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| Total population | |
|---|---|
| Approximately 3.0% of the population (2021 census)[1] Lebanese Australians: 248,434 Turkish Australians: 87,164 Iranian Australians: 81,119 Egyptian Australians: 60,164 Arab Australians: 60,095 Iraqi Australians: 57,859 Assyrian Australians: 62,452 Syrian Australians: 29,257 Sudanese Australians: 16,809 Palestinian Australians: 15,607 Other North African and Middle Eastern: 11,027 Kurdish Australians: 10,171 | |
| Languages | |
| Australian English · Arabic · Aramaic · Azerbaijani · Hebrew · Kurdish · Persian · Turkish · others | |
| Religion | |
| Christianity (Eastern Orthodoxy · Oriental Orthodoxy · Assyrian Church of the East · Catholicism · Protestantism) · Islam · Judaism · Baháʼí Faith · Druze · None (Atheism · Agnosticism) · Zoroastrianism · Yazidism · Mandaeism · Deism |
North African andMiddle Eastern Australians are theAustralians of North African and Middle Eastern ancestry, includingnaturalised Australians who areimmigrants from various regions in the North Africa and Middle East and descendants of such immigrants. At the 2021 census, the number of ancestry responses categorised within North African and Middle Eastern ancestral groups as a proportion of the total population amounted to 3.0%.[1][2]
Today, North African and Middle Eastern Australians often come from various ethnic, cultural, linguistic, religious, educational and employment backgrounds.
The first settlers of the North Africans and Middle Easterns to Australia date back to 1862, when small groups of mainlyMuslim cameleers shipped in and out of Australia at three-year intervals to serveSouth Australia's inland pastoral industry by carting goods and transportationwool bales bycamel trains, who were commonly referred to as "Afghans" or "Ghans", despite their origin often being mainly fromBritish India.
Permanent emigration of North Africans and Middle Easterns to Australia began in the 1940s onwards, possibly due to political turmoil in the MENA region that saw a wave of its international migrants. As of 2021[update], they number 800,000 persons with a nomination of their distinct ancestries.
Australia does not collect statistics on the racial origins of its residents. Instead, it collects data at each five-yearly census on distinct ancestries, of which each census respondent may choose up to two.[3] In the 2021 census, the number of ancestry responses categorized within North African and Middle Eastern ancestral groups as a proportion of the total population amounted to 3.2%.[1]
| Ancestry | Population |
|---|---|
| Algerian Australians | 2,319 |
| Arab Australians | 60,095 |
| Assyrian Australians | 62,452 |
| Bahraini Australians | 166 |
| Bari Australians | 95 |
| Berber Australians | 340 |
| Coptic Australians | 1,433 |
| Darfuri Australians | 15 |
| Egyptian Australians | 60,164 |
| Emirati Australians | 63 |
| Iranian Australians | 81,119 |
| Iraqi Australians | 57,859 |
| Jordanian Australians | 6,096 |
| Kurdish Australians | 10,171 |
| Kuwaiti Australians | 815 |
| Lebanese Australians | 248,434 |
| Libyan Australians | 1,076 |
| Mandaean Australians | 918 |
| Moroccan Australians | 4,192 |
| Nubian Australians | 130 |
| Nuer Australians | 185 |
| Omani Australians | 168 |
| Other North African and Middle Eastern | 11,027 |
| Palestinian Australians | 15,607 |
| Qatari Australians | 23 |
| Saudi Arabian Australians | 1,638 |
| Sudanese Australians | 16,809 |
| Syrian Australians | 29,257 |
| Tunisian Australians | 1,037 |
| Turkish Australians | 87,164 |
| Yemeni Australians | 1,443 |
| Yazidi Australians | 876 |
Asylum policy is a contentiouswedge issue in Australian politics, with the two majorpolitical parties in Australia arguing that the issue is aborder control problem and one concerning the safety of those attempting to come to Australia by boat.
