 14 44 47 68 93 54 327
SAO TOME & PRINCIPE









0
SENEGAL 8 2 6 2 11 6 4 7 12 6 54 118
SEYCHELLES 6 17 19 1 32 20 36 25 27 36 18 237
SIERRA LEONE 5 6 61 127 328 174 132 642 532 519 276 2,802
SOMALIA 688 507 284 319 359 203 221 246 264 296 156 3,543
SOUHERN AND EAST AFRICA, NFD 2
1 1
1 1


1 7
SOUTH AFRICA 4,281 5,024 5,691 5,754 5,714 4,603 5,849 4,594 3,953 3,996 5,166 54,625
SUDAN 430 566 594 1,145 1,078 2,775 4,591 5,654 3,783 2,513 1,018 24,147
ST HELENA




1
1 1

3
SWAZILAND 7 12 8 8 6 6 11 3 10 6 4 81
TANZANIA 27 20 16 13 26 24 55 176 405 344 291 1,397
TOGO


3 1 1 2 8 3 49 99 166
TUNISIA 11 11 5 9 6 22 5 4 9 10 10 102













UGANDA 14 15 17 22 48 71 98 185 161 277 155 1,063
ZAMBIA 79 72 90 84 123 77 129 98 93 127 109 1,081
ZIMBABWE 273 322 573 720 1,068 1,197 1,620 1,258 1,104 935 1,019 10,089
Total Africa 7,081 8,247 8,884 9,988 10,816 11,814 16,050 17,735 14,748 14,278 12,359 132,000
Total Settler Arrivals 77,327 84,143 92,272 107,366 88,900 93,914 111,590 123,424 131,593 140,148 149,365 1,200,042
% of Total 9.2 9.8 9.6 9.3 12.2 12.6 14.4 14.4 11.2 10.2 8.3 11.0













REGION OF BIRTH 1997-98 1998-99 1999-00 2000-01 2001-02 2002-03 2003-04 2004-05 2005-06 2006-07 2007-08 Total
North Africa 825 1,000 1,027 1,672 1,505 3,444 5,424 6,602 4,696 3,363 1,756 31,314
Central & West Africa 174 249 235 358 697 587 679 2,338 1,918 2,491 1,842 11,568
Southern & East Africa 6,082 6,998 7,622 7,958 8,614 7,783 9,947 8,795 8,134 8,424 8,761 89,118
Total Africa 7,081 8,247 8,884 9,988 10,816 11,814 16,050 17,735 14,748 14,278 12,359 132,000

Figure 6: Distribution of birthplace of settlers to Australia,
1970

Source: Department of Immigration 1972

Distribution of birthplace of settlers to Australia, 1970

Figure 7: Distribution of birthplace of settlers to
Australia, 2007-08

Source: DIAC unpublished data

Distribution of birthplace of settlers to Australia, 2007-08

The shift in the origin of settlers coming to Australia in the last three
decades is demonstrated in Figure 6 and Figure 7. The former shows
that in 1970 the dominant countries of origin were European, although early
flows from Asia were evident and small numbers came from Egypt and South Africa.
On the other hand, Figure
7
, which shows the 2007-08 pattern, presents a quite different pattern; Asia
provides the majority of settlers and the beginnings of larger scale movement
from Africa is also apparent. Figure 8 shows that, over the
last decade, most settlers to Australia from Africa came from South Africa, with
Horn of Africa and East Africa countries also providing significant numbers and
West Africa gaining in importance.

Figure 8: Africa: Birthplace of settler arrivals,
1993-2008

Source: DIAC unpublished data

Africa: Birthplace of settler arrivals, 1993-2008

As explained in the following section, Australia made a major change in its
immigration policy in the mid-1990s with the introduction of a range of
temporary migration policies. This has facilitated the large-scale,
non-permanent entry of skilled workers to the country (Khoo et al. 2003).
One corollary of this has been the increasing proportion of Australia’s
permanent immigration intake comprising ‘onshore settlers’ –
persons who had entered Australia with a temporary residence or visitor visa who
subsequently applied for, and received, permanent residence. Hence, Figure 9 shows a significant
increase in the numbers of these onshore migrants in recent years, rising from
31,948 (19.1% of the total intake) in 2002-03 to 43,895 (26.2%) in 2004-05 and
56,575 (27.5%) in 2007-08. The proportion of African permanent additions made
up by onshore settlers also increased from 18.1% (2,621 persons) to 27.5% (4,690
persons) over this period; however, it is mainly migrants from South Africa,
Zimbabwe and Kenya who make the transition from temporary to permanent
residence. In fact, in 2007-08 some 35.6% of all migrants from these countries
were onshore arrivals, accounting for 78.3 percent of all onshore migrants from
Africa but only 53.8 percent of ‘offshore’ migrants.

Figure 9: Australia: Onshore residence visa grants,
1989-90 to 2007-08

Source: DIAC Population Flows: Immigration Aspects, various issues

Australia: Onshore residence visa grants, 1989-90 to 2007-08

8 Non-permanent
migration

An increasing proportion of Australia’s skilled migrant workers come
from ‘onshore’ approval, with people entering Australia under some
other visa category and then applying to settle in the country. This process
has been made easier in recent times for some groups. For example, overseas
students who graduate from Australian universities can readily gain entry to the
country with their qualifications not having to be assessed. The assessment of
migrants’ professional qualifications is an issue of concern and debate in
Australia. The degree to which there is a necessity to have qualifications
formally assessed varies with the profession and qualifications of the
immigrant. In some skill areas (eg information technology) there is little
professional regulation, while in others (eg doctors) there is a high level of
professional assessment and regulation.

In post-war Australia there has been bipartisan agreement that permanent
settlement of a significant number of migrants is desirable. Accordingly, each
post-war government has had an active immigration program while, in some other
OECD nations, non-permanent labour migration has been strongly opposed. There
has been no serious challenge to the broad support for permanent settlement that
has dominated Australian policy on international migration. However, there has,
in recent times, been a change in focus (Hugo 1999). In response to significant
structural changes in the Australian economy, internationalisation of labour
markets and globalisation forces more generally, there has been a broad shift in
policy which has allowed large numbers of people to enter and work in Australia
on a non-permanent basis. Figure 10 depicts recent
trends in the major non-settlement categories. It is argued elsewhere that this
represents a major change in Australian immigration policy (Hugo 1999). It
should be noted that this visa class has not been extended to unskilled and low
skilled areas; it is only available to people with skills in demand and
entrepreneurs.

