The accompanying table showing net settler migration to Australia from 1947 to 1998 gives estimates of the birthplace origin of foreign-born persons settling in Australia between mid-1947 and mid-1998.

‘Settlers’ are here defined as foreign-born persons who arrived in Australia, some calling themselves permanent arrivals or settlers, and others calling themselves temporary arrivals or visitors, and who have stayed long enough to be considered part of Australia’s permanent population. Other persons arrived calling themselves settlers but, after a few months or years, decided to return to their original home-country, or go on to settle in a third country. They have been deducted from the settler totals and the table’s statistics are therefore net statistics.

Also deducted are persons who arrived as settlers, returned to their old country and, after a while, regretted leaving Australia so came back calling themselves settlers for a second time. I think it incorrect to double-count such persons in the net settler total so I count each person only once. (Methods of estimating ‘second-timers’ are in my Immigration and Ethnicity , published by the Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs, Canberra, 1996, pp 4, 20.)

Another anomaly is that, in 1988-89 and 1989-90, some Austrian-born persons were miscounted by the immigration computer as Australian-born. We used census and other material to estimate their number and amended the Austrian-born and Australian-born totals by some 9,000.

Since 1959, when new immigration statistics were introduced giving birthplace of all arrivals and departures, it has been comparatively easy to estimate the net settler movement of different birthplace groupings. Before then the immigration statistics gave nationality only (not even citizenship). So, persons born in Malta or Cyprus were lost in the broad category of ‘British Nationality’. To estimate the birthplaces of the Maltese and Cypriot net settler movement of 1947 to 1961, (it was easier to work to the nearest census year 1961 than 1959), I used statistics given in the census of 1947, 1954 and 1961. When using these census statistics it was necessary to estimate deaths to intercensal immigrants. I also used census birthplace statistics, and special surveys by Professor J. Zubrzycki, to estimate the birthplaces of those among ‘stateless’.

It is important to remember the ‘birthplace’ totals are not the same as ‘ethnic’ totals. Anyone wishing to convert the 50,400 total of Sri Lankan-born settlers into ethnic totals must use ancestry, language and other material to estimate the British and Dutch elements in the total as well as the Sri Lankese and Tamil elements. So with Maoris born in New Zealand, and such like.

Table 1: Net settler migration to Australia by birthplace, 1947-98
Origin	Sub-region	Sub-total	Total	Per cent
Britain and Ireland	England (incl. Cornwall) Scotland Ireland Wales Isles	1,058,400 198,000 115,200 49,600 4,200	1,425,400	29.6
North and West Europe	Netherlands Germany Scandinavia Austria France Other	115,400 113,900 33,400 27,800 23,100 21,300	334,900	7.0
East Europe	Former Yugoslavia Poland Baltic States Hungary Czech/Slovak Russia, Belo-Russia, Ukraine Other East Europe	217,900 127,400 30,400 44,300 25,300 62,600 18,800	526,700	11.0
South Europe	Italy Greece, Cyprus Malta Portugal Spain Other South Europe	264,600 173,000 64,400 17,100 13,500 1,900	534,500	11.1
West Asia and North Africa	Lebanon-Syria Turkey Israel Other West Asia Egypt Other North Africa	81,400 30,800 13,100 38,400 28,100 4,200	196,000	4.1
South Asia	India Sri Lanka Other	95,900 50,400 26,400	172,700	3.6
East Asia	China, Hong Kong, Singapore Indo-China Philippines Malaysia Indonesia Thailand Japan Korea Other East Asia	234,100 210,400 111,400 88,000 48,800 26,400 36,400 35,600 6,900	798,000	16.6
America	USA Canada Chile Argentina Uruguay El Salvador Other America	68,500 31,100 29,100 12,700 10,200 9,600 33,100	194,300	4.0
Africa (excl. North)	South Africa Mauritius Other Commonwealth Other	71,600 20,000 33,600 9,100	134,300	2.8
Pacific	New Zealand Fiji P.N.G. Samoa Tonga Other	384,200 43,300 30,500 16,700 9,500 5,200	489,400	10.2
Net Settlers			4,806,200	100.0
Australian-born Net Total			-548,500 4,257,700
Notes: ‘Other Pacific’ includes Australian Territories, Not Stated, At Sea; True ethnic statistics would adjust birthplace total for British -born in India; Indian-born, Fiji; Chinese-born; Maoris-born NZ etc. Sources: 1947-61 Net Migration by Nationality or Country of residence; 1961-98 Birthplace

It is also important to note that the substantial net loss of Australian-born persons — estimated here at 548,500 — is not purely a loss of old Anglo-Celtic families. Much is due to non-British settlers returning to their old countries and taking their Australian-born children with them.

In general the table shows that immigration from the United Kingdom and Ireland has not dominated post-war immigration. In fact, it has made up less than 30 per cent. The table shows that net settlement from East Asian countries now exceeds net settlement from Southern Europe. This is not only because the settlement of East Asia-born persons has increased very considerably in recent years but also because, during the last three decades, return migration of Italian and Greek settlers to their old homes has often exceeded the number of new migrants from those countries.

The table under discussion, including further details on sources, has been prepared for my forthcoming monograph entitled Australians All: Who On Earth Are We?

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