Understanding Where Immigrants Live · 2004-05-02 · In Understanding Where Immigrants Live, one of Australia's leading demographers, Professor Graeme Hugo, provides an excellent,

Hugo, Graeme, Understanding WhereImmigrants Live Bureau of Immigration,Multicultural and Population Research,Canberra, Australian Government PublishingService, 1995.

by Graeme Hugo

Department of Geography, University ofAdelaide

Foreword

The location decisions of immigrants arriving inAustralia have recently been the subject of greatpublic attention. In particular, the reasons whyso many of today's settlers choose Sydney, andthe consequences for its urban infrastructure,have aroused interest and controversy.

In Understanding Where Immigrants Live, one ofAustralia's leading demographers, ProfessorGraeme Hugo, provides an excellent, clearoverview of many features of this subject.Professor Hugo divides the work into threemain parts: the geographical distribution ofimmigrants, the causes of their geographicalconcentration in Australia, and its implications.

Each of these three parts of Professor Hugo'sstudy makes fascinating reading, spelling out thegeographical issues in the settlement of peoplewho have come to Australia under its long-established immigration program.

The work is not merely intrinsically interesting,however. It also carries many messages forpolicy-makers, including some pertaining topossible incentives to immigrants to settle indefined cities or regions.

Professor Graeme Hugo is an outstanding guidethrough this field. His knowledge of the issuesmust be almost unparalleled in the group of

authors who write on this topic in Australia. Hisstyle in this publication fits well into the Bu re a u ' sobjective for its Understanding series, which isdesigned to provide authoritative, balancedcoverage at a level suitable for schools and non-specialists readers. I have great pleasure inwelcoming the publication to the Bureau's list.

John Nieuwenhuysen, Director, Bureau ofImmigration, Multicultural and PopulationResearch

The Author

Graeme Hugo is Professor of Geography at theUniversity of Adelaide. He obtained his PhD.from the Australian National University (ANU)in 1975 and is widely regarded as one of theforemost demographers in Australia and theSoutheast Asian region. He has held visitingpositions at the University of Iowa, Universityof Hawaii, Hassanuddin University (Indonesia)and the ANU, and is the author of over ahundred books, chapters in books and articles inscholarly journals. Much of his early work dealtwith population issues in Southeast Asia, but inrecent years he has worked extensively onAustralian population issues and problems.Representative of this work is his book,Australia's Changing Population (1986), and therecent series of demographic atlasescommissioned by the Bureau of Immigration,Multicultural and Population Research.

Glossary of Terms

The census is a count of the total population,but it also measures a range of characteristicssuch as age, sex, employment status, familycharacteristics, housing tenure, etc. In Australia,a national census is undertaken by theAustralian Bureau of Statistics every five years.

Chain migration is a form of group migration

1Making Multicultural Australia Understanding Where Immigrants Live

UnderstandingWhere Immigrants Live

which occurs through the linkages of family andkin networks. A typical case would be where aninitial immigrant, once established in the newcountry, brings out other members of his or herfamily or facilitates their migration in some way.

Counterurbanisation describes a change inpopulation movement which occurred in manydeveloped countries during the 1970s and1980s. Whereas, prior to this time, the netpopulation movement tended to be from ruralareas to large urban centres, a change in thispattern was observed, indicating that the growthrates of smaller non-metropolitan centres hadbegun to exceed the growth rates of majorurban areas.

An entrepreneur is a person who undertakes abusiness or enterprise. Entrepreneurship refersto the characteristics of business andmanagement skills, as well as the ability toinitiate new projects and enterprises.

Ethnic group refers to a group of people who,because of shared culture, customs, place ofbirth and/or language, can be identified as adistinctive community. Within Australia, theterm is usually applied to identifiable immigrantgroups.

Gentrification refers to the renewal of olderinner suburbs within cities, usually byprofessional middle-class people.

Geographical concentration, in relation topopulation, refers to the clustering of people inone particular location.

Marginalisation, as used in this report, refers toa process whereby a group of people is partly ortotally excluded from sharing in the full range ofbenefits and opportunities which the widercommunity enjoys.

The terms multicultural and multiculturalismare used in this report to refer to the diversity ofethnic groups in Australia, particularly withinthe major cities. Multiculturalism can also beused in the context of government policy, inwhich case it refers to the accommodation and

support of a wide range of people from diverseorigins and with varied cultures within a singlesociety.

Net migration is the difference between in-migration and out-migration. For example, if5000 people moved into an area during a periodof time, and 1000 people moved out of thatarea during the same period of time, then thenet migration gain for that area during theperiod would have been 4000 people.