The Temporary Business Visa category was introduced in 1996 and as DIMA
(2000, 48) explained at the time:

Figure 10: Temporary Migration to Australia by Category, 1986 to
2009

Source: DIAC Population Flows: Immigration Aspects, various issues

Temporary Migration to Australia by Category, 1986 to 2009

The employer sponsored temporary business visas allow employers to fill skill
shortages from overseas and assess new ideas, skills and technology. The visa
holders tend to be highly skilled and have relatively high income levels and
therefore able to contribute to economic growth through improved productivity
and increased demand for goods and services. The entry of managers and skilled
specialists under these categories can also enhance Australia’s ability to
compete in international markets.

One of the distinguishing features of the exponential increase in
non-permanent migration to Australia is that the origin countries of this group
are quite different to those of permanent settlers. Students are an important
new temporary entry group to the country. Australia has a greater ratio of
overseas-to-local students in its tertiary education institutions than any other
OECD nation (Abella 2005). However, Table 17 shows that
Sub-Saharan Africa only accounts for three per cent of overseas students and
North Africa and the Middle East only 2.4%. Nevertheless the numbers of the
former group increased from 4,889 in 2003-04 to 5,743 in 2004-05 and the latter
grew from 3,433 to 4,524. The OECD (2004) has found that Africans make up 10.9%
of all foreign students in the world, which means they are substantially
under-represented in Australia.

Table 17: Australia: Students present by region of
birth, 30 June 2005

Source: DIMIA 2005, 36

Region of Birth Students Present
No. %
Oceania 2,463 1.28
Europe 13,613 7.06
North Africa and the Middle East 4,524 2.35
Southeast Asia 39,989 20.74
Northeast Asia 77,664 40.29
Southern and Central Asia 26,762 13.88
Northern America 5,735 2.97
South and Central America and the Caribbean 5,096 2.64
Sub-Saharan Africa 5,743 2.98
Not Stated 11,186 5.80
Total 192,775 100.00


 

Figure 11: Australia: Temporary resident arrivals, 2005

Source: Drawn from data in DIMIA 2005

GH4467

The origin of temporary resident arrivals – which includes long-stay
business travellers, working holiday makers and occupational trainees, but
excludes students and visitors – is depicted in Figure 11. It is clear that the African contribution
of such arrivals comes almost totally from South Africa, which is an important
source of business travellers and skilled temporary resident workers (Visa
Categories 456 and 457). Table 18 shows that, in fact,
there is a higher proportion of temporary residents to Australia who originate
from Sub-Saharan Africa than permanent settlers, which largely reflects the
movement from South Africa.

It is apparent that Africa, especially South Africa, has participated in the
substantial expansion of temporary migration to Australia. Moreover, Table 19 shows that there has
been a major increase in the number of Africa-born persons visiting Australia on
a long-term basis. The numbers doubled between 1994-95 and 1998-99, doubled
again by 2005 and subsequently doubled again. This reflects the strong
involvement of Africans, especially South Africans, in the influx of skilled
temporary workers to Australia, especially in the health and information
technology sectors. The table also shows that the numbers of temporary entrants
arriving in Australia is greater than the out-movement, which means the net gain
of ‘temporary’ migrants has increased. This has been a feature of
Australia’s population change in recent years. Net migration has
accounted for around half of the national population increase, however half of
that net gain has been in temporary movement. It remains to be seen how much of
the temporary migration will lead to applications for permanent settlement.
There are some strong indications of this increasingly occurring, with over a
quarter of Australian permanent ‘settlers’ now being
‘onshore’ – in other words, people who are already in
Australia usually on a temporary residence visa (Hugo 2005). The dominance of
South Africa in African temporary migration to Australia is readily apparent in Figure 12, which shows the country of origin of
long-term arrivals from Africa over the last decade.

Table 18: Australia: Origins of the Australian
foreign-born total and temporary resident populations, 2008

Source: ABS 2009 and DIAC 2008


Total Overseas-Born,

2008
Temporary Resident

Overseas-Born, 2008

Total Percent Total Percent
Oceania 625,026 11.4 3,997 1.7
Europe 2,391,656 43.7 98,439 41.3
Middle East and North Africa 315,524 5.8 4,163 1.7
Southeast Asia 700,033 12.8 22,363 9.4
Northeast Asia 562,074 10.3 53,643 22.5
Southern and Central Asia 404,772 7.4 18,381 7.7
Northern America 122,179 2.2 15,737 6.6
Southern America 109,719 2.0 5,148 2.2
Sub-Saharan Africa 245,142 4.5 16,657 7.0
Total 5,476,125 100.0 238,528 100.0

* Excludes 6,196 Temporary Residents who did not state their birthplace

 

Table 19: Australia: Long-term movement to and from
Africa and Australia, 1994-2008

Source: DIAC unpublished data


Long Term Resident Long Term Visitor Total Long Term

In Out In Out Net Migration
1994-95 1,520 1,528 1,256 832 +416
1996-96 1,556 1,440 1,497 922 +691
1996-97 1,798 1,460 2,045 951 +1,432
1997-98 1,710 1,517 2,867 1,414 +1,646
1998-99 1,650 1,427 4,159 1,221 +3,161
1999-2000 1,829 1,468 4,546 1,748 +3,159
2000-01 2,075 1,488 5,616 1,800 +4,403
2001-02 2,036 1,429 5,939 1,866 +4,680
2002-03 2,016 1,336 6,502 2,556 +4,626
2003-04 2,045 1,427 6,683 2,939 +4,362
2004-05 1,981 1,428 7,443 2,833 +5,163
2005-06 2,132 1,529 9,981 2,926 +7,658
2006-07 2,211 1,516 11,602 3,408 +8,888
2007-08 2,440 1,626 15,415 4,050 +12,179


 

Figure 12: Africa: Country of birth of long-term arrivals to
Australia, 1994-2008

Source: DIAC unpublished data

Africa: Country of birth of long-term arrivals to Australia, 1994-2008

It is also interesting to note the shifts in short-term movement in recent
years. Table 20 shows that there has been an
increase in both Australian movement to Africa and also in the opposite
direction. In particular, African short-term movement (involving primarily
tourists and short-term business visitors) to Australia has increased
substantially, almost doubling between 1994-95 and 1998-99. There was a
downturn following the ‘September 11’ incidents and the heightened
security concerns of travellers, but this recovered to reach record levels in
2007-08. For most years the number of short-term visitors going to Africa has
been larger than the movement in the other direction. This may indicate that
short-term movers from Australia go to Africa and then subsequently travel on to
other foreign destinations like Europe. Figure 13 shows that South Africa is the main origin of short-term arrivals to Australia,
although a significant number of arrivals also come from East Africa.

