{{About|Australians of North African descent|other Africans (Sub-Saharan Africans)|African Australians}} {{Multiple issues| {{original research|date=July 2022}} {{more citations needed|date=July 2022}} }} {{Use Australian English|date=July 2022}} {{Use dmy dates|date=July 2022}}
{{Infobox ethnic group | group = North African and Middle Eastern Australians | population = '''Approximately 3.0% of the population''' (2021 census)<ref name="ReferenceA">{{cite web|url=https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/people-and-communities/cultural-diversity-census/2021/Cultural%20diversity%20data%20summary.xlsx|format=XLSX|title=Australian Bureau of Statistics : Census of Population and Housing: Cultural diversity data summary, 2021|website=Abs.gov.au|access-date=26 July 2022}}</ref><br />''Lebanese Australians'': 248,434<br />''Turkish Australians'': 87,164<br />''Iranian Australians'': 81,119<br />''Egyptian Australians'': 60,164<br />''Arab Australians'': 60,095<br />''Iraqi Australians'': 57,859<br />''Assyrian Australians'': 62,452<br />''Syrian Australians'': 29,257<br />''Sudanese Australians'': 16,809<br />''Palestinian Australians'': 15,607<br /><br />''Other North African and Middle Eastern'': 11,027<br />''Kurdish Australians'': 10,171 | languages = Australian English{{·}}Arabic{{·}}Aramaic{{·}}Azerbaijani{{·}}Hebrew{{·}}Kurdish{{·}}Persian{{·}}Turkish{{·}}others | religions = Christianity (Eastern Orthodoxy{{·}}Oriental Orthodoxy{{·}}Assyrian Church of the East{{·}}<br />Catholicism{{·}}Protestantism){{·}}<br />Islam{{·}}Judaism{{·}}Baháʼí Faith{{·}}Druze{{·}}<br />None (Atheism{{·}}Agnosticism){{·}}<br />Zoroastrianism{{·}}Yazidism{{·}}<br />Mandaeism{{·}}Deism }}
'''North African and''' '''Middle Eastern Australians''' are the Australians of North African and Middle Eastern ancestry, including naturalised Australians who are immigrants from various regions in the North Africa and Middle East and descendants of such immigrants. At the 2021 census, the number of ancestry responses categorised within North African and Middle Eastern ancestral groups as a proportion of the total population amounted to 3.0%.<ref name="ReferenceA"/><ref name="ReferenceB">{{cite web |date=18 December 2019 |title=Australian Standard Classification of Cultural and Ethnic Groups (ASCCEG), 2019 | Australian Bureau of Statistics |url=https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/classifications/australian-standard-classification-cultural-and-ethnic-groups-ascceg/latest-release}}</ref>
Today, North African and Middle Eastern Australians often come from various ethnic, cultural, linguistic, religious, educational and employment backgrounds.
== History == The first settlers of the North Africans and Middle Easterners to Australia date back to 1862, when small groups of mainly Muslim cameleers shipped in and out of Australia at three-year intervals to serve South Australia's inland pastoral industry by carting goods and transportation wool bales by camel trains, who were commonly referred to as "Afghans" or "Ghans", despite their origin often being mainly from British India. Permanent emigration of North Africans and Middle Easterners to Australia began in the 1940s onwards, possibly due to political turmoil in the MENA region that saw a wave of its international migrants. {{As of|2021}}, they number 800,000 persons with a nomination of their distinct ancestries.
