Scott's+Focus

[[image:mcscbd2012/HomeIcon026.jpg width="127" height="127" align="left" caption="Immigration Home" link="Immigration Home"]]
==The countries I am focusing on are Ireland, England, the Netherlands and China. There are many people from around the world who have migrated to Melbourne since the 1830s. This means there are many cultures in Melbourne today. Migration by boat to migration by plane has saved a lot of time. Immigrants traveled from faraway places like China, Europe and America, bringing their culture to Melbourne and making it the multicultural society it is today. My wiki starts with England because they were the first European settlers. (Images are linked to my source)==

England
The English were the largest group of immigrants to arrive in Victoria, Australia since the 1850s, mainly due to the overpopulation in Britain and the lack of population in Australia. According to the statistics of this [|website], the number of English immigrants from the year 1854 to 2006 has increased by 60% in 152 years. They brought their culture, which includes celebrations, cuisine, fashion, religion, language and architecture into Melbourne.

The English migration caused a big change to the city of Melbourne. The city began to develop when the Indigenous Australians agreed to sign John Batman's treaty in 1835. John Batman, whose family was English, was born in New South Wales. (see Ben and Jeff's wiki for more information on this treaty). The English migrated to Melbourne for many reasons. On the 1st of July 1851, the Australian Colonies Government Act (1850) declared the separation of the Port Phillip District of New South Wales, which is Victoria today, from the colony of New South Wales; this separation called for more settlers to inhabit this new district and therefore more Englishman came to call this new district home.

Then, later through the years in the 1850s, more English immigrants arrived because of the gold rush and hunger for wealth. The gold rush was the beginning of today's multicultural society. The gold rush made the English people stay in Victoria and soon there were many English-Australian-born settlers. This website (click on the image of England) states that just over half the immigrants that came to Australia in the 1860s and 1900s were English immigrants. The minister of immigration in the early 1900s, Arthur Calwell, wanted nine out of ten of the immigrants to be British. In 2006, the English were still the largest group of overseas born people in Victoria. Australia's society today continues to be influenced by its strong English heritage, one that started over 200 years ago.

Netherlands
Dutch migrants were one of the small groups of migrants in the 1900s. The Dutch made their appearance in Australia's history in the year 1644. Before Australia was called Australia, it was named New Holland by a Dutch sailor named Abel Tasman. Australia was named New Holland for at least 180 years. Like the other Europeans, the Dutch came for the gold rush and then more were sent to Australia as convicts in the early 19th century; the Dutch communities increased dramatically because of World War 2 because they came here to escape the war.

According to the statistics of this [|website], the number of Dutch immigrants from the year 1911 to 1947 has increased from 184 Dutch immigrants to 621 Dutch immigrants, a 30% increase in just 36 years. In 1911, the number of Netherlands-born people living on Victoria. Then the population of Dutch immigrants increased tremendously from 621 people in 1947, to 14,895 people in 1954; and finally peaked in 1961 with a population of 35,412 and slowly decreased in their numbers on the following years as the Netherlands economy was stable enough to support them. Then in 2006 the Dutch population in Victoria was 22,831, making it the largest number of Netherlands-born people in the world besides Netherlands.

Today's Dutch community is mostly found around the outer metropolitan areas of Melbourne, including Dandenong, Frankston and Berwick. A few famous Dutch people who were involved in Australian history are Abel Tasman (the person who found Australia continent in 1644 and named it new Holland) and Willem Janszoon (the person who was believed to be the first person to sight Australia).

Ireland (Southern)
Ireland was one country until the Anglo-Irish treaty took place in 1921 that made Ireland a independent country within the British empire. The Irish migration group was the second largest group of migrants from 1854 to World War 1 following the English migration group. The Irish migrated to Australia in big numbers. There were 39,728 Irish migrants in Melbourne in 1854 according to this [|website]. This statistics says that the number of Irish immigrants in Melbourne from the year 1854, 39728 Irish, to the year 2006, 11410 Irish, has decreased tremendously in their numbers over 152 years (a decrease of 29%). The Irish population peaked in the year 1871 with a population of 100,468 making it a very large group of migrants; 1 in 4 Victorians were born in Ireland.