Table 20: Australia: Short-term movement to and from Africa and
Australia, 1994-2008

Source: DIAC unpublished data


Short-term resident Short-term visitor

In Out In Out
1994-95 35,749 35,495 41,986 43,562
1996-96 42,623 46,858 39,689 45,714
1996-97 45,666 54,553 55,985 55,151
1997-98 46,404 51,008 58,325 57,374
1998-99 51,498 50,428 77,828 78,458
1999-2000 50,677 57,595 71,868 75,405
2000-01 47,893 52,770 73,144 85,542
2001-02*



2002-03 60,051 63,148 62,709 65,421
2003-04 68,212 71,261 72,443 76,987
2004-05 77,705 79,033 66,887 70,628
2005-06 84,817 86,385 74,013 75,017
2006-07 94,510 97,799 80,673 82,113
2007-08 10,550 106,487 88,091 90,853
* Short-term movement not available


 

Figure 13: Africa: Birthplace of short-term moves to Australia,
1994-2008

Source: DIAC unpublished data

Africa: Birthplace of short-term moves to Australia, 1994-2008


9 Movement
from Australia to Africa

There is a tendency for Australia to be categorised as a purely immigration
country but, in fact, it also is a country of significant emigration. Table 21 shows that, in
recent years, departures on a long-term or permanent basis have been very
substantial compared to the immigration intake. Former settlers have formed a
major part of the outflow, as Figure 14 indicates. In
2008-09 permanent and long-term departures (326,175) reached unprecedented
levels. The proportion of Australian-born people among the permanent departures
reached its highest-ever level of 41,249 in 2008-09 (50.9%).

Table 21: Australia: Settlers and long-term migration,
1987-2007

Source: DIAC, Immigration Update, various issues and unpublished
data


Year

1987-88 1991-92 1995-96 1999-2000 2003-04 2004-05 2005-06 2006-07
Permanent Migration







Arrivals 143,480 107,391 99,139 92,272 111,590 123,420 131,593 140,148
Departures 20,470 29,122 28,670 41,078 59,078 62,606 67,850 72,103
Net 123,010 78,269 70,469 51,194 52,512 60,818 63,743 68,045
Long-term Migration







Arrivals 98,780 126,781 163,578 212,849 289,727 303,496 325,820 373,337
Departures 78,570 115,162 124,386 156,768 177,618 186,342 190,290 203,101
Net 20,210 11,619 39,192 56,081 112,109 117,154 135,530 170,236
Total Permanent and Long-term Net Gain 143,220 89,888 109,661 107,275 164,621 177,972 199,273 238,281
% Net Migration from Long-term Movement 14.1 12.9 35.7 52.3 68.1 65.8 68.0 71.4


 

Figure 14: Australia: Permanent departures of
Australia-born and overseas-born persons from Australia, 1959-60 to
2008-09

Source: DIMIA, Australian Immigration Consolidated Statistics; DIAC, Immigration Update, various issues

Australia: Permanent departures of Australia-born and overseas-born persons from Australia, 1959-60 to 2008-09

Settler loss has been an important feature of the post-war Australian
migration scene, with around a fifth of all settlers subsequently emigrating
from Australia and most returning to their home nation. There has been concern
about settler loss among policy makers (Hugo 1994), however it has a number of
components including migrants who never intended to settle permanently in
Australia, people who are influenced by family changes and those who are not
able to adjust to life in Australia. The pattern of settler loss, while it
varies between birthplace groups (eg it is high among New Zealanders but low
among Vietnamese), has tended to remain a relatively consistent feature of the
post-war migration scene in Australia and fluctuations in numbers are very much
related to earlier levels of immigration. With the recent increase in the skill
profile of migrants it can be expected that there will also be an increase in
settler loss, since skilled migrants have a greater chance of re-migrating than
family migrants.

Table 22 Australia: Birthplace of permanent arrivals
and departures, 2008-09

Source: DIAC, unpublished data

Country of Birth Settler Arrival Resident Permanent Departure Ratio
Number Percentage Number Percentage In:Out
Australia 833 0.5 41,249 50.9 0.02
Other Oceania and Antarctica 29,177 18.5 9,163 11.3 3.18
Europe 29,294 18.5 10,147 12.5 2.89
North Africa and the Middle East 11,143 7.1 2,010 2.5 5.54
South East Asia 21,008 13.3 4,644 5.7 4.52
North East Asia 20,977 13.3 9,302 11.5 2.26
Southern Asia 25,900 16.4 1,093 1.3 23.70
Central Asia 1,731 1.1 104 0.1 16.64
Northern America 2,254 1.4 1,665 2.1 1.35
S America, C America and the Caribbean 1,979 1.3 519 0.6 3.81
Sub - Saharan Africa 13,025 8.2 1,083 1.3 12.03
Supplementary Country Codes 671 0.4 33 0.0 20.33
Not Stated/NEI 29 0.0 6 0.0 4.83
Grand Total 158,021 100.0 81,018 100.0 1.95

 

A rough indication of contemporary patterns of settler loss can be derived by
comparing the birthplace of permanent arrivals and departures to and from
Australia. These data are presented in Table 22. It indicates that
there are relatively high rates of return among settlers from more developed
countries of origin, including New Zealand, Europe and North America. There are
also high rates of return to parts of North East Asia, especially Japan (ABS
2001). Moreover, there is every indication of a low rate of settler return
among African permanent settlers. This is a particular characteristic of
refugee-humanitarian settlers (Hugo 1994).

