Fotografía de Elir Rojas, con la autorización del autor.
An Investigation of Latin American Migration to Australia
by Nadine Botzenhart, May 2006
The following paper was written by Nadine Botzenhart, a Bond University student (Gold Coast, Qld), who worked in the Embassy of Chile between February and May 2006, in the framework of an intership program organized by the Australian National University.
Executive Summary
Latin American migration to Australia provides a direct indication of the changing evolution of the socio-economic and geo-demographic situation on either side of the South Pacific. It has never reached significant numbers, despite a temporary increase during the 1970s and 1980s, which was spurred by a temporary combination of migration favouring changes in the receiving, as well as in the countries of origin’s respective politics.
Since Australia’s existence, first as a collection of British colonies and later as a nation, it has had one of the most controlled immigration policies in the world. This has allowed for a consciously engineered demographic evolution which has resulted in a mainly ‘white’ Anglo-Saxon society and closed all gates for large scale Latin immigration up until the 1970s. At that time, natural population growth and the European migration drive did not satisfy Australia’s economic and defence requirements any longer. Thus, Australia abandoned the so called White Australia Policy and turned to the Southern Cone to recruit migrants of the region’s predominantly ‘white’ European population. To date, Chilean, Argentinean and Uruguayan nationals continue to make up for the largest Latino groups in Australia. Remarkably, even during the peak period of Latin migration, Latin Americans still generally accounted for no more than three percent of all immigrants. In comparison, British accounted for almost half of the total immigration during the 1970s.
At the same time, Latin American countries, up until the Second World War, did not pose an incentive for emigration, consisting of immigrant societies themselves. The 1970s and 1980s were the only time that the region experienced mass emigration, spurred by authoritarian dictatorships, political turmoil, economic crisis, the lack of employment and wealth-creation opportunities and weak respect for human rights. Except for these two decades, the political situation in Latin America has been relatively stable, hence, not creating the need for large scale emigration.
Moreover, after the Whitlam Government abolished the ‘White Australia Policy’ in the early-1970s, its legacy, family reunion policies together with the lack of friend and kin networks, the extremely rigid and demanding migration point system and Australia’s persistent subtle preference of ‘white’ immigrants, further hindered the growth of the Latin community in Australia. The 1996 Australian demographic Census counted little more than 60,000 Latinos, within Australia’s approximately five million, or a quarter of the population, foreign-born residents. Similarly, by 2002 less than 0.5 percent of the Australian population spoke Spanish.
Compared to other migrant groups in Australia, the topic of Latin migration has barely been investigated. A vast variety of literature used for this research, together with interviews and meetings with several Ambassadors, academics and Latin migrants, as well as lectures by experts in the field, have led to the depth of this report and the concluding presumption that, despite physical distance no longer being an unsurmountable obstacle for closer links between peoples and countries, the Latin American community in Australia is not likely to grow in the near future.
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Some Historical Facts on Chilean Migration to Australia
Colonial Migration
Statistics from the British colonies in Australia in the 19th century contain very few, and never consistent, references to Chilean immigration. Generally, those of Chilean descent were categorised as ‘other americans’, and in any case, it appears their numbers were not significant in terms of the Australian population at large.
The First Political Exile
The first well-known Chilean to arrive in Australia was in fact Chile ’s first political exile. The former President of Chile, General Ramon Freire, set foot on Australian soil on June 26, 1837. The General had initially been condemned to death by the new presidential regime, but was later offered the lesser punishment of 10 years exile in Sydney, Australia. The number of Chilean migrants in Australia at this time remained small. At the time of the 1901 Census there were 90 Chile-born people in Australia, while by 1947 this reached 105.
Exodus
Significant Chilean migration to Australia did not occur until the late 1960s. Yet by 1971, 3760 Chilean-born people were registered in Australia. This new migratory phenomenon, or as some describe it ‘exodus’, was driven by the institutional destruction suffered by Chile in September of 1973. Economic and political uncertainty under a new military dictatorship led to a further influx of 2000 Chilean migrants in the early 1970s, the majority of whom were educated and wealthy. The political turmoil experienced in Chile at this time affected not only Chile as a nation, but also provoked a strong feeling of sympathy amongst various sectors of the Australian society. This translated into a significant national debate, and the subsequent creation of a legal frame for this new type of migration.
Three Waves of Migration
More recent migration studies suggest that contemporary Chilean migration to Australia occurred in 3 distinguishable waves.
In the 1960s, especially between the years 1968-70, around 1500-2000 Chileans arrived in Australia as a consequence of the economic recession produced during the government of Eduardo Frei Montalva, and the high level of unemployment at the termination of his administration. The majority of these people were middle class and well educated, and their migration can be seen to have an economic basis.
The second significant group to arrive was likely motivated by the presidential election of Salvador Allende in 1970. Allende was to be the first Marxist to be freely elected as President in Latin America, and his ascension to the presidency provoked a high level of uncertainty amongst the wealthy, given his stated platform of nationalisation of mining, industry, and services. The political and economic unrest that followed prompted many Chileans to flee the threat of socialism. This group was, again, overwhelmingly middle class, with sufficient resources (education and finance) to establish themselves as small business operators within Australia .
The third distinguishable wave of immigration to Australia was the greatest in number, and was characterised in large part by those Chileans fleeing their homeland as a consequence of political events flowing on from the 1973 military coup.
