From Europe

The story of migration to Australia begins with the Aboriginal people who arrived many thousands of years ago, and extends through the first European settlement, to the more than 100,000 newcomers who now arrive each year from all over the world. Some migrants hope to improve their economic position through better work opportunities, some are fleeing persecution and war, others are joining family members. Whatever the reason for their move, migrants go on to become an integral part of their new culture, changing and shaping it just as those who came before them did. The history of migration to Australia from the countries of the European continent and Britain begins with the arrival of the first convicts and progresses through the gold rushes, two World wars, and the collapse of the former Soviet Union and the former Yugoslavia. While Australia’s immigration policies were at first aimed mainly at British subjects, from 1947 the country accepted large numbers of other Europeans displaced as a result of World War II. The 1970s and 1990s saw the arrival of thousands of Soviet Jews and in the early 1990s Australia accepted thousands of Bosnians, Serbians, Croatians and Macedonians escaping civil war.