Non-English-speaking background (NESB) is aterm used to describe someone whose firstlanguage is not English, or whose culturalbackground is derived from a non-English-speaking region or country.

The Points Assessment Test is used by theAustralian Government to assess applicantswithin some immigration categories. The testassesses a number of factors, such as skill levels,occupational type and language ability.

An urban area is defined by the AustralianBureau of Statistics as a centre with more than1000 inhabitants. The level of urbanisation in acountry is the proportion of the population wholive in urban areas. In Australia, the level ofurbanisation in 1991 was 85.1 per cent,indicating that this proportion of Australianslived in urban areas, while the remaining 14.9per cent lived in rural areas.

Section 1 –Introduction

Post-Second World War immigration haschanged Australia from a relatively culturallyuniform country to one of the more diverse ofnations. This period of immigration hasrepresented a total break with the past becauseof its large scale, and the arrival of largenumbers of immigrants from non-English-Irishbackgrounds. Between 1947 and 1991, thenational population increased from 7.6 millionto 16.9 million and the 5.2 million new settlersarriving in Australia over that period accounteddirectly or indirectly (via their childbearing) foraround half of that growth.

2Making Multicultural Austral ia Understanding Where Immigrants Live

However, the impact of post-Second World Warimmigration has not been distributed uniformlythroughout Australia's economy and society.This has been reflected by the fact that manyoverseas-born groups have different locationalpatterns from that of the Australia-bornpopulation. Indeed, the pattern of post-warimmigrants settling in particular areas hassignificantly influenced the distribution ofAustralia's population, the rate of populationchange and changes in the structure and size ofthe labour force in various regions of thecountry (Jarvie 1984, 1989).

The geographical distribution of birthplacegroups in Australia is of particular interestbecause patterns of settlement are related to awhole range of social and economic elementswhich affect the well-being of those groups,especially their means of earning a living andtheir social contacts within and outside thegroup (Price 1963, p. 140). The tendency forparticular birthplace groups to concentrate inparticular locations inevitably raises the questionof whether such ethnic concentrations reflectthe existence of social, economic or politicaldivisions or problems. Indeed, this issue is oneof some debate in Australia.

Section 2 –Geographical distributionof immigrants

The aim of this booklet is to review our presentknowledge of the geographical distribution ofimmigrants in Australia. We will begin bysummarising the present pattern of distributionof the major overseas-born groups andsuggesting a number of explanations for thesepatterns. It must be stressed that thedistribution of any birthplace group isconstantly changing, so the following sectiondiscusses changes which are occurring in thedistribution of major groups within Australia.Section 3 looks at some of the implicationswhich flow from the different settlementpatterns of various birthplace groups.

Australia is characterised by a high level ofurbanisation, with some 85 per cent of the

national population living in urban areas in1991. The population is highly concentrated inthe eastern, southeastern and southwesterncoastal zones, which comprise only 3.3 per centof the national land area but account for 80 percent of the total population. The nation's twolargest cities, Sydney and Melbourne, haveretained a fairly stable share of the nationalpopulation over the post-war years - around 39per cent between them. The settlement patternsof post-war immigrants have tended to reinforcethe dominance of the major cities in thenational settlement system.

Distribution between States and Territories

...The largest numbers of immigrants live in thecapital cities, with very few being locatedelsewhere in the nation. Immigrants aretherefore more concentrated in their locationalpatterns than are the Australia-born population.

...Western Australia has the greatestconcentration of immigrants in relation to itstotal population, with 29.5 per cent of residentsbeing born overseas compared with 22.8 percent in the nation as a whole. The other part ofthe nation in which there is a higher thanexpected proportion of immigrants is thesoutheastern quadrant of the mainlandcomprising NSW, Victoria and the ACT.

The population of NSW and Victoria has beengrowing at below the national average, but theseStates have continued to receive adisproportionately large share of immigrantsarriving in Australia. This is due partly toMelbourne and Sydney being important pointsof arrival of immigrants and also because manyof the immigrants are 'chain' immigrants, thatis, they wish to live with or near family andother settlers from their own country of originwho moved into Victoria and New South Walesin earlier years.

In South Australia substantial industrialdevelopment in the 1950s and 1960s attracted alarge share of immigrants, but economic changeand the decline of Australian manufacturingover the last two decades have resulted in a

3Making Multicultural Austral ia Understanding Where Immigrants Live

much smaller share of immigrants settling there.Tasmania is the State least affected byimmigrant settlement and the NorthernTerritory also has a below-average presence ofimmigrants. Most striking, however, isQueensland which, despite being far and awaythe most rapidly growing State over the last twodecades, has a significant 'under' representationof overseas-born people, indicating clearly thatthe bulk of that State's rapid growth has beenfuelled by interstate rather than internationalimmigration gains.

