Analysis Of Australian Migration Statistics From 1945 To 1996

You should research and consider external/independent sources of information on the same theme as your data (e.g. a news report or journal article). You should then compare and contrast your data, with the external/independent information.
 

Understanding the composition of Australians in terms of natives or those who migrated into the country requires data from accredited source like The Australian Bureau of Statistics. The Australian bureau of statistics (ABS) released the country’s population results on 21^st June 2012. This was the sixteenth census in a period of 100 years from 1911 (www.homeaffairs.gov.au). This exercise is important for the government of Australia as it enables the government to be able to plan for the citizen of its country. From the chief executive director of census 2011, it can be concluded that Australia has had a substantive growth. Statistics record that during the first census in 1911, the population of the country was barely 4.5 million (www.homeaffairs.gov.au

. This data showed that in every four Australians, one was born oversees. To add on, records have it that majority of the immigrant communities in Australia are from the United Kingdom. This has been attributed to the common cultural and social heritage. However it is also documented that the highest percentage of that migration from UK to the country was between 1966 and 1975. It accounted for about 40% of all immigrants to Australia. There was still high number of immigrants from UK compared to other countries but they were less than those who came in during the afore mentioned period. The number has been seen to increase only after 2006. UK-born Australians are currently aging. However, the number of Chinese and Indian immigrants has since outnumbered the UK immigrants. Their number started shooting up in the 80’s. In 2006 there were 316,430 Indian immigrants and 302,460 Chinese immigrants (www.homeaffairs.gov.au).

In order to delve more into the composition of Australian migration statistics, this report sourced the data from the Department of Migration and Border Protection website since they were the custodians of such relevant data.

Summary statistics for arrivals (immigrants in Australia) per region from 1945 to 1996

Table 1 Data source:  https://www.gsu.uts.edu.au/policies/academicpractice.html

From the descriptive statistic table above, various observations can be made. It can be observed that for the whole period spanning from the year 1945 to 1996, the highest number of immigrants came from Europe. The total number as seen from the table is 3,592,397 immigrants. This number is much higher compared to immigrants from other regions. The second region with the highest number of immigrants was Asia with 902,547 immigrants. This is followed by a distant third Oceania which had 397,423 immigrants in Australia. The least number of immigrants among the five regions came from Africa and America.

The diagram below shows a Side by side boxplot of the number of immigrants region wise in Australia

Analysis of variance to establish whether there is a significant difference in the mean number of migrants from various regions to Australia

To establish whether there is equality between the mean number of migrants from various regions to Australia, an analysis of variance is therefore conducted. The hypothesis for the test is as below;

H₀: There is equality between the mean number of migrants from various regions to Australia.

Versus

H₁: At least one mean is different.

The table below shows the results of the analysis of variance

Table 2

As can be observed from the table of analysis of variance above, p-value (.00) calculated is less than the level of significant (.05). The decision therefore is to reject the null hypothesis and accept the alternative. The conclusion therefore is that there at least one mean is different. 

Time series chart of the number of immigrants from Oceania to Australia from 1945 to 1994

From the migration trend chart above, it can be observed that the number of immigrants from Oceania nations to Australia was less than 10,000 per annum from 1945 to 1976. The number increased significantly from 10,000 in 1976 to 20,000 within 5 years. At 1981 the number was at 20,000.

Time series chart of the number of immigrants from Europe to Australia from 1945 to 1994

From the migration trend chart above, it can be observed that the number of immigrants from European nations to Australia rose steadily from 20,000 in 1945 to about 170,000 in 1950. There was a sharp drop from 170,000 in 1950 to slightly below 80,000 in 1954.

Time series chart of the number of immigrants from America to Australia from 1945 to 1994 

From the migration trend chart above, it can be observed that the number of immigrants from America to Australia was less than 4,000 per annum from 1945 to 1959. This figure sunk further to about 409 between 1959 and 1960.

From the migration trend chart above, it can be observed that the number of immigrants from Asia to Australia was less than 10,000 per annum from 1945 to 1968. The number increased significantly from 10,000 in 1968 to 60,000 within 23 years. At 1991 the number was at 60,000. 

Time series chart of the number of immigrants from Africa to Australia from 1945 to 1994

The line graph above shows that in 1945 the number of arrivals in Australia from Africa was about 1500. The number shot to 2500 in 1949 and maintained until 1951. From 1953 to 1957, the number of immigrants increased to around 3000 after which it declined again to 332 in 1959.

Test for correlation in the number of arrivals in the years between Oceania and Europe 

Table 3

From the correlations results in table 3 above, it can be observed that Pearson correlation coefficient is -.49. This indicates an average correlation between the two variables (Oceania and Europe). The correlation is in the negative direction as demonstrated by the coefficient (-.49).

Test for correlation in the number of arrivals in the years between America and Asia 

Table 4

From the correlations results the table above, it can be observed that Pearson correlation coefficient is .35. This indicates an average correlation between the two variables (America and Asia). It is a positive correlation as demonstrated by the coefficient (.35).

The scatterplot above is of Oceania migrants versus Europe migrants. As it can be observed, there is no particular pattern depicted in the plot.

This study’s outcomes have shown that immigrants in Australia are not equal in numbers when it comes to the regions where they came from. Majority of the immigrants come from Europe. However, this number is explained by the fact that there were many arrivals from Europe in the 70’s. In the recent past, the Chinese and the Indians are the greatest in number in terms of arrivals. The results also show that the second largest group of immigrants is from Asia. This can be explained by the fact that Asia is just in the neighborhood of Australia. The least number of immigrants in Australia during the period were from the continent of Africa. The least number could be explained by the fact that the continent is far away from Australia. The second reason could have been that it is during this period that many countries in Africa was experiencing colonization and hence could not afford the luxury of adventure. A keen analysis of the trend in annual migration from the five continents shows that there was no particular pattern followed. This is because among the years, there was no normal distribution of the number of migrants to Australia. The only region which had its trend almost normally distributed was Europe. According to (www.migrationpolicy.org ) countries such as Australia, Canada and the US have been known as traditional countries of migration. They encouraged this since they wanted skills to develop the countries. In 2006, statistics showed that of all the immigrants in Australia, 24% were from UK, 9% from New Zealand and 5% from China.   

References 

https://www.gsu.uts.edu.au/policies/academicpractice.html

www.homeaffairs.gov.au

www.migrationpolicy.org