 

Table 23: Australia: Permanent movement by financial
years, 1991-2009

Sources: DIMIA Australian Immigration Consolidated Statistics; DIAC,
Immigration Update, various issues; DIAC, unpublished data

Year Former Settlers Australia-Born Total
1991-92 19,944 9,178 29,122
1992-93 18,102 9,803 27,905
1993-94 17,353 9,927 27,280
1994-95 16,856 10,092 26,948
1995-96 17,665 11,005 28,670
1996-97 18,159 11,698 29,857
1997-98 19,214 12,771 31,985
1998-99 17,931 17,250 35,181
1999-2000 20,844 20,234 41,078
2000-01 23,440 23,081 46,521
2001-02 24,095 24,146 48,241
2002-03 24,885 25,578 50,463
2003-04 29,977 29,101 59,078
2004-05 31,579 31,027 62,606
2005-06 33,569 34,284 67,853
2006-07 35,221 36,882 72,103
2007-08 37,779 39,144 76,923
2008-09 39,769 41,249 81,018

 

Table 23 reveals that
more than half of permanent departures from Australia in 2001-02 were of
Australia-born persons. While a small number were the Australia-born children
of former settlers, the data indicates that the numbers of Australia-born
persons leaving the country on a permanent basis is increasing especially
quickly, doubling between 1997-98 and 2004-05 and increasing by half again by
2006-07. Focusing on the Australia-born movement to Africa, Table 24 shows that there has
been a stable flow of around 1,000 per annum over the last decade, although
there has been an increase in recent years. However, Africa is clearly not a
significant destination for Australian expatriates. In Australia there is
increasing concern about a ‘brain drain’ of skilled workers to other
countries, despite the fact that there has been a substantial net gain of
skilled migrants (Wood (ed.) 2004). The destinations of permanent departures to
Africa is shown in Figure 15 and it is interesting
that, although the numbers are small, there is not the concentration in South
Africa as there is for other types of movements.

Table 24: Permanent and long-term out-movement of
Australia-born departures to Africa, 1994-95 to 2007-08

Sources: DIAC Movements Data Base

Year Total Percent
1994-95 860 1.7
1995-96 877 1.6
1996-97 912 1.6
1997-98 910 1.4
1998-99 973 1.3
1999-2000 968 1.2
2000-01 1,000 1.1
2001-02 1,516 1.2
2002-03 917 1.0
2003-04 1,024 1.1
2004-05 988 1.0
2005-06 1,092 1.1
2006-07 1,136 1.0
2007-08 1,238 1.1


 

Figure 15: Africa: Birthplace of permanent departures from Australia
to Africa, 1994-2008

Source: DIAC unpublished data

GH4469(d)


10 Australia’s
South African community

The impact of any migration stream on a destination society goes far beyond
the demographic addition of new residents. Migrants always have a different
socio-economic and demographic profile from the broader society in their origin
and destination countries and they inevitably change those populations through
their presence or absence. Moreover, migrants often provide new channels for
the flow of information, goods and capital, which bring about other changes in
those countries of origin and destination. It is important, therefore, to
examine the characteristics of Africans living in Australia. Here we are
heavily reliant on data from the 2006 Australian Census of Population and
Housing. As indicated earlier, however, there has been a substantial expansion
of the African-origin population in Australia since then and this impact will be
revealed when the results of the next census, to be held in August 2011, are
released. In the meantime some data from other sources can be used to provide
additional details about new immigrants to Australia from Africa.

One of the universal features of migration streams is that they tend to be
selective of particular age groups, especially young adults. This is also the
case for African migration to Australia – evident in Figure 16, which overlays the
age-sex distributions of the Africa-born and total populations at the 2006
Australian Census. These reveal quite different age distributions for different
birthplace groups. The long history of South African migration is evident in
the relatively mature age of the population in Australia (see Figure 17). On the other hand, the recent flow of
refugees means that groups born in Horn of Africa countries are substantially
younger. As a result, the overall Africa-born population is over-represented in
the 15-44 age group, which accounts for 51.4% of the Africa-born population but
only 42.2% of the total Australian population. On the other hand, some 7.8% are
aged over 65 compared with 11.1%of the Australian population.

The Australian immigration selection mechanism is highly selective by age.
This is partly due to a strong focus on strengthening the national labour market
and also growing concern about Australia’s ageing population (Costello
2002). Figure 18 overlays
the age composition of the permanent and long-term arrivals from Africa over the
last decade; the dominance of young adults and young families is readily
apparent. Age is also an important component of the Points Assessment Test
applied to potential migrants attempting to enter Australia under the various
skilled migration categories. It is not, however, applied in the
refugee-humanitarian program, under which the bulk of African migrants from
outside South Africa have come to Australia in recent years. Figure 19 shows the age
distribution of entrants from these nations and, while there is some variation,
they are clearly very young populations.

Figure 16: Australia: Age-sex structure of the
Sub-Saharan Africa-born and Australia-born populations, 2006

Source: ABS 2006 Census

Australia: Age-sex structure of the Sub-Saharan Africa-born and Australia-born populations, 2006

Figure 17: Australia: Age structure of South Africa-born population,
2006

Source: ABS 2006 Census

Australia: Age structure of South Africa-born population, 2006

Figure 18: Age-sex distribution of the Africa-born
permanent and long-term arrivals 1994-95 to 2006-07 and the total Australian
population in 2006

Source: ABS 2006 Census; DIAC, unpublished data

Age-sex distribution of the Africa-born permanent and long-term arrivals 1994-95 to 2006-07 and the total Australian population in 2006

One of the most significant demographic events that occurred in Australia
during the 1980s was that, for the first time in the nation’s
post-European history, females outnumbered males. Despite the fact that women
outlive men in Australia to a greater extent than most countries (Hugo, 1986),
the dominance of males has, until recently, more than counter-balanced the
effect of longevity. However, as shown in Figure 20, the last two
decades has seen a feminisation of settlement in Australia. For example, in
2002-02 there were 93.7 males for every 100 females arriving in Australia.
Females outnumber males in the stream from Africa but the sex ratio of this
group (98.75) is higher than for all migrants (98.6). Nevertheless, males
outnumber females among the majority of African birthplace groups (see Table 25), although females dominate in some of the
largest birthplace groups, particularly South Africa. This partly reflects the
mature age structure of that community, as well as the fact that the streams of
migrants are more varied than is the case for smaller country flows. Males tend
to be dominant in the major flows of skilled migrants.