States and Territories have not only differed inthe extent to which they have attractedimmigrants but there are also some interestingdifferences in their 'mix' of birthplace groups.Some of these differences are briefly summarisedbelow:

• Persons born in the United Kingdom and theRepublic of Ireland are the largest overseas-born group in each State, but especially inWestern Australia, South Australia andTasmania, where they account for more thanhalf of all overseas-born persons.

• Among the non-English-speaking-background(NESB) groups from Europe there issubstantial interstate variation. For example,the Italy-born account for 6.2 per cent of allAustralia's overseas-born population but theshare of States varies from 10.3 per cent(Victoria) to 2.4 per cent (NorthernTerritory).

• Victoria's overseas-born have a largersouthern European component than otherStates. For example, Greece-born personsaccount for 3.6 per cent of the total overseas-born in Australia but almost half (49.2 percent) of them live in Victoria.

• The Asia-born expanded their proportion ofthe overseas-born from 12.4 per cent in 1981to 18.3 per cent in 1991. There is adisproportionate share of Asians in NewSouth Wales, Victoria and Western Australia.These three States account for 82.2 per centof the nation's Asia-born population but only

two-thirds of the Australia-born.

• Vietnam-born people (the largest Asianbirthplace group) make up 3 per cent of theoverseas-born in Australia and show atendency to be concentrated in New SouthWales and Victoria.

• Among other groups, there is generally lessvariation between States. An exception is NewZealanders, who are strongly concentrated inthe States which experienced most rapideconomic growth in the 1970s - most notablyQueensland and the Northern Territory(McCaskill 1982). The attractiveness ofSydney to New Zealanders has also resultedin New South Wales having an above-averageproportion of these immigrants (Hugo 1986a,1988, 1989-92).

Urban-rural distribution of immigrants

One of the most distinctive features of post-warimmigration to Australia has been the tendencyfor immigrants to settle in the nation's largestcities. ...over the 1947-91 period the number ofAustralia-born persons living in large cities(100,000 or more people) more than doubled,so that by 1991, 58 per cent lived in suchcentres. In the largest cities, however, thenumbers of overseas-born increased by morethan six times, so that by 1991, 80 per centlived in those cities. Hence the impact ofimmigration has been felt more in Australia'smajor cities than in regional cities or rural areas.However, there was an increase in the absolutenumbers of overseas-born people in the latterareas. In regional cities, for example, thenumber of people born overseas increasedalmost five times. At the same time, however,the proportion of the total national overseas-born population living outside major citiesdeclined. The decline was quite small in theregional cities (13.5 to 12.4 per cent between1947 and 1991) but larger in rural areas (24.7per cent to 8.1 per cent during the sameperiod). Hence, although the presence ofoverseas-born has increased across urban andrural areas, the impact has been greatest inmajor cities. This contrasts with a great deal of


pre-Second World War settlement of NESBgroups who showed a greater tendency to live inrural areas (Borrie 1954).

It is interesting to note, however, that since themid-1980s there has been no increase in theshare of overseas-born living in major cities.Although immigrants have increasingly settledin major cities since 1986, those who have beenestablished in Australia longer have anincreasing tendency to settle outside majorcities. This is consistent with a pattern ofcounterurbanisation or decentralisation amongthe Australia-born population that has beenrecognised since the early 1970s (Hugo 1994)and suggests that over time the internalmigration patterns of the overseas-born maybecome more like those of the Australia-born.Among the large European groups whodominated immigration in the early post-wardecades, only the Greek community has morethan 90 per cent living in large cities.

Not only have post-war immigrants tended tosettle in Australia's larger cities, but they haveconcentrated especially in Sydney andMelbourne. This is reflected in Sydney andMelbourne's share of the nation's overseas-bornpopulation increasing from 46.5 per cent in1947 to 52.3 per cent in 1991. Internationalmigration has been of critical importance in thepost-war growth of Sydney and Melbourne.Over the first two post-war decades, more thanhalf of the growth of these two cities wasattributable to net gains of overseas immigrants.

Melbourne was dominant in the early post-wardecades both in terms of population growth andin receiving overseas-born settlers, but since1976 Sydney has been the major focus ofsettlement for immigrants. During the 1986-91period Sydney recorded a net gain of 158,000immigrants, compared with 105,000 inMelbourne. However, at the same time Sydneyhas experienced a net loss of Australia-bornresidents. This situation, whereby the loss ofAustralia-born people is counterbalanced by aninflow of overseas immigrants, has been animportant feature of Sydney and Melbourne inthe post-war period. The key point here is that

international migration gains have directlyaccounted for more than half of Sydney andMelbourne's population growth over the post-war period, and if the indirect contribution ofimmigrants via their Australia-born children istaken into account, that contribution is closer totwo-thirds of growth.