This wave of Chilean migrants was quite homogenous, comprised in the majority by skilled workers, and at times, their families. The middle class were represented only in the minority here. Political elitists and intellectuals from the left were also small in numbers, due to their preference for Western Europe and socialist nations in Latin America.
President Pinochet’s neo-colonial and neo-liberal military stranglehold over Chile was to last until 1990, during which time more than one million Chileans fled the country, 21 029 of whom sought sanctuary in Australia (Bureau of Immigration and Population Research).
Initial Experiences of the Political ‘Refugees’
During this period, Australian Governments of varying political and ideological tendencies maintained a consistent policy attitude towards the political repression that began to take hold within Chile. Of the 21 092 Chileans who arrived in Australia, 990 entered under Refugee Status, 805 under the Special Humanitarian Program, and the remainder through normal immigration procedures. At this time, the government provided hostel accommodation and relocation services to all Chileans arriving in Australia, rights which were usually reserved for those under refugee status only. The Chilean community soon became the largest group of Spanish speakers in Australia .
From their arrival, the Chilean people encountered a welcoming environment. Chile’s socialist experiment, and subsequent dismantling had generated a national awareness of the Chilean experience within Australia, and a feeling of affection for those groups defeated during the coup d’etat.
On arrival to Australia, Chilean migrants tended to take up residence in the capital cities of each state, given that it was here that the government offered temporary relocation hostel accommodation. The majority of the Chilean population remained in these areas which afforded easy access to the labour market, and to other immigrant communities with whom experiences could be shared. The exception was in New South Wales, where significant numbers of Chileans relocated to Wollongong and Newcastle, most likely due to the employment opportunities on offer in these largely industrial cities.
Many Chileans arriving at this time were alone, having fled from hiding in border countries to Chile, or directly from concentration camps of the dictatorship without the opportunity to reunite with family. The Australian government permitted these family members to migrate to Australia, granting a subsidence pension to assist with relocation and initial unemployment.
The two significant problems faced by newly arrived Chileans during this time, and indeed today, were employment and language. While certified skilled workers encountered few barriers to the labour market, middle class or ‘white collar’ Chileans, those who had been employed in the public service, in banks, as teachers or even students, found themselves in a more trying situation. For the majority of this group, it was necessary to leave their traditional employment sector and undertake manual and industrial labour as a means of supporting their families.
New also to the Chilean population was the incorporation of women into the labour market. In Chile , the total proportion of women in the workforce during the 1970s and 1980s never exceeded 28%, and the female presence in the labour market was usually limited to service (education & health), finance (banks) and public service sectors. Great stigma was attached to the notion of female employment in working class sectors such as manual labour and industry. However, industrialisation, the obligation imposed by the Australian social code to live with two salaries and the massive incorporation of women in the Australian labour market forced many Chileans arriving in Australia to change their attitude.
Language has perhaps been the most significant problem faced by newly arrived Chileans in Australia. Many who fled their homeland during the political unrest of the 1970 were not familiar with the English language and this presented as a serious obstacle to full integration into the Australian society, and more urgently, meaningful employment. This was especially so for those seeking employment in the professional sector. Tradesmen usually enjoyed the advantage of working with other migrants of European descent (Spanish, Portuguese and Italian speakers) who eased the transition through translation and the sharing of the migration experience.
A large proportion of Chilean migrants in Australia grasped only a limited use of the English language, either due to a lack of higher education before entering Australia, or to a preference for relying on their children as translators, as was often seen in older migrants.
Sources: Map only:
Australia, Proposed Divisions 1838 (379K) "Australia, according to the Proposed divisions." from The Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, Volume 8, 1838 to accompany "Considerations on the Political Geography and Geographical Nomenclature of Australia by Captain Vetch, Royal Engineers, F.R.S." Taken from: http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/historical/history_austral_pacific.html
The Chilean Community Today - A Glance
The latest Australian Census in 2001 recorder 23 370 Chile-born persons in Australia.
The 2001 distribution of this population by State and Territory revealed the largest numbers were situated in New South Wales with 12 630, followed by Victoria with 6670, Queensland with 1310 and Western Australia with 1220. Adding to this second and third generation Chileans living in Australia, we arrive at a Chilean-Australian population of around 45 000 persons.
Age & Sex
The median age of the Chilean-born population as determined by the 2001 Census sits at 41.9 years, compared to 35.6 years for the total Australian population.
Of the Chile-born in Australia, 48.2% were male; 51.8% female.
Qualifications
The 2001 Census revealed that of Chile-born Australians over the age of 15 years, 52.9% held some form of educational or occupational certification, compared to 46.2% for Australians as a whole.
Among the Chilean Australians, 20.3% held higher qualifications (determined as Postgraduate Degree, Graduate Diploma & Graduate Certificate and Bachelor Degree Advanced Diploma & Diploma Level) while 21.2% held Certificate level qualifications.
Employment
Chilean-born participation in the workforce was 66.4% according to the 2001 Census, while unemployment sat at 9.2%. This compared to 63% workforce participation and 7.4% unemployment for the total Australian population.
Of those Chilean-Australians in the workforce, 44.9% were involved in Skilled work, 30.6% in Semi-Skilled, with 24.5% in Unskilled. For the Australian total, corresponding rates were 52.6%, 28.9% and 18.6% respectively.
Citizenship
In 2001 72.3% of Chile-born persons in Australia had Australian Citizenship.
Language
Main language spoken at home by Chile-born Australians are Spanish, English, and Italian.
Religion
Last updated: June 2, 2006