Figure 19: Age of entrants to Australia from Liberia,
Ethiopia and Eritrea, 2000-05

Source: DIMA 2006a, b, c

Liberia

Age of entrants to Australia from Liberia, 2000-05

Ethiopia

Age of entrants to Australia from Ethiopia, 2000-05

Eritrea

Age of entrants to Australia from Eritrea, 2000-05

Figure 20: Australia: Sex ratios of settler arrivals,
1959-2009

Source: DIAC, unpublished data

Australia: Sex ratios of settler arrivals, 1959-2009

Table 25: Australia: Africa-born birthplace groups, sex ratio,
2006

Source: ABS Table Builder 2006

Birthplace Sex Ratio   Birthplace Sex Ratio
Algeria 156.4
Mali 176.5
Angola 101.5
Mauritania 87.5
Benin 171.4
Mauritius 94.2
Botswana 143.0
Mayotte na
Burkina Faso 125.0
Morocco 142.5
Burundi 110.3
Mozambique 105.5
Cameroon 148.0
Namibia 95.8
Cape Verde 450.0
Niger 140.0
Central African Republic 150.0
Nigeria 145.7
Central and West Africa, nfd 73.9
North Africa, nec 109.1
Chad 160.0
North Africa, nfd 88.9
Comoros 50.0
Réunion 82.9
Congo 120.8
Rwanda 74.8
Congo, Democratic Republic of 108.8
Sao Tomé and Principe 100.0
Côte d'Ivoire 117.1
Senegal 153.8
Djibouti 75.0
Seychelles 84.8
Egypt 104.2
Sierra Leone 100.9
Equatorial Guinea 266.7
Somalia 92.5
Eritrea 96.4
South Africa 96.1
Ethiopia 100.2
Southern and East Africa, nec 200.0
Gabon 225.0
Southern and East Africa, nfd 71.6
Gambia 124.1
St Helena 44.0
Ghana 114.6
Sudan 118.2
Guinea 109.4
Swaziland 96.6
Guinea-Bissau na
Tanzania 126.3
Kenya 103.6
Togo 133.3
Lesotho 105.1
Tunisia 144.8
Liberia 87.2
Uganda 103.7
Libya 114.7
Western Sahara 114.3
Madagascar 75.0
Zambia 96.1
Malawi 93.8   Zimbabwe 97.8


 

Table 26: Australia: Settler arrivals, birthplace
Africa, sex ratios,


1993-94 to 2007-08

Source: DIAC unpublished data

COUNTRY OF BIRTH Males Females Sex Ratio
Angola 32 27 118.5
Benin 24 17 141.2
Botswana 332 329 100.9
Burkina Faso 3 6 50.0
Burundi 739 703 105.1
Cameroon 44 29 151.7
Cape Verde 3 1 300.0
Central African Republic 8 8 100.0
Chad 7 5 140.0
Comoros Excl Mayotte 5 5 100.0
Congo 372 326 114.1
Congo, Dem Rep 586 612 95.8
Cote D’Ivoire 159 186 85.5
Djibouti 30 39 76.9
Eritrea 885 913 96.9
Ethiopia 2919 2979 98.0
Former Ethiopia 574 537 106.9
Gabon 4 3 133.3
Gambia 21 11 190.9
Ghana 906 1005 90.1
Guinea 267 276 96.7
Guinea-Bissau 3 3 100.0
Kenya 2989 2865 104.3
Lesotho 18 17 105.9
Liberia 1178 1428 82.5
Madagascar 21 31 67.7
Malawi 138 143 96.5
Mali 5 2 250.0
Mauritania 27 21 128.6
Mauritius 1223 1329 92.0
Mozambique 98 92 106.5
Namibia 225 188 119.7
Niger 57 53 107.5
Nigeria 804 605 132.9
Reunion Island 10 15 66.7
Rwanda 151 184 82.1
Senegal 81 54 150.0
Seychelles 134 167 80.2
Sierra Leone 1431 1397 102.4
Somalia 2543 2688 94.6
South Africa 32985 32487 101.5
St Helena 1 0
Sth and East Africa NFD 32 39 82.1
Swaziland 42 52 80.8
Tanzania 790 717 110.2
Togo 79 89 88.8
Uganda 601 567 106.0
Zaire 40 32 125.0
Zambia 694 639 108.6
Zimbabwe 5581 5378 103.8
Total Sub-Saharan Africa 59901 59299 101.0
Algeria 200 236 84.7
Egypt 4413 3774 116.9
Libya 143 102 140.2
Morocco 304 212 143.4
Sudan 14025 11640 120.5
Tunisia 78 56 139.3
Western Sahara 5 4 125.0
Total North Africa 19168 16024 119.6
Total Africa 79069 75323 105.0

 

In examining flows of migrants from Africa to Australia between 2000 and
2005, Table 25 shows there is considerable variation in the balance of male and
females from the different countries. It is interesting that, overall, males
outnumbered females, with 108 males moving to Australia for every 100 females
during the period. It is particularly noticeable that males outnumber females
in each of the largest flows, including South Africa (101.5), Sudan (120.5),
Zimbabwe (103.8), Egypt (116.5) and Kenya (104.5). Ethiopia had a sex ratio of
108.2 among arrivals from 2000-05, however recent inflows of women have resulted
in a relatively balanced ratio over the last 15 years (98).

Migration is often selective of more adventurous, entrepreneurial, better
trained and risk-taking populations. Moreover, this is exacerbated by
highly-planned immigration programs, such as Australia’s, which has
increasingly focused on selecting settlers on the basis of skill (Richardson,
Robertson and Ilsley 2001). This is reflected in the characteristics of the
Africa-born population in Australia. Table 27 shows that the
African population in Australia has a higher proportion in the manager,
administrative and professional occupation categories than the total workforce
and almost three times as many with a degree. The distribution is dominated by
migrants from South Africa.