... (looking at) the growth of Sydney andMelbourne's population over the post-warperiod and the part of that growth due to theoverseas-born, it can be seen that the number ofoverseas-born has grown at a faster rate thanthat of the total population. Especially strikingis the growth in the number of those from non-English speaking countries. By 1961,Melbourne had surpassed Sydney as having thelargest overseas-born community in the nation,but in the last two decades Sydney has onceagain become the major focus of immigrantsettlement in Australia. At the 1991 CensusSydney had 28.5 per cent of the nation'soverseas-born, compared with 23.8 per cent inMelbourne.

While all overseas-born groups show a greatertendency than the Australia-born to settle in thenation's major cities, there are some variationsbetween different groups... The groups withsettlement patterns most similar to theAustralia-born are those from English-speakingcountries, especially New Zealand, England andthe USA and some long-established continentalEuropean groups like the Dutch. Among thosewhich are very heavily concentrated in themajor cities, NESB groups are prominent. Themajority of Asian-origin groups have more than90 per cent of their communities living in majorcities. Middle Eastern groups such as theLebanese are also prominent among those whoare strongly concentrated in major cities.

Distribution of immigrants within cities

Four out of five overseas-born Australians live incities with more than 100,000 inhabitants. Wewill now turn our attention to patterns ofsettlement within those cities, especially Sydneyand Melbourne, where more than half ofAustralia's immigrants live. There are wide


variations between ethnic groups in their degreeof clustering within Melbourne and Sydney...

Measurements of geographical concentration

One way of measuring the degree ofgeographical concentration of a group of peopleis to use the Index of Dissimilarity. This index iscalculated from data giving the percentage ofthe total of two populations (in this case theAustralia-born and the origin group) occurringin each geographical unit (in this case localgovernment areas). The index can be interpretedas a measure of net displacement, by showingthe percentage of one population (e.g. Italy-born) that would have to move into anotherarea in order to reproduce the percentagedistribution of the other population (Australia-born). The index has a possible range from 0 to100. A score of 0 means the two populationshave exactly the same relative distribution, whilean index value of 100 represents a situationwhere the two groups are completely separatedfrom one another (i.e. an 'apartheid' situation).

The degree of concentration of a particularethnic group may reflect the stage of thatgroup's migration history to Australia. Post-warimmigration has occurred in a series of waves,each of which is characterised by a different mixof birthplace groups. Although these waves havetended to overlap to varying degrees, asimplified list of the major waves is given below:

Major waves of migration to Australia,1947-1993

1947 Eastern Europeans

Dutch, Germans, Poles ItaliansGreeksYugoslavsTurks, Lebanese, EgyptiansVietnameseNew Zealanders Filipinos, Malaysians

1993 Hong Kong, Chinese

The contemporary patterns of distribution ofthe NESB populations in Sydney... (show) thereare very large communities in the localgovernment area of Fairfield, where 54.5 percent of residents were born overseas in non-English-speaking countries - the largest suchconcentration in the nation. There has also beensome growth of the NESB population in someof the more affluent suburbs of Sydney (e.g. onthe North Shore). This is partly due to the factthat many of the people of Asian origin settlingin Sydney in the 1980s arrived with substantialfinancial assets and skills and hence settled inhigh-income areas. This is especially true of theHong Kong-born and Malaysia-born groups.

Case study 1: The Vietnamese in Sydney

An example of a highly concentrated ethnicgroup in Sydney is the Vietnamese...concentrated in a belt extending westward fromthe southern parts of the City of Sydney, withthe largest cluster in Fairfield and othersignificant concentrations in Marrickville,Bankstown, Auburn and the western part ofCanterbury. A detailed examination of thesettlement patterns and processes of Vietnamesein Sydney found that the high level ofconcentration comprised two elements (Burnley1989, pp. 150-1). First, recent arrivals wereattracted to the existing ethnic communities,which could provide support and a familiarcultural environment. Second, in addition tothese recent arrivals who settled in westernSydney, there was evidence of 'gravitation'migration of longer-standing Vietnameseresidents. They were also attracted to the areasof ethnic concentration after initially settlingelsewhere. Burnley also found an associationbetween residential concentration, lowoccupational status and incomes. This suggeststhat, especially in times of economic hardship,the support available when living within anethnic enclave is a powerful locational force,operating not only on recent arrivals but onoverseas-born groups of longer standing.

