Migrants' attitudes to immigration in Australia: 1990 to 2004

Since 1990, migrant Australians' attitudes to immigration have waned and waxed according to the same overall pattern as those of the Australia-born. However, migrants are consistently less likely to want a decrease in the intake and consistently (slightly) more likely to want an increase. This is particularly true of those born in non-English-speaking-background (NESB) countries. Even so, in 2004, only 26 per cent of NESB-born Australians wanted an increase in immigration. Migrants are also likely to want an increase in immigration from their own region of origin. But the stand-out group here are the British. UK-born Australians are much more likely to want an increase in British immigration than are Asia-born Australians to want an increase in Asian immigration or Southern-Europe-born Australians to want an increase in Southern European immigration. When we focus on regions within New South Wales (NSW) and Victoria, the differences between the Australia-born and the NESB-born in their attitudes to immigration in general are marked. But in no instance do a majority of the NESB-born want an increase in immigration.