Table 27: Australia: Australia-born and Sub-Saharan
Africa-born: Selected occupational and educational characteristics, 2006

Source: ABS Table Builder 2006


Birthplace


Australia Sub-Saharan Total Overseas Total Population
Occupation



Managers and Administrators 9.4 10.9 8.6 9.2
Professionals 18.7 30.6 22.0 19.6
Associate Professionals 12.2 11.8 12.1 12.2
Tradespersons and Related Workers 12.7 8.8 11.4 12.3
Advanced Clerical and Service Workers 3.3 3.6 2.9 3.2
Intermediate Clerical, Sales and Service W 17.5 16.5 16.3 17.2
Intermediate Production and Transport W 8.1 5.1 8.7 8.2
Elementary Clerical, Sales and Service W 10.1 7.0 8.3 9.6
Labourers and Related Workers 8.1 5.7 9.6 8.5
Percentage Unemployed 4.9 5.5 6.1 5.2
Highest Qualification



Degree or higher 11.1 25.5 16.0 12.5
Diploma/Certificate 19.5 24.2 18.0 19.1

 

It is apparent that the recent refugee arrivals from the Horn of Africa have
encountered difficulties entering the labour market, experiencing high levels of
unemployment and low levels of workforce participation. South Africans are one
of the most advantaged birthplace groups in the Australian population, while
some of the recently-arrived refugee groups are among the least advantaged. Table 28 shows results from
the Longitudinal Survey of Immigrants to Australia and indicates that African
immigrants had very high rates of unemployment in the first six months of their
arrival but that these improved substantially with length of residence. The
high socio-economic status of the South Africa-born population, with high
incomes and high rates of home ownership, is reflected in the Africa-born
population as a whole (Table
29
).

Table 28: Longitudinal Survey of Immigrants to
Australia: Employment experience


No. Employed No. Unemployed Unemployment Rate
Cohort One


First Wave


Arrived 1993-98 158 88 35.8
Second Wave


1 year later 184 40 17.9
Third Wave


3 years later 171 32 15.8
Cohort Two


First Wave


Arrived 1999-2001 116 24 17.1
Second Wave


2 years later 123 11 8.2
Cohort Three


First Wave (N=475)


Arrived Dec 2005-March 2006 339 59 14.8
Second Wave (N=291)


12 months later 243 17 6.5


 

Table 29: Australia: Australia-born and Sub-Saharan
Africa-born: Selected socio-economic indicators, 2006

Source: ABS Table Builder 2006


Birthplace Total Overseas Total Population

Australia Sub-Saharan
Nature of Occupancy



Owner/Purchaser 73.1 60.0 69.1 71.9
Tenant 25.1 38.6 29.4 26.3
Other 1.8 1.4 1.6 1.8
Income



Less than $400 per week 43.5 37.5 48.6 45.0
$1,600 per week or more 6.5 13.0 6.6 6.5


 

Figure 21: Selected African group arrivals in Australia,
2000-05, by self-reported English proficiency

Source: DIMA 2006a, b, c, d

Liberia

Liberia - Selected African group arrivals in Australia, 2000-05, by self-reported English proficiency

Congo

Congo - Selected African group arrivals in Australia, 2000-05, by self-reported English proficiency

Eritrea

Eritrea - Selected African group arrivals in Australia, 2000-05, by self-reported English proficiency

Ethiopia

Ethiopia - Selected African group arrivals in Australia, 2000-05, by self-reported English proficiency

The problems experienced by refugee-humanitarian arrivals in entering the
Australian labour market can be gauged from Figure 21, which shows the
self-reported English language ability among four groups of arrivals in 2000-05.
It is evident that there is a very significant proportion with no English
language ability or with poor proficiency. This represents a major barrier to
success in the labour market. Nevertheless they have settled in Australia at a
time of record low levels of unemployment, which will have assisted their
possibility of finding work. A related issue is the large family size of some
of the refugee-humanitarian groups, which can greatly reduce the housing options
open to them.

11 Patterns
of Settlement in Australia

Most immigrant groups in Australia have a quite different spatial
distribution than the Australia-born population, reflecting the pattern of job
opportunities prevailing at their time of arrival in Australia and the existence
of communities of prior arrivals. Where immigrants settle can have a major
impact on their level of satisfaction with life in their new country. African
groups have had a quite distinctive pattern of settlement in Australia. This is
reflected at a macro level in Table 30; in 2006 81.5% of
Australian

Table 30: Australia: Australia-born and Sub-Saharan
Africa-Born: Spatial distribution, 2006

Source: ABS Table Builder 2006



% Australia-Born % Sub-Saharan Africa-Born % Total Overseas-Born % Total Population
Urban/Rural Distribution



Capital City 58.3 81.5 80.6 63.7
Rest of State 41.7 18.5 19.4 36.3
Interstate Distribution



NSW 32.1 28.2 35.2 33.0
Victoria 24.4 23.4 26.6 24.8
QLD 20.9 19.0 15.8 19.7
SA 8.0 4.7 7.0 7.6
WA 9.1 21.4 12.0 9.9
Tas 2.8 1.2 1.1 2.4
NT 1.1 0.7 0.6 1.0
ACT 1.7 1.3 1.6 1.6

 

Africans lived in the eight capital cities compared with 58.3% of the
Australia-born population. It is interesting that this represented a decrease
from 84.7% in 2001, indicating that more Africans are now settling outside the
large cities. Nevertheless there is a strong concentration in metropolitan
areas, as is the case with other migrant groups (Hugo, forthcoming), although
there have been some attempts to encourage recently-arrived refugees to settle
in regional areas. The metropolitan concentration of Africa-born immigrants is
also apparent in Figure 22, which shows their
distribution across the nation at the 2006 census. It is apparent that they are
strongly concentrated in the capital cities of Sydney, Melbourne,

Figure 22: Australia: Distribution of the Sub-Saharan Africa-born
population, 2006

