Courtesy of Harry de Sayrah of Sydney
SIGNIFICANT FEATURES … …. Desultory Thoughts
- That Indian Australians outnumber Chinese Aussies is a surprise.
- The large number of Kiwi Aussies is not a surprise.
- Nor is a surprise that Vietnamese Aussies are considerable because of the sharp divide between Vietnamese south of the countrry’s north ….and the Australian forces engagement in the fighting there in the 1950s-70s.
- The low figure for Italian Aussies is stunning … surprising –indicating that most of the post-war generations have passed away and their children have become dinky-die! ….
- ………...Unlike the Kiwi personnel who remain firmly linked to their homeland nearby…..and, aaaaaaaahhhhhh, root for Sri Lanka whenever we play cricket against Australia. Hurrah!
An Outstanding Example of Dual-Anchorage: The Committee in charge of the Ceylon Society of Australia, in Sydney circa 2019
with Harry de Sayrah to the right of President Pauline Gunawardena
ADDENDUM: A CLARIFICATION provided by Bruce Kennedy in Perth**:
Hi Michael, ……….. With regard to your item, the chart refers to place of birth rather than citizenship. Many of the people included in those numbers might never have taken up Australian citizenship.
It would be interesting to compare country of birth with uptake of Australian citizenship – and for the latter category, those who have retained their former citizenship (ie dual nationals) vs those who are Australian citizens only. [Although it might actually be quite difficult to ascertain numbers of those who have renounced (or are not eligible to retain) a former citizenship – I refer to the section 44 brouhaha of some years ago relating to eligibility to be a member of the Commonwealth Parliament.]
It is interesting to see how concepts have changed over the years – when the Constitution was developed the criterion for election to the Commonwealth Parliament was being a British subject (which term included Australians). In fact there was no such thing as Australian citizenship at the time – this changed with the various citizenship Acts passed in the late 1940s (although with Mr Menzies at the helm, I can recall that my Australian passport issued in the late 1960s clearly stated that I was an Australian citizen and British subject – that has since changed). High Court rulings now exclude dual nationals from federal Parliament.
As another aside, King O’Malley, who was widely believed to be American but who claimed to be Canadian (and therefore a British subject), was a member of the House of Representatives from 1901 to 1917, and served two terms as Minister for Home Affairs [see Wikipedia]. His claims would not pass muster today.
Regards, Bruce …… ** Bruce Kennedy is the partner of Suramya Perera. both were stalwarts within ASLA for many years