...the distribution of the NESB population inMelbourne in 1991 (shows) patterns similar tothose in Sydney... The middle western suburbs


of Sunshine and Keilor have the largest NESBpopulations in the city. While the NESBpopulation is still concentrated in less affluentwestern industrial suburbs, this is not as markedas it was in earlier decades.

Case study 2: The Italians in Melbourne

The largest NESB group in Melbourne is theItaly-born. Italian settlement in the city goesback more than a century, with initialconcentrations being in the Carlton and Fitzroyareas (Jones 1965, p. 90). This formed the'anchor' for settlement of large numbers ofItalian post-war immigrants, so that by 1961,one in five people living in Carlton were Italy-born. In the post-war years the pattern ofsettlement began to spread northwards fromCarlton. ...the current distribution of the Italy-born still displays a concentration in the innerand middle suburbs. This is despite the fact thatsome of the original factors attracting Italians tothose areas in the 1950s and 1960s (e.g. cheaprental housing, industrial employment) nolonger apply. Nevertheless, the outwardnorthward spread of Italian settlement alongSydney Road is apparent... so that the localgovernment areas with the largest Italiancommunities are in the outer middle and outernorthern areas of Preston, Broadmeadows,Whittlesea, Keilor and Coburg. It is importantalso to identify two other significant areas ofItalian settlement in Melbourne - Lilydale andDoncaster-Templestowe. These were basedoriginally on market gardens, which have nowbeen taken up by more intensive land uses butretained their Italian population. This is apattern also found in other Australian cities (e.g.in the Campbelltown and West Torrens-Woodville areas of Adelaide). The concentrationin the southeastern corridors of Oakleigh,Springvale and Dandenong is associated withthe 1960s development of manufacturing inthat area. Despite the length of settlement ofItalians in Melbourne and their decliningnumbers, they have retained a high degree ofgeographical concentration.

Distribution of immigrants in non-metropolitan areas

Only one in five overseas-born persons inAustralia live outside the major cities and thereis considerable variation between birthplacegroups in their likelihood of settling in non-metropolitan areas... In general, the Englishspeaking background groups and longerestablished continental European groups havethe largest proportions living in non-metropolitan areas, although all have smallerproportions than the Australia-born.

It is often overlooked that the tendency toconcentrate in particular places is even greater innon-metropolitan areas than in major cities.Since settlement in rural areas is focused on sofew local communities, the impact which it hasis often very great. There is a tendency forbirthplace groups which are well known fortheir concentrated pattern of settlement withinlarge metropolitan centres to also have quite aconcentrated settlement pattern in non-metropolitan areas.

As is the case with the metropolitan-basedcommunities, the groups from English speakingbackgrounds show the greatest similarity to thedistribution of the Australia-born in non-metropolitan areas. This especially applies tothose from the United Kingdom. They show atendency to concentrate in regional citiesoutside the capitals, like Newcastle, Wollongongand Geelong. The non-metropolitan UK-bornare also found in large numbers in the fast-growing east coast areas and in the regions nearmajor cities - the areas which are alsoexperiencing fast growth of the Australia-bornpopulation.

The New Zealand-born, although found inregional centres, are not as concentrated in thosecentres as other groups. There are significantconcentrations in the expanding east coastresort-retirement areas. There is also somerepresentation in the wheat-sheep belt, with anumber of New Zealanders being employed asshearers, other farm workers and managers. Thispattern differentiates them from nearly all other


overseas-born groups. Also, unlike many othergroups, New Zealanders are significantlyrepresented in the sparsely settled mining andpastoral areas of central and north-northwesternAustralia.

The Italy-born population, in the pre-SecondWorld War period, settled mainly outside capitalcities in mining, fishing, market gardening,sugar cane growing and irrigated farming areas.In the early post-war years, non-metropolitanareas continued to attract Italian immigrants butincreasingly the major cities became the focus ofsettlement, not only of new arrivals but also ofItalians leaving regional Australia.

Both Greek and Italian non-metropolitansettlement has avoided the extensive wheat-sheep belt and grazing lands and concentratedin the more intensively cultivated areas such asmarket gardening areas near cities, orchard,vineyard and sugar cane regions. Theimportance of 'chain migration' in the growthof these communities, with family and friendsjoining initial immigrant settlers, has beenfound in the literature (Price 1963; Burnley1976, pp. 82-93; Hugo 1975). One feature ofGreek settlement in the Upper Murray region ofSouth Australia was 'secondary migration', thatis, immigrants moving to the area after they hadspent time elsewhere, usually in themetropolitan areas (Hugo & Menzies 1980, pp.190-1).