Source: ABS, Table Builder 2006

Australia: Distribution of the Sub-Saharan Africa-born population, 2006

Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide. Sydney (39,535 persons) is home to 24% of the
nation’s Africa-born. Although this is significantly higher than the
proportion of the Australia-born living in Sydney (17.7%), it is lower than for
most recently-arrived groups (Hugo 2004b). Moreover the large numbers in Sydney
include many of the temporary migrants referred to earlier in the paper, as it
is the main focus of business travellers and temporary business migrants.
Figure 22 highlights that the numbers in Melbourne (41,310 persons) are similar
to those in Sydney, although Melbourne’s total population is somewhat
lower (3,592,590 persons compared with 4,119,191 persons). This is due in part
to the fact that Melbourne has become the main location of settlement for the
Ethiopia refugee groups from the Horn of Africa (Gow 2001, 693), especially in
the suburb of Footscray in Melbourne’s western suburbs. The rapidly
growing Sudanese refugee group is particularly concentrated in Sydney.

The third largest concentration is in Perth, which traditionally has been a
major focus of settlement of groups from Sub-Saharan Africa, especially those
from South Africa and Zimbabwe. Indeed its Africa-born community (24,843
persons) is almost as large as those in Sydney and Melbourne, which both have
total populations roughly three times that of Perth. Table 30 indicates that there
is a disproportionate concentration of Sub-Saharan Africa-born persons in
Western Australia. One of the most distinctive features of the historical
settlement of Africans in Australia has been what Hugo (1996) has described as
an ‘Indian Ocean Connection’. He showed how data from the 1991
census indicated that the ring of nations around the Indian Ocean have a
disproportionately large share of their Australian-based populations living in
Western Australia. In 1981 Western Australia had 16.9% of the Australian
Africa-born population – double that state’s share of the national
total population. This is obviously partly a factor of greater proximity to the
Indian Ocean region than any other Australian state and the fact that Perth was
the first port of call of early visitors and settlers from South Africa; the
establishment of a substantial South African community in Perth served as an
anchor for later settlement. By 2006 the proportion of Australian Africans
living in Western Australia had risen to 21.4%, more than double that
state’s share of the total Australian population (9.9%).

The data on settlement patterns referred to so far are 2006 census data but,
as indicated earlier, there has been a substantial increase in the inflow from
Africa, along with a change in its composition, in the last four years.
Moreover in recent years there have been increased efforts by federal, state and
local governments to encourage immigrants to settle in particular parts of
Australia and facilitate regional development. Accordingly 20.9% of settlers in
2005-06 came under the State Specific and Regional Migration (SSRM) scheme,
which only allows people to settle outside of major metropolitan destinations on
Australia’s east and south west coasts. The SSRM scheme only applies to a
range of skill and family migration visa categories and not to
refugee-humanitarian migrants. Nevertheless efforts are made to settle
refugee-humanitarian migrants in the SSRM areas, where the necessary support is
available to assist them (see Table 31). While NSW is
Australia’s largest state and takes a larger share of migrants than any
other state or territory, it is apparent that it has taken less Ethiopian,
Eritrean and Congolese migrants (509) than Victoria (2,051) and Western
Australia (749). In addition, South Australia (with only 7.5% of the national
population) is home to 464 (10.4%) of this group of migrants.

Table 31: Settlement locations of migrants from
Ethiopia, Eritrea and Congo, 2000-05

Source: DIMA 2006a, b, c


Ethiopia Eritrea Congo
New South Wales 318 84 107
Victoria 1,546 426 79
Queensland 239 61 63
South Australia 249 62 153
Western Australia 425 117 207
Tasmania 162 32 -
Australian Capital Territory 51
-
Northern Territory 30 314 24
Total 3,020 796 633


12 Conclusion

Any comprehensive consideration of international migration in Africa must
include consideration of the movement out of the continent. This paper has
demonstrated that this can be studied to a substantial extent using data from
destination nations and not be reliant upon data collected in Africa. This
approach of using destination data is an under-utilised approach in African
migration study. Nevertheless the development of effective international
migration data systems is an essential pre-requisite to the development of
effective migration policies and programmes. Nations cannot hope to manage
migration, or have policies which are able to maximise benefits to their country
and minimise its negative effects, if there is not a sound knowledge of the
dynamics of that movement and an understanding of its main drivers and effects.
The international migration data collection systems utilised here have been
developed in Australia over a long period. The important issue is that the
expense involved in these systems is not massive. Indeed developments in
information technology have greatly improved the timeliness, effectiveness and
cost efficiency in collecting information on migration flows. With the
increasing significance of ‘south-north’ migration, as well as
intra-African movement, the need to improve these data collection systems is
pressing.

The exchange of people between Africa and Australia has undergone substantial
changes over the post-war period. However, the consequences of this movement
for Africa and for Australia, as well as for the immigrants, are little
understood. There is a pressing need for this to be addressed. In considering
the future of international migration between Africa and Australia it can be
confidently predicted that the level and complexity of the interaction will
increase over the next decade. The upsurge in settlement of Africans in
Australia in recent years, and the increased diversity of the groups arriving,
has led to an increase in the strength and spread of the social networks linking
the two nations. Moreover, the immigration industry in both continents is
strengthening and will continue to encourage and facilitate this movement,
although it is likely that it will continue to be greater from Africa to
Australia than in the opposite direction. However, as the economies of the
countries become more closely linked, it can be expected that there will be some
increase in movement of skilled Australians to work and live in African
countries, as has been the case in some Asian nations.

Africa has a large reservoir of people who readily fit the criteria currently
adopted by the Australian Government for selection of settlers and for those to
enter the country as temporary workers. Consequently, these flows are likely to
increase in the future. As a result, there is a need to investigate in more
detail the implications and impacts of this movement; not only on those who
move, but also on their communities and countries of origin and destination.
Only then will there be a sound basis for policy development which maximises the
benefits of this movement and minimises its negative effects.


