Ethnicity and Migration in Australia

Ethnicity and migration in Australia 1
ETHNICITY AND MIGRATION IN AUSTRALIA
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Introduction
Migration of people can be dated back to as early as the middle stone age. People
move from one place to another with different reasons, the reason behind this movement
ranges from searching for greener pastures, war and conflict in their homeland, educational
purposes, tourism and adventure and also people move in search of jobs. To be specific in
Australia the total migration had adversely increased from 30,032 in the year 1995-1996 to
178,582 in 2015-2016, majority of this being the skilled migration and family reunion
programs, a sociological study conducted in 2014 shows that “Australia and Canada are the
western countries that are against immigration”.(Walsh, 2014). Migration in this era has
been affected by several factors, which includes; globalization, transnationalism, the
internet, social media, and the new technologies
How globalization has changed migration
Free trade, free mobility of capital and labour across the borders of different countries
worldwide has become more evident in the present world. For example, Australia can sign a
treaty or an agreement with Canada on free trade between the two countries. Globalization
has both a positive and negative impact on migration. First, globalization has led to the
signing of favourable treaties between countries for free markets and better tariffs for
importing and exporting of goods and services. This agreement has led to an open and
smooth migration of people between countries. The behaviour of international movement of
people also has changed due to globalization where migrants can move back and forth
rapidly and still be in touch their families even it happens that their homes are in the other
side of the globe. The development on globalization has affected how we see the world as
sociologists on globalization has put it “globalization refers to the compression of the world
and intensification of consciousness of the world as a whole” (Saloojee, 2014). The

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migration of the working class finds more prosperity and economic stability in the new
countries than in their homeland (Rocha, Cristina, 2014).
How Social media has changed migration
People interact through social platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and
YouTube. Commination is a vital tool in immigration (Devetak, Richard, 2004). Through
social interactions, one makes a friendship with the one they interact with and finally make
an effort of migrating to meet (Jallapuram, 2011). For example, there are cases where
individuals dating on Facebook and fall in love, they finally plan and meet hence
encouraging the migration of people. Social media has become the most excellent tool in the
modern lifestyle as everyone is readily associated with these platforms.
Social media has provided information about the host country, and such information is
vital. For instance, the rights, citizenship and locate migrant support centres, and this has
dramatically encouraged migration since the migrants have a full overview of the host
country, before migrating and to add on that they can still communicate back home
(Miller,Madianou, 2012).
Through social media one can come across the language of the host country and
through social interactions, migrants can master the language. By learning the new
language, the cases of language barriers cannot be an issue; hence immigrants can adapt to
the new environment with ease. On the other hand, social media has reduced the migration
of people since there is no need for traveling from places to places to meet an individual but
use social platforms to communicate and the message. This shows that social media is the
most excellent tool as far as migration is concerned (Madianou, 2016).

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Using social media one makes friends with people in the host countries. Through this
friendship, it makes it easy for the migrant to settle in the new environments since they feel
secure due to friends around them (Dekker, 2014).
How transnationalism has changed migration
People move from their birth countries to other countries in search of better living
standards. In most cases, people leave their families behind and travel far away countries
where they can secure better jobs and economic stability. When people retire, they tend to
seek a more affordable and desirable lifestyle in third world countries such as Thailand.
Such practices are usually evident in many western countries.
Transnationalism has made it easier for people to maintain contact with the family
members still back at home country. The connection has resulted due to the development of
new communication media which favours maintenance of intimate relationships with their
kin (Wilding & Baldassar, 2018). The people can communicate affordably through video
calls voice calls, texts and emails among other media, which helps them to maintain regular
conversations and intimacy (Bhalla, 2010).
How the internet has changed migration
Connectivity through computers to other networks influences movement greatly.
Through the internet one can get any information of interest at the comfort of their places.
Through this connectivity, there is access to information such as an advertisement of touring
zones which eventually encourages one to travel. For instance, through the internet one may
learn about a culture in Chinese and feel inspired to visit and tour the place. On the other
hand through the internet one may learn about discouraging occurrences in different parts of