Dear Holy Moly,

I fully agree with Ginx. I can't see your point.

Australia is a multicultural, multilayered nation. Only Indigenous Australians can lay claim to ancestry that dates back more than 220 years and even they arrived as immigrants from distant lands many thousands of years ago. On top of recognising our Indigenous Heritage, we need to celebrate and acknowledge our status as an Immigrant Nation.

From the first prison ships of 1788, to the significant numbers of skilled and humanitarian migrants arriving by jet in the 21st century,
Australia is a land that continues to be populated by immigrants.

With one in four Australians born overseas and 40% of Australians either being born overseas, or having at least one parent born overseas, Australia's status as an Immigrant Nation is an indisputable truth. In our big cities like Sydney and Melbourne Multiculturalism is now the mainstream, It is something to celebrate and something that brings profound cultural, social and economic benefits.

And for your further information - these facts can be confirmed by
reading, "An Immigrant Nation: Briefing Paper." This material is based on "Australia 2030," Published 2001, Commonwealth of Australia.

Holy Moly,
I am not sure if what you wrote about the 2006 census is right or not''According to the 2006 census, 76% of the Australian population is native born and 92% has at least one parent who was born in Australia.''
I can not understand you from one site you wrote that 92% has at least one parent who was born in Australia (It means that 92% has at least one parent who was MIGRANT) and from the other site you say that Australia is not an immigrant nation.
Holy Moly,
When we say that Australia is a nation of migrants we do not mean that the majority of Australians born overseas but that the majority of Australians are migrants or come from migrants.
As you know there are 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4rth etc generations of MIGRANTS.
''A second generation migrant defined in Australian Gensus statistics as a parson with at least one parent who was born overseas''
we can classify the children as first, second, third, or fourth generation migrants. When parents’ generational status differed, we use the most recent generational status. For instance, the child of a first generation and second generation parent is second generation.
The word native usually used for people who have lived in a country from unknown time, deep in the past as Aborigines for Australia or Indians for America.
For example the Native American population, including American Indians and Alaska Natives, once totaled nearly 24 million, with over 500 tribes.
Really I can not understand why you wrote this text.
Antonios Symeonakis
Adelaide

The first fleet encountered some Greek fishermen on the way - they were picked up and shipped off to Australia along with the convicts.
Scratch world history and you will find a history of migration. Few nations, however, have a modern history that has been created almost exclusively by migrants. Migration refers not to volition but to the movement of people from one country to another. If we are to exclude people who had no choice in migrating then we would not only exclude convicts but also children and refugees. (most refugees did not choose to migrate to Australia - they fled their homeland seeking refuge wherever it was being offered.)
The language we use to describe our past is important in understanding that past. By calling Australia an Immigrant nation we are drawing attention to the fact that our culture, our lifestyle and our institutions have been shaped by these migrants; it reminds us that we have crowded out the indiginous understandings of what it means to live on this continent, it reminds us that we have imposed on the lanscape a lifestyle that is alien to it.
Over time the label will become less and less relevant just as it is no longer to call England an immigrant nation but as long as Aboriginal people remain dispossessed and to all intents and purposes strangers in their own land this land should be regarded as a land if immigrants.

Well, Foxy I am not familiar with the text you have quoted from but if you have quoted accurately it clearly contains misinformation. It would be a good idea to bring it to the school’s notice.

To say ‘Australia is not an immigrant nation’ is not denying our heritage. I am saying our heritage is far broader and has more aspects to it than the immigration aspect. I am saying we need to acknowledge the rich diversity of our heritage which most certainly includes migrants but also includes the convicts (who, as I pointed out, cannot be termed migrants since they were exiled here) and the Aboriginal people who do not see themselves as migrants, and other native Australians (such as those whose ancestors were migrants). Bear in mind that I am objecting to the use of the word ‘immigrant’ to describe Australia because it implies that all Australians are immigrants, which is not true. Being a descendant of an immigrant does not make someone an immigrant. Those who are born here are native Australians. To say that ‘Australia is an immigrant country’ is in fact to deny our heritage because Australia is more than that and is largely a native population (76%).

Dear Holy Moly,

I'm not going to argue with you any longer because we see things differently. You prefer to buy, 'hook, line, and sinker,' the article written by JB Rowley, entitled, "Australia is NOT an Immigrant Country,":
http://www.whispermysecret.com/Immigrant%20Country.html
that merely expresses an opinion. And you've chosen to run with it.

I prefer to stick with my point of view, taken from the material provided by the Government of Australia in their book,
"Australia 2030." Where it is clearly stated that Australia is an Immigrant Nation. The people we now call "Australians" have been reshaped several times. The First Australians, the Indigenous people, came to Australia through Asia at least 40,000 years ago.

It also tells us that the first massive European re-shaping of the Australian population came with the arrival of the First Fleet in 1788. Australia began to change dramatically. The convicts and free settlers of the next sixty years were mainly from England, Ireland, and Scotland, with a few major European groups such as Germans.

They changed the culture, the economy, the society and even the ecology and environment of Australia. Change was rapid and sometimes violent.

The First Fleet contained Jews, Malays, a West Indian, a Greek, Italians and people from various other parts of Europe.

Records show that our early settlements also included people born in Austria, Canada, the Cape of Good Hope, Denmark, Egypt, France, Germany, Gibraltar, Holland, Hungary, India, Latvia, Madagascar, Mauritius, the Persian Gulf, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Sweden and the USA.

Then another huge change. The discovery of gold in the eastern colonies in the 1850s and 1860s brought in a new flood of people - more English, Irish and Scottish people, but now also larger numbers from America and Europe, and especially China.

Anyway, I won't go on and on - I'm not going to convince someone - who's made up their mind on the subject. Someone who doesn't want to be 'excluded' but is willing to 'exclude' others, - and won't accept the facts as presented by their own (historical) Government records.

cont'd.

You're entitled to your opinion. I don't mean to suggest that you're not. I don't want to be part of the "You tell 'em love!"
mob.

I like what Peter van Vliet wrote in his post back in 2006.
"The values that to me help define what it means to be Australian are those of democracy, mateship and country. These are inclusive and profoundly optimistic values, which all Australians, regardless of their cultural background can carry into the 21st century.

Combined with recognition of our Indigenous history and a celebration of our status as an Immigrant Nation, these are values that can serve to unite rather than divide Australians!"

"Being Australian also means acknowledging the great local creed of
mateship. Mateship means lending a hand and looking out for others.
It means relating to ALL people as equals and not according to the caste and class distinctions more characteristic of the old world..."