As indicated earlier, the Asian groups whichhave dominated recent NESB migration toAustralia have shown a very strong preferencefor settling in the nation's major cities,especially Sydney and Melbourne. A partialexception to this is the Philippines-bornpopulation, 16 per cent of whom live outsidethe major cities. Jackson and Flores (1989)make the important observation that thegeographical distribution of Filipinos inAustralia really consists of two distinct patterns.First, wholly Filipino families tend to be highlyconcentrated in the middle-income to low-income suburbs of capital cities. Second, whereFilipinos (mostly women) have marriedAustralia-based partners under various schemes,

the distribution is much more spread out, notonly within large metropolitan areas but alsooutside capital cities. Much of the mediaattention concerning Filipino immigration toAustralia has been focused on those settlingoutside the major cities, especially where thewomen arrived in Australia as sponsoredprospective wives.

Section 3 –Causes of geographicalconcentration of immigrantgroups in Australia

The tendency for particular birthplace groups toconcentrate in some regions is important inidentifying areas and groups in greatest need ofparticular services. The occurrence of ethnicconcentrations, however, does not necessarilyindicate the existence of social, economic orpolitical division or problems.

Nevertheless, there can be no doubt that someminority ethnic groups do have particularproblems such as: language difficulties; socialdislocation; reduced opportunity for economicadvancement; and general deprivation.Knowledge of the extent to which suchproblems are associated with, made worse by, orlessened by, geographical concentration isessential to development of many policies andprograms relating to ethnic groups.

A review of studies of immigrant settlementsuggests that the factors influencing the patternsof settlement and degree of concentration ofbirthplace groups in post-war Australia includethe following.

Distribution of job opportunities at the timeof arrival

The concentration of southern Europeanimmigrants of the 1950s and 1960s inMelbourne, Sydney and Adelaide was partly dueto the creation of semi-skilled and unskilled jobopportunities associated with the rapidexpansion of manufacturing in the economies ofthose cities. The pattern of settlement of thesegroups within those cities was, in turn, partly


determined by their seeking to be close to thefactories offering those jobs, thus minimisingcosts of the journey to work.

Distribution of housing opportunities at thetime of arrival

During the 1950s and 1960s the bulk ofavailable cheap rental housing was located in theinner suburban areas of major cities. This was afactor attracting newly arrived southernEuropean immigrants to those areas. In the lasttwo decades, however, these inner areas havebeen affected by 'gentrification' - the inflow ofhigher-income residents and the improvementof old buildings within the inner areas. Much ofthe cheap rental housing is now found insections of the outer suburbs. Hence, there aresignificant concentrations of groups like theVietnamese in these outer areas.

Timing of the peak immigration of particulargroups

It is characteristic of post-war Australianimmigration for immigrants to arrive in 'waves'according to various countries of origin. Thetiming of the peak of the wave for each countryhas tended to vary according to changes inAustralian immigration policy and fluctuatingconditions in the home country. For example,Vietnamese immigration was very high in theyears following the Vietnam War, as Australiaaccepted many refugee settlers. Since thedistribution of particular job and housingopportunities is constantly changing, the patternwhich existed during the peak immigration ofone group will not necessarily apply during thepeak period of settlement of another group.Hence the location of particular ethnic groupsmay reflect employment of housingopportunities existing at the time of their peakarrivals.

Scale of immigration of a particular group

Where there is a very large influx of animmigrant group, its members may concentrateat the fringe of the city, where the main stock ofnewly constructed housing occurs. For example,

it has been shown that immigrants to Adelaidefrom the United Kingdom exhibit a markedtendency toward concentration (Hugo 1986b).This is not due to those immigrants seeking tocluster together for mutual support in a strangeenvironment, but is due to the nature of thehousing market in Adelaide during the 1950sand 1960s. In that period immigrant familiesfrom the UK were entering Adelaide in largenumbers and substantial concentrationsdeveloped at the northern and southern edges ofthe metropolitan area, where most new housingwas being built at that time.

Initial place of arrival

It has long been accepted that the port ofdisembarkation of immigrants is a significantdeterminant of which city they settle in. Theplace of first settlement within that city is alsoimportant. Hence it is characteristic of theVietnamese in Australia's major cities to beclustered in suburbs around the location offormer migrant hostels, where the bulk ofrefugee immigrants were first placed on arrivalin Australia. This was also true for the EasternEuropean refugees arriving in Australia somethree decades earlier.

Location of family members and people fromthe same country of origin

Burnley has pointed out (1982, p. 92)that thelocation of original settlers often becomes animportant anchor for later generations ofimmigrants. This is partly because laterimmigrants often spend an initial period livingwith established relatives. Their informationabout housing opportunities may therefore bebiased toward that area. In any case, they maychoose to locate near relatives and friends forthe economic and emotional support and socialinteraction which such a location will allow.Once such a nucleus is established, it will tendto attract ethnic-specific shops, restaurants andinstitutions which will be a further reason fornewcomers from that country to settle in thatpart of the city.


