Significance

Immigration to Australia has generally reflected British colonisation, convict transportation, assisted settlement, gold discoveries, labour demand, war, refugee movements, economic development, education, family reunification, and multicultural migration policies.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples lived across Australia for thousands of years before European colonisation. Large-scale overseas migration began with the arrival of the First Fleet in 1788, bringing British officials, soldiers, and convicts to establish the colony of New South Wales. Free and assisted migration later increased, particularly after gold was discovered in 1851, attracting people from Britain, Ireland, China, Germany, and other regions. Immigration slowed during World War I and the Great Depression but expanded greatly after World War II. British migrants, European refugees, and displaced persons were followed by immigrants from Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and other parts of the world, transforming Australia into a highly multicultural society.

Australian Immigration Before Federation

European immigration began in 1788 with British colonisation and the transportation of convicts to Australia. Over the following eighty years, approximately 160,000 convicts were transported, mainly to New South Wales, Van Diemen’s Land—now Tasmania—and Western Australia. Free settlers also arrived, while government-assisted schemes helped British and Irish workers and families pay for their journeys. Between 1832 and 1850, about 127,000 assisted migrants entered Australia. Immigration expanded during the 1850s gold rushes, when hundreds of thousands of people arrived in search of wealth and employment. Migrants from China, Germany, the United States, and other countries joined large numbers from Britain and Ireland. However, racial prejudice produced restrictions against Chinese and Pacific Islander migrants. By Federation in 1901, immigration had greatly increased the European population while colonisation had displaced Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities from their lands.

Twentieth-Century Immigration

After Federation, the Immigration Restriction Act 1901 established the foundation of the discriminatory White Australia policy, which limited non-European immigration through measures such as the dictation test. Migration declined during World War I, the Great Depression, and World War II. After 1945, the Australian Government introduced a large immigration programme to increase the population, strengthen national defence, supply workers, and support economic development. British migrants initially received preference, but Australia also accepted refugees and displaced people from Eastern and Southern Europe; about 170,000 immigrants arrived through the displaced-persons programme between 1947 and 1951. The White Australia policy was gradually dismantled from the late 1950s and formally replaced by non-discriminatory and multicultural policies during the 1970s. Later immigrants arrived from Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Europe, and the Pacific through skilled migration, humanitarian programmes, education, employment, and family reunification.