13 Appendix
A: Australia: Africa-born population, 1996, 2001 and 2006

Source: ABS 1996, 2001 and 2006 Censuses, Enumeration


Number of Persons Average Annual Growth Rate (%)

2001-06

1996 2001 2006
Algeria 753 980 1,004 0.5
Angola 344 353 396 2.3
Benin 12 24 19 -4.6
Botswana 225 706 865 4.1
Burkina Faso 10 23 26 2.5
Burundi 23 25 753 97.6
Cameroon 35 66 125 13.6
Cape Verde 24 22 22 0.0
Central African Republic 14 3 10 27.2
Chad 21 36 27 -5.6
Comoros 6 18 12 -7.8
Congo 22 135 520 31.0
Congo, Dem Republic of 321 267 618 18.3
Cote d'Ivoire 52 69 255 29.9
Djibouti 75 68 97 7.4
Egypt 34,158 33,432 33,496 0.0
Equatorial Guinea 3 6 9 8.4
Eritrea 1,161 1,599 2,015 4.7
Ethiopia 2,353 3,544 5,634 9.7
Gabon 19 19 25 5.6
Gambia 26 53 130 19.7
Ghana 1,495 2,040 2,769 6.3
Guinea 19 28 334 64.2
Guinea-Bissau 10 15 8 -11.8
Kenya 5,333 6,869 9,935 7.7
Lesotho 58 54 78 7.6
Liberia 84 125 1,523 64.9
Libya 1,277 1,439 1,518 1.1
Madagascar 137 156 188 3.8
Malawi 423 485 685 7.1
Mali 15 29 47 10.1
Mauritania 3 16 16 0.0
Mauritius 17,083 16,962 18,173 1.4
Mayotte 0 0 0 0.0
Morocco 1,100 1,170 1,293 2.0
Mozambique 428 551 631 2.7
Namibia 303 437 703 10.0
Niger 10 14 11 -4.7
Nigeria 1,260 1,738 2,501 7.6
Reunion 64 71 126 12.2
Rwanda 22 46 202 34.4
Sao Tome and Principe 12 11 9 -3.9
Senegal 170 185 199 1.5
Seychelles 2,561 2,448 2,508 0.5
Sierra Leone 164 363 1,809 37.9
Somalia 2,058 3,713 4,314 3.0
South Africa 55,756 79,425 104,132 5.6
St Helena 25 25 37 8.2
Sudan 2,417 4,900 19,049 31.2
Swaziland 145 202 233 2.9
Tanzania 1,561 1,714 2,300 6.1
Togo 9 16 34 16.3
Tunisia 450 422 444 1.0
Uganda 1,178 1,217 1,712 7.1
Zambia 2,565 3,072 4,078 5.8
Zimbabwe 8,957 11,733 20,155 11.4

 

14 Appendix
B: Australia: Migration to and from Sub-Saharan Africa by country of birth,
1994-95 to 2007-08*

Source: DIAC unpublished data

COUNTRY BIRTH Settler Arrivals Long Term Arrivals Short Term Arrivals Permanent Departures Long Term Departures Short Term Departures
ANGOLA 58 135 4,600 38 103 4,680
BENIN 41 28 698 4 9 862
BOTSWANA 628 3,650 6,972 22 1,811 7,429
BURKINA FASO 9 24 405 0 14 471
BURUNDI 1,441 30 623 1 12 690
CAMEROON 71 134 2,151 8 82 1,919
CAPE VERDE 4 8 211 1 3 108
CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC 16 6 134 1 3 238
CENTRAL & WEST AFRICA, NFD 0 0 30 0 0 36
CHAD 12 23 340 4 11 315
COMOROS 10 2 221 1 0 284
CONGO 697 98 2,400 5 65 2,266
CONGO, DEM. REP. OF 1,313 259 8,741 35 159 8,570
COTE D IVOIRE 343 114 2,475 9 57 2,471
DJIBOUTI 64 11 419 3 6 492
EQUATORIAL GUINEA 0 11 63 1 2 62
ERITREA 1,798 274 5,239 69 202 5,798
ETHIOPIA 6,487 681 20,312 151 645 19,498
GABON 7 22 380 2 13 894
GAMBIA 32 19 774 2 23 711
GHANA 1,850 1,029 16,770 95 841 16,325
GUINEA 543 41 1,174 3 20 1,308
GUINEA-BISSAU 6 2 321 6 5 292
KENYA 5,744 8,426 96,897 458 4,585 97,020
LESOTHO 33 115 1,218 5 82 1,438
LIBERIA 2,606 71 1,653 5 65 1,536
MADAGASCAR 52 196 5,380 9 83 5,564
MALAWI 278 693 7,752 43 457 7,745
MALI 6 45 1,632 3 32 1,583
MAURITANIA 49 11 351 1 6 586
MAURITIUS 2,444 10,791 112,501 356 3,769 121,012
MAYOTTE 0 3 99 0 0 302
MOZAMBIQUE 184 653 7,816 44 399 8,346
NAMIBIA 405 577 8,946 41 301 9,844
NIGER 98 131 2,252 1 122 1,765
NIGERIA 1,367 1,816 25,314 109 1,389 23,961
R'EUNION 24 203 9,347 11 66 10,049
RWANDA 334 74 1,020 1 33 871
SAO TOME & PRINCIPE 0 3 27 1 2 7
SENEGAL 135 131 4,052 13 84 3,743
SEYCHELLES 285 1,406 12,946 96 623 12,230
SIERRA LEONE 2,826 129 3,214 20 96 2,914
SOMALIA 4,881 719 17,224 167 437 16,745
S & E AFRICA, NFD 7 6 133 0 3 310
SOUTH AFRICA 63,818 63,609 1,297,606 4,170 27,329 1,317,252
ST HELENA 3 4 335 2 4 242
SWAZILAND 89 222 3,068 21 122 3,873
TANZANIA 1,491 1,411 26,879 98 921 25,943
TOGO 168 22 644 0 15 563
UGANDA 1,138 989 20,141 82 723 18,208
ZAMBIA 1,289 4,039 44,107 255 2,042 41,771
ZIMBABWE 10,816 16,224 161,016 714 6,467 161,139
Grand Total 116,000 119,320 1,949,024 7,187 54,343 1,972,279
* Short Term in 2001-02 not included

 

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[1] And 2008 estimates for the
largest birthplace groups.