Language

Non-English speaking groups have a greatertendency to concentrate together because oftheir mutual need to be near people they cancommunicate with. Furthermore, once acommunity is established, many local shops andservices will have at least one employee who canspeak the group's language. This reinforces thepresence of ethnic-specific food shops,restaurants, clubs, churches, etc. in attractingsubsequent immigrants from the groups.

Marginalisation

Several of the above factors place emphasis onindividual immigrants and immigrantcommunities exercising choice in decidingwhether or not they settle in a particular area.However, an alternative approach suggests thatimmigrants may have little choice in theirlocation because various social mechanisms caninfluence where particular groups live. In thisway immigrants may be 'marginalised' orexcluded from the mainstream of economic andsocial activity within the wider community. Forexample, discrimination in the housing marketis one way in which this marginalisation occursand may limit the locations into whichimmigrants can move. There can be little doubtthat some ethnic groups, at some stages in theirsettlement in Australia, have been socially,economically and even legally marginalised andthat this has shaped their pattern of settlement.

Type of immigration

The type of immigration may also exert someinfluence on the pattern of settlement adoptedby a particular group. For example, amongimmigrants who enter Australia as part of thefamily reunion program there is often a greatertendency toward geographical concentrationthan there is among people who immigrateindependently.

In summary, it can be seen that residentialsegregation of some immigrant groups hasoccurred in Australia, especially within majorcities. To some extent this segregation has been

forced on new NESB arrivals because:

• they are joining family members or otherswho have sponsored their immigration;

• they have limited financial means;

• their lack of English language skills meansthat they need to congregate with peoplefrom their own country; and

• various social mechanisms channel them intoliving in particular areas, especially throughthe operation of housing markets.

On the other hand, there is often an element ofchoice due to:

• their desire to live close to people with similarlanguage, cultural and religious backgroundfor social and economic support; and

• their desire to gain employment in a businesswhich has a proportion of other workers ofsimilar ethnic background.

Section 4 –Implications of geographicalconcentration of immigrantgroups in Australia

Issues arising from geographical concentration

An important issue is the extent to whichconcentrations of ethnic groups affect theprocess of adjustment of recently arrivedimmigrants. The common view of ethnicenclaves is generally a negative one - that theytend to encourage separatism and delay orimpede adjustment to the wider society.However, the research evidence does notsupport such a view. Instead, it tends tohighlight the positive role of ethnic enclaves inassisting the adjustment of new arrivals intoAustralian society through the support given bypeople of the same linguistic and culturalbackground.

Nevertheless, in the long term there may besome negative effects of continued patterns of

1 0Making Multicultural Australia Understanding Where Immigrants Live

ethnic concentration. For example, some peopleliving in an ethnic enclave may be discouragedfrom learning English and acquiring knowledgeabout Australian institutions. Without thisknowledge their long-term adjustment,prosperity and well-being may be hampered.The small proportion of English speakersamong older members (especially women) oflong-established, highly concentrated birthplacegroups (e.g. southern Europeans) may bebecause they have lived most of their lives insuch an enclave. As a result, it may be that theirwell-being in their later years is detrimentallyaffected (Hugo 1983).

Following from the issue of ethnicconcentration is the question of whether thereshould be government intervention to influencewhere immigrants initially settle. There aresuggestions that the disproportionateconcentration of overseas immigrants in Sydneyand Melbourne is having a range of negativeenvironmental and economic consequences inthese cities (National Population Council 1992).As a result, it has been suggested that someimmigrants should be diverted away fromSydney and Melbourne on arrival in Australia.There have been a few attempts to influencewhere certain immigrants settle during the post-war period (Hugo 1993). One example was thetwo-year bonding system applied to thesettlement of Displaced Persons and some otherEuropean groups in the early post-war years(Kunz 1988), which allocated settlers to areassuffering labour shortages, often in remotelocations. Some States, such as South Australia,offered incentive packages in the 1950s and1960s (e.g. housing, job, assisted passage) forimmigrants to settle there. More recently therehas been an allocation of a small number ofpoints in the Points Assessment Test toimmigrants whose sponsor was located in aparticular region. Overall, however, immigrationpolicy has been non-interventionist in terms ofinfluencing immigrants' choice of where theysettle.

Locational policies are unlikely to have a majorimpact as long as the main economicopportunities and social support for ethnic

communities are in major capital cities.Unbalanced distribution of the population(both of immigrants and Australia-born) canonly be changed if those elements of theeconomic system which favour the growth ofthe largest cities are addressed. If non-metro-politan or peripheral areas are made attractive toinvestment, people will move to them.

