Sudanese Australians

Sudanese migrants to Australia

Not to be confused with South Sudanese Australians.

Ethnic group

Sudanese Australians

Total population
16,609 (born in Sudan, 2021)[1]
Regions with significant populations
Victoria| 6,085
New South Wales| 5,629
Western Australia| 2,722
Queensland| 2,582
Languages
Sudanese Arabic · Australian English
Religion
Islam,[2] Christianity

Sudanese Australians (Arabic: أستراليون سودانيون) are people of Sudanese origin or descent living in Australia. The largest population of Sudanese Australians reside in Victoria (6,085).[3]

## Brief history

[edit]

### Early migration

[edit]

Before the First Sudanese Civil War, most Sudanese migrants arrived in Australia to pursue educational opportunities in both undergraduate and post graduate institutions across Australia. The large number of Sudanese migrant settled in the states like Victoria and New South Wales.[citation needed]

### After the first civil war

[edit]

Main article: First Sudanese Civil War

A larger influx of Sudanese emigrated to Australia as a result of political and economic problems. The most noticeable exodus occurred among professional and middle class Sudanese who along with their children took advantage of education and employment opportunities in Australia to emigrate.[citation needed]

### After the second civil war

[edit]

Number of permanent settlers arriving in Australia from Sudan since 1991 (monthly)

Main article: Second Sudanese Civil War

Since 1983, fighting between Sudan's government and the rebels in the south has killed about two million people. The fighting in Sudan has interfered with the production and distribution of food and caused widespread hunger. Many civilians in southern Sudan had fled their region because of this crisis. Some Sudanese Australians returned to their ancestral homeland when the conflict officially ended in 2005.[citation needed]

Sudanese Australians suffer from racist attitudes on the part of white Australians, including members of the police force, politicians and the media, and on occasions this has led to violence and even murder.[4][5] In 2007 Liep Gony, a 17-year-old Sudanese Australian, was killed in a random attack by two white men, one of whom had expressed the desire to kill a Sudanese man.[4][5] Initial press reports claimed this murder to be related to Sudanese gang crime, and in the subsequent political storm, the Liberal National government more than halved the number of visas available to Sudanese people.[4][5]

Sudanese Australians were the object of an intense moral panic around supposed gang crime in Victoria in the period of 2016 to 2018, where the press and coalition politicians employed racialised criminalising language and exaggerated and distorted reporting of incidents involving, or allegedly involving, Sudanese Australians.[6]

## Census data

[edit]

The 2011 census recorded 19,369 people born in Sudan. Of these, the largest number were living in the state of Victoria, (6,085), followed by New South Wales (5,629), Western Australia (2,722) and then Queensland (2,582). 17,186 people indicated that they were of full or partial Sudanese ancestry.[3]

The Department of Immigration and Citizenship notes that South Sudan became independent from the Republic of Sudan on 9 July 2011, shortly before the census, and that "country of birth figures as completed by individuals at the time of the 2011 Census may not fully reflect this change".[3] The census, held in August, included both Sudan and South Sudan amongst the country of birth and ancestry options.[7]

According to the 2006 census, there were 19,049 Sudanese-born Australian residents, many of whom had arrived very recently: 77% since 2000.[8] Between 1996 and 2005, the largest increase in Australian people born overseas were Sudanese, at 28% per year. Other fast-growing overseas-born groups were people from Afghanistan (12% average increase per year) and Iraq (10%). Australian residents from sub-Saharan Africa increased on average by 6% per year over this period.[9]

In the 2006 Census 17,848 residents in Australia reported having Sudanese ancestry.[10][11] People of Sudanese descent now live in almost every capital city in Australia, particularly Melbourne (5,911), Sydney (5,335) and Perth (1,993)[2]

## Notable Sudanese Australians

[edit]

* Yassmin Abdel-Magied \- Engineer, author, television presenter and activist

## See also

[edit]

* Australia portal

* African Australians
* Sudanese Americans
* Sudanese British

## References

[edit]

1. ^ "2021 People in Australia who were born in Sudan, Census Country of birth QuickStats | Australian Bureau of Statistics".
2. ^ a b "2914.0.55.002 2006 Census Ethnic Media Package" (XLS). Census Dictionary, 2006 (cat.no 2901.0). Australian Bureau of Statistics. 27 June 2007. Retrieved 28 April 2017.
3. ^ a b c "Community Information Summary: Sudan-born" (PDF). Community Relations Section of DIAC. Department of Immigration and Citizenship. February 2014. Retrieved 28 April 2017.
4. ^ a b c Windle, Joel (2008). "The racialisation of African youth in Australia". Social Identities: Journal for the Study of Race, Nation and Cultur. 14 (5): 553–566\. doi:10.1080/13504630802343382. Archived from the original on 14 June 2024. Retrieved 14 June 2024.
5. ^ a b c Benier, Kathryn; Wickes, Rebecca; Moran, Clare (2020). "'African gangs' in Australia: Perceptions of race and crime in urban neighbourhoods". Australian & New Zealand Journal of Criminology. 54 (2): 1–19\. doi:10.1177/0004865820965647. Archived from the original on 14 June 2024. Retrieved 14 June 2024.
6. ^ Kounmouris, Gregory; Blaustein, Jarrett (2021). "Reporting 'African gangs': Theorising journalistic practice during a multi-mediated moral panic". Crime, Media, Culture. 18 (1): 105-125. Retrieved 15 June 2024.
7. ^ "South Sudan recognised on the Australian Census". Australian Bureau of Statistics. 5 August 2011. Retrieved 15 June 2015.
8. ^ "3412.0 - Migration, Australia, 2004-05". Australian Bureau of Statistics. 19 March 2006. Retrieved 2 March 2010.
9. ^ Australian Bureau of Statistics Australian Migration
10. ^ "20680-Country of Birth of Person (full classification list) by Sex - Australia". 2006 census. Australian Bureau of Statistics. Archived from the original (XLS) on 8 September 2013. Retrieved 27 May 2008.
11. ^ "20680-Ancestry (full classification list) by Sex - Australia". 2006 census. Australian Bureau of Statistics. Archived from the original (XLS) on 10 March 2008. Retrieved 19 May 2008.

## External links

[edit]

* Sudanese Stories - An oral history project recording the migration journeys and settlement experiences of southern Sudanese refugees now living in Blacktown, Western Sydney.
* Australian Migration ABS migration statistics

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