In 1999, Middle Eastern immigrants fleeing from oppressive regimes inAfghanistan,Iran andIraq began to arrive in large numbers.[4] TheHoward government extended the time they spent in mandatory detention and introducedtemporary protection visas for boat arrivals.[5] The deterrents did little to stop immigrants; roughly 12,000 asylum seekers reached Australia from 1999 to 2001.[4]In 2011, Australia received 2.5% of the world's total number of claims for asylum.[6] During 2012, more than 17,000 asylum seekers arrived via boat.[7] The majority of the refugees came fromAfghanistan,Iran, andSri Lanka.[8] In June 2012,a boatload of asylum seekers capsized in theIndian Ocean between Indonesia andChristmas Island, leading to 17 confirmed deaths, with 70 other people missing.[9]
In 2015, the government rejected suggestions that it would acceptRohingyas (a persecuted Muslim minority in Myanmar) during theRohingya refugee crisis, with the Prime MinisterTony Abbott responding "Nope, nope, nope. We have a very clear refugee and humanitarian program".[10] However, later in the year the government unexpectedly increased its intake of refugees to accommodate persecuted minorities, such asMaronites,Yazidis andDruze, from the conflicts of theSyrian Civil War andIraq War.[11][12] (It was these refugees who swelled the figures for 2016–2017.[13])
Attacks in Spain, London, and Bali have increasingly associated people of "Middle Eastern appearance" with terrorism.[14] A clearer picture of the impact of these events on Sydney's Muslim, Arabic, and Middle Eastern population emerged from data collected from a hotline between September 12, 2001, and November 11, 2001, by the Community Relations Commission for a Multicultural NSW, during which time 248 incidents were logged. There were seven categories of attack: physical assault; verbal assault; sexual assault; threat; racial discrimination or harassment, damage to property; and media attack. Half of all victims were female; seven out of ten were adults. The largest language groups to use the hotline were Arabic, consisting 52.4% of calls. 47.2% of the incidents occurred in public spaces.[14]
On 11 December 2005, a violent mob of about five thousand young white Australians gathered on the beach at Cronulla,New South Wales. Waving Australian flags, and singingWaltzing Matilda and Australia's national anthem, the mob verbally abused and physically assaulted anyone of Middle Eastern appearance.[15] Five thousand people reportedly gathered at the site and marched through the streets ofCronulla, attacking anyone who they identified as Middle Eastern.[16]
One victim recalled how the violence erupted when a man deemed to be "of Middle Eastern appearance" was walking along the beachfront with his girlfriend and "two girls turned around and screamed ... 'get off our f__king beaches' [and then] the whole street turned on them"[16] The riots put the spotlight on two segments of Sydney's population (the white, Anglo-Celtic majority and a Middle Eastern minority) and two parts of the city: the Sutherland Shire Local Government Area (LGA), located in Sydney's southern suburbs whereCronulla Beach is located (known as the Shire); and the Canterbury and Bankstown LGAs, located in south-western Sydney, where most of the city's Lebanese and other Middle Eastern immigrants live.[14] Middle Eastern males were tagged as criminal and un-Australian by the media brush of ethnic crime.[14]
In one incident, two young men of Middle Eastern appearance, on their way for a swim, were mobbed and beaten on a train carriage, with both responding police officers and a nearby press photographer fearing there would be a killing.[17]
The latest incident occurred in 2011, when the criminal lawyer of Middle Eastern background, Adam Houda,[18] was arrested for refusing a frisk search and resisting arrest after having been approached by police, who suspected him of involvement in a recent robbery. These charges were thrown out of court by Judge John Connell, who stated, "At the end of the day, there were three men of Middle Easternappearance walking along a suburban street, for all the police knew, minding their own business at an unexceptional time of day, in unexceptional clothing, except two of the men had hooded jumpers.[19] The place they were in could not have raised a reasonable suspicion they were involved in the robberies."Islamophobia is highly speculative and affective distrust and hostility towardsMuslims,Islam, and those perceived as following the religion.[20] This social aversion and bias is often facilitated and perpetuated in the media through the stereotyping of Muslims as violent and uncivilised. Various Australian politicians and political commentators have capitalised on these negative stereotypes and this has contributed to the marginalisation, discrimination and exclusion of the Muslim community.[21]
Islamophobia and intolerance towards Muslims existed well prior to theSeptember 11 attacks in the United States. For example, Muslim immigration to Australia was restricted under theWhite Australia Policy (1901-1975).[22]
{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)Ancestral background ofAustralian citizens | ||
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