The data show that most residentialconcentrations of ethnic groups are in areas withlower socioeconomic status. Hence, the majorconcentrations of NESB populations are in theindustrial and lower-cost housing areas of themajor cities - for example, the western suburbsof Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide. This leadsto the question of whether geographicalconcentration can cause or exacerbate poverty.There is some evidence from the United States(where patterns of residential segregation aremuch greater than in Australia) that there maybe a relationship between ethnic concentrationand poverty (Rosenbaum 1992). However, thegeographical segregation of ethnic communitiesin Australia has not reached the extent that ithas in many other countries (Jupp, McRobbie& York 1990). This is partly due to the factthat, in Australia, there is great diversity in thepopulations of the cities and no single ethnicgroup dominates among those of non-Anglo-Celtic origin.

Issues related to service provision

Another important issue arising from thechanging distribution of immigrant groups inAustralia relates to the planning and provisionof goods and services at the community level.While it is generally understood by mostAustralians that the nation as a whole ismulticultural, it is realised less often that theextent and nature of multiculturalism variesfrom one suburb to another and from onecountry region to another. In order to provideappropriate services for particular ethnic groups,in an equitable and cost-efficient manner, thereneeds to be good knowledge of the geographicaldistribution of those groups. This knowledgeneeds to be of the distribution at a single pointin time and also of how and why the


geographical pattern is evolving and changing.

The changing locational patterns of ethnicgroups have important implications forplanning and supplying goods and services. Forexample, in the first three decades of post-warimmigrant settlement, most newly arrivedimmigrants from NES countries settled in innersuburban areas of Australian cities. In recenttimes, however, many immigrants have settledin outer suburban areas as well. These areasusually have low densities of residentialpopulation and service delivery is thereforemade very difficult. For example, publictransport is less economical in areas of lowdensity because fewer patrons are located withineasy access of the transport line. Other servicesin the outer suburbs, such as schools, hospitalsand community centres, are also likely to bespread out and accessible only by car because ofthis low density. This may worsen the isolationexperienced by newly arrived immigrant groups.

Economic opportunities

An issue which is becoming increasinglyimportant is the connection between ethnicresidential concentration and ethnic businessenterprise. It is clear that such an associationexists. Aldrich and Waldinger (1990), in theirreview of ethnicity and entrepreneurship, foundthat ethnic residential concentration greatlyfacilitated the development of ethnic businesses.A crucial point in the development of suchbusinesses comes when they extend beyond theethnic concentration to serve non-ethnicmarkets.

In Australia, our knowledge of whetherimmigrant groups have a high incidence ofbusiness ownership and apparententrepreneurship is still limited (Evans 1989;Castles et al. 1991; Lever Tracy et al. 1991). Wedo not know to what extent the existence ofethnic residential concentrations withinAustralian cities can and does foster thedevelopment of businesses by immigrants. Itmay well be that in-depth research in such areasmay reveal a 'seed-bed' function for businessesin those communities. Clearly it would be

helpful to establish precisely what types ofenvironments encourage the development ofethnic entrepreneurs and what assists them inbreaking through to serve the wider communitybeyond the ethnic community.

Section 5 –Conclusion

Where immigrants live is important. It impingeson virtually every aspect of their overall well-being and shapes much of their day-to-day lives.Of all the many aspects of Australiancontemporary society that differ from the pre-war period, none is more striking than thenation's rapid transition to being a multiculturalsociety. So rapid has the change been that somesections of the community and some of ourinstitutions and services have not adjusted tomeet the needs of a more diverse and ethnicallycomplex society. At all levels of Australiansociety, greater understanding of the nature andimplications of this transformation is needed.Such an understanding will be greatly assistedthrough an expansion of our knowledge of thismulticultural society. One important elementhere is the dynamic and distinctive Iocationalpatterns of the diverse groups making up thesociety. Knowledge of these patterns has crucialpolitical, economic, social and demographicimplications for leaders of ethnic communities,policy makers and planners at ill three levels ofgovernment, as well as service providers in boththe public and private sectors. Moreimportantly, these patterns have an influence onthe daily lives of all Australians and affect a widevariety of social, political and economicprocesses. An understanding of the changingdistribution of Australia's diverse cultural,ethnic, birthplace and racial groups is essentialto the development and effectiveimplementation of policies and programs whichgive all Australians the greatest possibleopportunity to realise their individual potentialand to gain equitable access to the serviceswhich allow them to live their lives in a state ofwell-being, social justice and dignity.


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