Australia Yearbook - 2001

Chapter 5—Population 161
immigration intake, and the country of birth and
migration category composition of that intake.
For example, people who migrate to Australia
under the Refugee Program or the Special
Humanitarian Programs are more likely to apply
for citizenship than those who migrate in the Skill
Stream component of the migration program.
Campaigns encouraging long established
migrants to become citizens, and legislative
changes during the 1970s and 1980s, are also
likely to have influenced the number of
applications for citizenship in particular years.
According to the Australian Citizenship Council in
2000, “Australian Citizenship allows Citizens to
participate fully in the community in which they
live”. The Council considered “that for many
Australians there is an additional dimension to
the lived experience of citizenship—the sense of
belonging and of commitment to the country
where we have been born or where we have
decided to make our home”. Formally, the main
responsibilities and privileges of citizenship are
voting, jury service, defence of Australia if the
need arises, and eligibility to apply for an
Australian passport and for certain jobs
(i.e. public office, Member of Parliament, defence
forces). A citizen of Australia is expected to
pledge loyalty to Australia, share in the beliefs of
the democratic process, respect the rights and
liberties of other Australians, and uphold and
obey Australia’s laws. Being born in Australia no
longer automatically entitles a child to Australian
citizenship. Today citizenship is conferred
automatically only on children born to at least
one parent who is a citizen or permanent
resident of Australia.
Standardising gives the citizenship rates that
would be expected if a given overseas-born
population had the same profile of age and
period of residence in Australia as the total
overseas-born population (table 5.50). The
standardised citizenship rate for the Greek-born
population was 87%. Based on standardised rates,
people born in Viet Nam had the highest rate of
citizenship (90%) in 1996.
People born in the main English speaking
countries, such as the United Kingdom and New
Zealand, had low standardised citizenship rates.
This may be because “...the shared language, and
strongly similar legal, political, and industrial
relations arrangements of Australia and the other
Anglo-American countries lead these immigrants
to feel less need to make a choice of national
identity.” (Evans, M. 1988).
5.49 PERSONS GRANTED CITIZENSHIP—1949–1999
0
1949 1959 1969 1979 1989 1999
Year
(a) Data represent calendar years for 1949 to 1955 inclusive, January to June for 1956, and
financial years thereafter.
Source: Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs, Consolidated Statistics
and Annual Reports.
'000
150
120
90
60
30