White Australian

White Australian or European Australian is broad ethnic group in Australia that includes white people born in Australia.

The Australian Census of 2006, when enquiring about ethnicity, did not offer "White Australian" as a standard choice. The subjective self-description most commonly used was "Australian" (37.13%). However, this is ambiguous and may include non-white people who describe themselves in terms of their Australian citizenship, such as indigenous Australians. The largest groups of European Australians identified were English Australians (31.65%), Irish Australians (9.08%), Scottish Australians (7.56%), Italian Australians (4.29%), German Australians (4.09%) and Greek Australians (1.84%).^[1]

A significant majority of white Australians are descended from immigrants from Great Britain or Ireland. In previous historical periods, "White Australian" was regarded as synonymous with Anglo-Celtic Australian. However, this technically excluded European Australians of non-British or Irish ancestry. Some have argued that the term "Anglo-Celtic" is entirely a product of multiculturalism. For example, historian John Hirst wrote in 1994: "Mainstream Australian society was reduced to an ethnic group and given an ethnic name: Anglo-Celt."^[2]

White Australians as a proportion of the population increased during the 20th century, as a result of the "White Australia Policy", which was intended to restrict non-white immigration. From 1947, the "post-war migration boom", meant Australia's population more than doubled, spurred by large-scale European migration. The incremental abolition of the White Australia Policy, culminating in the 1973 Immigration Act, resulted in a significant increase in immigration from Asian countries.^{[citation needed]}

See also

• White Australia policy

References