1.1 Who has come to Australia since 1945?

You have seen from the Background information that migration has been important for Australia since 1788. Migrants came from a number of different countries, but the largest number by far came from Britain.

This graph of Australia’s population born overseas shows that the postwar period you are studying is significant.

This map of the world shows which countries have been major providers of migrants to Australia since 1945. Use the map as a visual reference as you work through the migration to Australia table below.

The following table shows the total numbers of migrants from each of the countries on the map, per decade, since the end of the Second World War. It also shows the rank of each country as a major provider of migrants to Australia for each period. 

_{**includes Former Yugoslavia after 1992}

^{Australian Government, Historical Migration Statistics, https://data.gov.au/data/dataset/historical-migration-statistic}

A research activity: Several countries have provided large numbers of migrants in only one decade. Others do not appear in the list because immigration from their country was for a short time only, so they do not appear for that decade. Some of these heavy but brief providers are: Chile, Spain, Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Thailand, Cambodia, Bangladesh, and Nepal. Research to discover what events occurred to create this intense but short-lived migration from these countries.

Look back at the Key Questions. Which of these questions do you think you can now answer fully? Which need more research?

You have now identified waves or changes in immigration to Australia in the postwar period. You need to explore further to investigate why those changes occurred, and what impacts this had on Australia.