Choosing to be a Citizen: The Time-Path of Citizenship in Australia

This article uses census data to examine the process of becoming a citizen in Australia, and examines differences in the process among major immigrant groups. Some immigrant groups, Mediterranean and Third World immigrants, have a much more rapid transition to citizenship than others. Northwestern Europeans begin more slowly, but catch up several decades later. Anglophone immigrants are altogether less likely to become citizens. The analysis further reveals that people who migrate as children and thus are educated in Australia decide to become citizens more quickly than adulthood immigrants. Indeed, some of them become citizens as children (if their parents did so then). Other measures of affiliation to Australia have ambiguous effects. Social class is unrelated to the decision to become a citizen.

Regional differences in immigration and economic structure in Australia

"The scale of overseas immigration and the exceptional importance of the role played by migrants in demographic, economic and cultural trends in Australia makes the immigration policy one of the key components of Australian politics. Both the immigration policy and the outcomes of this policy are shaped by four major groups of factors: demographic, economic, cultural, and political in a broad sense. The weighting of these factors changes from period to period. This paper looks at the extent to which some of these factors affect regional differentiation of the immigration pattern. The analysis is focused on the influences of employment structure and other socio-economic characteristics of different Australian regions, exerted on overseas migration to these regions." (SUMMARY IN FRE AND SPA)