About 17 per cent of Australia's population were born in Asia. The term 'Asian' refers to people from more than 20 diverse nations, including Korea, Bangladesh, Singapore, Pakistan, China, Sri Lanka, Japan and Hong Kong. The Asian proportion of immigration has increased rapidly following the arrival of large numbers of Indochinese after the end of the Vietnam War. In 1985-86, Asians comprised 35 per cent of all settler arrivals and since the early 1990s this rate has increased to 40 per cent.
The difference between the post-WWII migration and the influx of South East Asians is that many of the Asians migrants during the late 60's and early 70's were seeking asylum as refugees, making it a different situation to that of the Italians or Greeks.
As refugees, by definition they had been subjected to:
-the reality or threat of war
-persecution
-imprisonment
-discrimination
-economic deprivation
-violence
After the fall of Saigon ended the Vietnam War in 1975, hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese fled by boat, often enduring starvation and piracy before being rescued or landing in a nearby country. Many of these "boat people" eventually settled in Australia.
In 1989 Western and Asian nations signed the Comprehensive Plan of Action for Indochinese Refugees. Under this plan the eight Asian countries that contained Vietnamese refugee camps screened the camp members to determine whether they qualified as refugees. Those that qualified were settled in Western nations. The people who did not qualify were to be sent back to Vietnam. Since 1989 over 68,000 Vietnamese have voluntarily returned to Vietnam. The camps were scheduled to close at the end of 1995 though many Vietnamese were reluctant to return.
There are many socio-economic impacts of Asian migrants. Asians from Northeast and Southeast Asia have been especially represented in the business, humanitarian and family migration categories. Business and professional migrants from Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan and Indonesia are in general English-speaking, more highly qualified than the Australian average, in professional or managerial positions and earning above average incomes. Humanitarian and family migrants, who have come from Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, and more recently from Mainland China, have often lacked transferable work skills, been non-English speaking and experienced periods of unemployment. Migrants from South Asia (India and Sri Lanka) have in general been English-speaking and middle class, with a balance between skilled and family migration.
Because many Asian families who have moved to Australia have not been succesful in their own countries, the parents often push their children academically to do the best they can. This also linked to the high motivation to succeed that exists in Asian migrant communities and, in particular, the respect for education that is very much part of Confucian tradition.
Like the Italians and Greeks of the 1950's, almost all Asian migrants are employed or have their own buinesses which have added yet again to the cultural 'melting pot' in Australia.
