How and why did the pattern of migration change over time from 1945-2000?

Answer 1

A few years after World War II, Australia was classed as being under-populated. There was a policy which led to migration increasing, and led to a rise of migrants from the Mediterranean, Central and Eastern Europe. Australia had a high intake of Jewish Holocaust survivors.



In the late 1960s right up to the early to mid 1970s, Asian migrants, for the first time since Federation, started to arrive - due to the a policy known as the 'White Australia Policy'.



In the 1970s, with the Vietnam War coming to a close; Vietnamese refugees, some whom were working with the US and Australian forces during the war, arrived to our shores. The late 1970s and early 1980s saw Middle Eastern immigrants, predominantly around the time of the Lebanese civil war.



1980s saw Australia becoming a global country with different immigrants, especially ones in professions such as medicine, law or finance, arriving into the country. In the late 1980s, young Irish adults moved to Australia after the meltdown of the Irish economy and very high unemployment. Those from the northern part of Ireland came to Australia to escape the Troubles since the 1970s.



During the 1990s, as it is now, more and more younger people migrated to Australia firstly to study at universities and then after a few years in their native countries, settle in Australia and make a contribution by working in high level jobs.