Migration and religion

• Australia’s religious profile has been shaped by waves of migration. In the late 18th century, Christianity was introduced by the British. Other migration to Australia includes:

  • 1800s and early 1900s: British and Irish free settlers

  • 1940s and 1950s: Post WWII migrants from Europe

  • 1960s: Refugees from the Middle East

  • 1970s: Refugees from Southeast Asia

  • 2000s: Humanitarian entrants from Africa and Middle East

• Christian Affilation by generation

  • Generally, older generations are more likely to be affiliated with Christianity and younger generations are more likely to have no religious affiliation.

  • More than two-thirds (69.4%) of the Interwar generation were affiliated with Christianity and were the least likely to have No religion (18.6%). Millennials had the highest proportion of No religion

  • The number of people affiliated with Christianity in Australia decreased from 12.2 million (52.1%) in 2016 to 11.1 million (43.9%) in 2021. This decrease occurred across most ages, with the largest decrease for young adults (18-25 years).

  • In 2021, over 2.5 million people reported an affiliation with Other religions. This was an increase of over 600 thousand (617,800) since 2016. In the past 25 years the proportion of people reporting an affiliation with Other religions has increased from 3.5% in 1996 to 10% of the population in 2021. This growth has particularlyaccelerated since 2006.

• Fastest growing religions

  • Hinduism has grown by 55.3 per cent to 684,002 people, or 2.7

    per cent of the population

  • Islam has grown to 813,392 people, which is 3.2 per cent of the Australian population.

• No religions

  • Among the greatest change in the responses to the

    religion question in the Census was the increase in the

    proportion of Australians indicating they had ‘no

    religion’.

  • Nearly 10 million Australians described themselves

    as ‘no religion’ which is an increase of nearly three

    million compared with 2016, an increase of 40 per cent.

  • No religion means many different things to Australians.

    However, most fundamentally, it means that they do not

    want to identify with any particular religious

    institution.

  • Many Australians who select ‘no religion’ still describe themselves as ’spiritual’.

  • In 2021, the proportion was 38.9%, an increase

    from 30.1% in 2016, representing an increase of

    more than 2.8 million people

First Wave of Immigration

• (Post WWII)

  • Judaism

  • Catholicism and Orthodoxy

  • White Australia policy still in place

Second Wave of Immigration

• Asia and Middle East

• Arab-Israeli Wars (1948–49; 1956; 1967; 1973; 1982)- Increase in Judaism,Christianity and Islam.

• The fall of Saigon in 1975, the start of migration waves from Indo-China to Western countries and Australia. (Increase in Buddhism and Christianity)

• The fall of East Timor to Indonesian troops in 1975, which led many East-Timorese to seek refuge in Australia. (Increase in Christians- Roman Catholicism)

• The Lebanese Civil War of 1975–1990, which saw many Lebanese refugees come to Australia. (Increase in Christianity and Islam).

• The Yugoslav Wars in the Balkans from 1991 to 2001, which drove many Albanians, Bosnians, Croats, Serbs, to settle in Australia. (Increase in Christianity Catholicism and Serbian Orthodoxy & Bosnian Muslims)

• The Jakarta riots of May 1998, which led migrants from Jakarta to trickle into major cities in Australia. (Increase in Christianity and Buddhism)

Third Wave of Immigration (Result of War, Famine, Job Opportunities,Terrorism)

End of the white Australia policy

• 1966: Holt government effectively dismantles White Australia policy

• The Migration Act 1966 established legal equality between British,

  European and non-European migrants to Australia. These changes to

  immigration policy were some of the most significant steps towards

  the formation of multicultural Australia.

• In 1973 the Whitlam Labour government definitively renounced the

  White Australia policy and established in its place a policy of

  multiculturalism in a nation that is now home to migrants from

  about 200 different countries.

• By the early 1970s, more than five percent of the annual intake of Australia's immigrants was from Asia.

Denominational switching

• Protestants are most likely to switch denominations because they believe that the Bible is subjective and are tehrefore able to interpret the nature of passages in their own way. Because of htis, they can switch to a dfenomination that betters suits their belief systems

  • Catholics and Orthodox Christians are less likely to switch because they are more static in their beliefs. The Bible is considered a complete, objective and unchanging documetn adn tehrefore they have not changed over the last 1500 years

• Pentecostalism is one of the fastest growing denominations (220000 in 2006 → 255000 in 2021)

• People no longer remain in a particular denomination simply because they parents and grandparents belonged to it or because they share the same ethnic background with other church members

Roman Catholicism

• HAs held the highest number of adherents in Christianity since the 1980s to the present day

• Pre 1945, 17.5% of Australia’s popu

Sectarianism VS. Secularism

• Sectarianism →

  • Conflicts between religious groups

• Secularism →

  • The separation of religion and state