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Australia
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5.22.2009 :: # 3256
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The Fiji-born Community in Australia
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Historical background
By the mid-1950s there were over 2,000 Fiji-born persons in Australia. Fijian migration to Australia became significant in the late 1960s. The Fijians were attracted to Australia by the prospect of better employment, higher wages and improved welfare services. By 1966, over 60% of Fijians living in Australia had settled in Sydney and over the past two decades this pattern of settlement in Sydney has continued.
Migration accelerated in the post-independence decade of the 1970s and by 1986 there were 14,749 Fiji-born persons in Australia. Following the military coups and political unrest in Fiji in 1987, Australia received an influx of Fijian Indians seeking refugee asylum. By 1991 the Fiji-born population in Australia had increased to 30,149.
The Fiji-born comprise several ethnic groups, Fijian, Chinese, Indian, European, Rotuman and others, all of whom are part of the migration stream to Australia. Most Fijians in Australia are of Fijian-Indian ethnicity. About 53% of Fijians in Australia are Christians (mainly Methodists), 38% are Hindus and 8% are Muslims.
Almost all Fijians are proficient in English. Many of the Fijian-Indians speak Hindi or other Indian languages at home. Over 80 percent of Fijians in Australia are under fifty years of age. The Fijians retain strong social and economic ties with their relatives in Fiji.
Language
The main languages spoken at home by Fiji-born people in Australia were Hindi (54.4 per cent), English (24.9 per cent), and Fijian (9.0 per cent).
Of the 33,060 Fiji-born who spoke a language other than English at home, 94.7 per cent spoke English very well or well and 4.1 per cent spoke English not well or not at all.
Religion
At the 2001 Census the major religions amongst Fiji-born were Hinduism (19,770 persons), Islam (5,770 persons) and Western Catholic (4,500 persons).
Of the Fiji-born, 3.5 per cent stated 'No Religion'. This was lower than that of the total Australian population (15.5 per cent)
Ancestry
In the 2001 Census, the top three ancestries that Fiji-born persons reported were, Indian (25,000), Fijian (7,450) and Indian-Fijian (1,620).
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