Another reason why the Irish migrated was because of the Irish famine in the 1840s. The Irish famine was believed to be caused by a potato disease called potato blight that killed almost 1 million Irish people in Ireland (a fact I just learnt about that I want to let you know about although it is not related to my topic). Between 1850 and 1890, most Irish arrivals to Victoria came as assisted immigrants, many escaping cultural repression in Ireland. The Irish came in equal genders, both men and women. They worked for gold on the goldfields like the other cultures, but the others worked as whale-hunters, fishermen, farmers and as laborers in factories in the town. The growth of the Catholic Church in Victoria was strongly supported by the Irish community and the nuns in the church took care of the Irish street children and orphans sent from Ireland.

Today, Irish people have also been very important in political movements seeking justice for Victorian workers. Irish culture remains very popular in Melbourne today. There were well known Irish people in Victoria; there was even a case of the prosecutor and accused both being Irish descendants, and they were Sir Redmond Barry (prosecutor) and the famous Ned Kelly (the accused). Irish descendants continue to contribute to the Irish culture in every aspect of Victorian life.

China
The Chinese culture plays a big role in Melbourne today and it all started back then from the time of the gold rush. Back then, the Chinese weren't accepted into the society because the Europeans thought they were very strange and made them a target for racism. From the way they dressed to their hairstyle, to their habit and to their religion. Although there was a lot of racism going around them, they adapted to the society and even taught others how to adapt as well; that's how the Chinese grew larger in their numbers.

By 1861, the Chinese community already made up 7% of the population of Melbourne. When they arrived, they stayed together in a small village with a head man in charge. When the Chinese settlers first arrived to Victoria they came in big numbers hoping to strike gold. Most of them were sponsored by agents and soon found themselves in debt which they found hard to repay. They worked the land for gold, but it was very hard for them because they were scared to offend their Gods. They had a lot of Gods and that set them apart from the other miners. So they didn't work the land for Golds but instead they worked jobs that no one else did, like washing clothes, selling and growing vegetables, selling cooked food to the tired miners, selling herbal medicine and more. Although the Chinese didn't want to mine for gold, they had many different ways to mine gold and that made them suspicious to the other miners as they had never seen those methods. They specifically went for the places mined by the others to find gold they others didn't find. When the others built square or rectangular shafts, the Chinese built round shafts as they were scared that evil spirits lived in the corners of the buildings. They also had curved roofs sliding down and then sharply upwards because they were scared the evil spirits would appear on their roofs and want them to slide off.

The Chinese miners also needed to send money back to families in China by ferries through personal contractors instead of big banks, because the contractor who sent the money back to China was bound by their contract they made to the sender. The Chinese were different to the other miners because they were generally very hardworking, honest, very quiet and law abiding. The Chinese were made to sit the Dictation test that decided whether a person could enter the country in which people spoke a different language from them. Then in 1855, a law was introduced by the Legislative Council hoping to decrease the number of Chinese immigrants from entering Victoria. The law decreed that the Chinese needed to pay a entry fee for entering the colony and not charging the other people. Therefore, the Chinese landed in a South Australian port and made their way from there to the colony. In 1857 a 6 pound residential fee on Chinese residents was introduced. This measure resulted in petitions from Chinese communities demanding protection and justice. But still, there were many Chinese miners on the goldfields, despite the law and the number of Chinese immigrants didn't decrease.

After the gold rush, some returned home to China, but some stayed and found jobs, set up market gardens, restaurants or laundries. For those that stayed, they brought their families over into Victoria. Gradually the Chinese community was accepted and respected in the Australian society. They also worked around Melbourne in a variety of pursuits, including import-export businesses. At the time of the gold rush, big groups of Chinese gathered in Little Bourke Street, which is Chinatown today. Many Chinese religions and cultural organisations were established and Chinese New Year celebrations became a highlight in many towns in Victoria. The Chinese-born population in Victoria doubled to over 20,000 from 1986 and 1991. This big increase was largely due to the Chinese students who sought citizenship after their studies. In 2006, the census recorded 56,560 China-born people in Victoria. In recent years many professionals have migrated from China, including scholars, doctors and business investors.