The Last Half Century of Chinese Overseas

21. Settlement Experiences of Recent Chinese Immigrants in Australia: A Comparison of Settlers from Hong Kong, Taiwan and China

21 Settlement Experiences of Recent Chinese Immigrants in Australia: A Comparison of Settlers from Hong Kong, Taiwan and China Chung-Tong Wu, David F. Ip, Christine Inglis, Ikuo Kawakami and Karel Duivenvoorden* During the 1980s there was a major shift in the panerns of Australian immigration. For the first time since the nineteenth century Asian immigration became an important element in Australian immigration, as 40 percent of all permanent immigrants were drawn from countries in East, Southeast and Southern Asia. At the same time, there was also an increase in the educational and skill levels of immigrants entering Australia, including many from Asia. These changes in immigration patterns were a result of a number of Australian domestic changes, as well as international changes associated with globalization. By the early 1970s Australia had finally abandoned the White Australia Policy and moved to an immigration programme that did not discriminate on the basis of country of origin and ethnic identity. While the three main bases of entry - fami ly ties, economic skills and humanitarian and refugee considerations - remained, during the 1980s there was an increasing emphasis on the economic advantages of immigration to Australia. This involved a refocusing of the immigration The institutional affliations of the authors are, respectively, Universiry of New South Wales; University of Queensland; University of Sydney; Miyagl University of Education and the Queensland Ethnic Communities Council of Queensland. The authors wish to acknowledge generous fina ncial suPPOrt from the Toyota Foundation. 392 WH. 1/1. Inglis, Kawakami (lnd Dllill(!I1I1Of)rd(!1I programme to increase the educational and ski ll levels of immigrants In line with moves to restructure the Australian economy inro new, knowledge-based industries. At the same time, economic developments in Europe meant fewer Europeans were seeking to emigrate. This coincided with economic development in Asia, which led to the emergence of a highly educated, often English speaking middle-class, many of whom were prepared to seek alternative opportunities overseas. These Asian emigrants replaced the many European immigrants who had previously serried in Australia. Furthermore, as a result of earlier Asian immigration in the '1960s and 1970s, there was an increasing number of Asians with existing fami ly tics to Australia who were able to use these as a basis for immigration. Also, twO decades after the end of the Indo-Chinese War, Australia is still accepting refugees from the Asian region, including some Indo-Chinese entries under the Concerted Plan of Action. Among those who have migrated to Australia in the last five years, Hong Kong, Vietnam, the Philippines, China and Taiwan have been extremely importanr source countries. In 199 1-92, for example, 12 percent of Australian immigrants came from Hong Kong, 8,9 percent from Vietnam, 5.5 percent from the Philippines, 3.2 percent from Ch ina and a further 3 percent from Taiwan. That is, these five countries alone provided one-third of Australia's immigrant intake. Immigra nts from Japan constituted an additional 0.5 percent of Australia's immigrants in that yeaL I In addition to permanent immigrants, Australia is also receiving an ever-growing number of individuals entering as temporary residents for work, study or tourism. Temporary resident arrivals now outnumber those entering as permanent immigrants. In this short-term immigration too, Asia is an important source region. Between 1986-87 and 1990-91, for example, 75.3 percent of all student arrivals, 42.S percent of all tourists and 26.1 percent of all temporary work visitors, were from the Asian region,l This chaper discusses the settlement experience of recent Chinese migrants to Brisbane, Australia in comparison with those from other Asian nations:l The Chinese migrants indude those from Hong Kong, PRC and Taiwan who have migrated within the last five years. The overall study indudes migrants from Vietnam, the Philippines and Japan but this paper focuses on the Chinese migrants. It will first give a brief review of recent migration trends in Australia and a very brief discussion of Brisbane as background. It will then present findings from a survey of recent Chinese migrants to Brisbane to examine their settlement experience. The final section will discuss rhe special features of the findings and point to avenues of further research. Scl/femellt ~:xperien (.es of Recellt Chinese Immigrants ill Australia 39.1 BACKGROUND The sea change in the source of migrants to Australia does not eliminate the great variations amongst the source...