Thirty-two per cent. That’s the proportion of Australians who were born overseas. It’s the highest share of any Western country and double that of two other great “melting pot” societies, the United States and the United Kingdom.
Immigration has long been a central part of Australia’s national story and our economic success. As Indigenous leader Noel Pearson wrote in 2014, Australia is a nation in three parts: Indigenous, British and multicultural – a “triumph of immigration that brought together the gifts of peoples and cultures from all over the globe – forming one indissoluble commonwealth”.
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