== Demographics == Australia does not collect statistics on the racial origins of its residents. Instead, it collects data at each five-yearly census on distinct ancestries, of which each census respondent may choose up to two. <ref name="abs.gov.au2">{{cite web |date=4 May 2010 |title=4713.0 – Population Characteristics, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians |url=http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Lookup/5AD6E895236F6CDECA2578DB00283CBD?opendocument |publisher=Australian Bureau of Statistics}}</ref> In the 2021 census, the number of ancestry responses categorized within North African and Middle Eastern ancestral groups as a proportion of the total population amounted to 3.2%. <ref name="ReferenceA"/> {| class="wikitable sortable" |+Persons nominating North African and Middle Eastern Australian ancestries in 2021<ref name="ReferenceA"/> !Ancestry !Population |- |Assyrian Australians |62,452 |- |Arab Australians |60,095 |- |Algerian Australians |2,319 |- |Coptic Australians |1,433 |- |Berber Australians |340 |- |Bahraini Australians |166 |- |Bari Australians |95 |- |Darfuri Australians |15 |- |- |Lebanese Australians |248,434 |- |Iranian Australians |81,119 |- |Egyptian Australians |60,164 |- |Iraqi Australians |57,859 |- |Palestinian Australians |15,607 |- |Saudi Arabian Australians |14,214 |- |Other North African and Middle Eastern |11,027 |- |Kurdish Australians |10,171 |- |Jordanian Australians |6,096 |- |Moroccan Australians |4,192 |- |Libyan Australians |1,076 |- |Mandaean Australians |918 |- |Kuwaiti Australians |815 |- |Nuer Australians |185 |- |Omani Australians |168 |- |Nubian Australians |130 |- |Emirati Australians |63 |- |Qatari Australians |23 |- |- |Turkish Australians |87,164 |- |Syrian Australians |29,257 |- |Sudanese Australians |16,809 |- |Yemeni Australians |1,443 |- |Tunisian Australians |1,037 |- |Yazidi Australians |876 |}
== Social and political issues ==
=== Asylum seekers === {{further|Asylum in Australia}}Asylum policy is a contentious wedge issue in Australian politics, with the two major political parties in Australia arguing that the issue is a border control problem and one concerning the safety of those attempting to come to Australia by boat.
In 1999, Middle Eastern immigrants fleeing from oppressive regimes in Afghanistan, Iran and Iraq began to arrive in large numbers.<ref name="Manne">{{cite journal |author=Robert Manne |date=September 2010 |title=Comment: Asylum Seekers |url=https://www.themonthly.com.au/nation-reviewed-robert-manne-comment-asylum-seekers-2706 |journal=The Monthly |access-date=20 September 2015}}</ref> The Howard government extended the time they spent in mandatory detention and introduced temporary protection visas for boat arrivals.<ref name="ats">{{cite book |last=Sawer |first=Marian |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=F09pc74M9NMC |title=Australia: The State of Democracy |author2=Norman Abjorensen |author3=Philip Larkin |publisher=Federation Press |year=2009 |isbn=978-1862877252 |pages=27, 65–67}}</ref> The deterrents did little to stop immigrants; roughly 12,000 asylum seekers reached Australia from 1999 to 2001.<ref name="Manne" /> In 2011, Australia received 2.5% of the world's total number of claims for asylum.<ref name="ado">{{Cite news |author=Neil Hume |date=14 August 2012 |title=Australia debates offshore asylum centres |work=Financial Times |url=https://www.ft.com/content/4fd0d9fa-e5f1-11e1-a430-00144feab49a |access-date=22 July 2013}}</ref> During 2012, more than 17,000 asylum seekers arrived via boat.<ref name="send">{{cite news |date=19 July 2013 |title=Australia to send asylum-seekers to PNG |publisher=BBC |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-23358329 |access-date=20 July 2013}}</ref> The majority of the refugees came from Afghanistan, Iran, and Sri Lanka.<ref name="adopts">{{cite news |author=Matt Siegel |date=19 July 2013 |title=Australia Adopts Tough Measures to Curb Asylum Seekers |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/20/world/asia/australia-adopts-tough-measures-to-curb-asylum-seekers.html?pagewanted=all |access-date=20 July 2013}}</ref> In June 2012, a boatload of asylum seekers capsized in the Indian Ocean between Indonesia and Christmas Island, leading to 17 confirmed deaths, with 70 other people missing.<ref name="BBC">{{cite web |date=25 June 2012 |title=Boat sinking reignites Australia asylum debate |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-18575583 |publisher=BBC}}</ref>
In 2015, the government rejected suggestions that it would accept Rohingyas (a persecuted Muslim minority in Myanmar) during the Rohingya refugee crisis, with the Prime Minister Tony Abbott responding "Nope, nope, nope. We have a very clear refugee and humanitarian program".<ref>{{cite news |author1=Woodley, Naomi |date=22 May 2015 |title=PM rebuffs criticism over response to Rohingya refugee crisis |work=The World Today |publisher=Australian Broadcasting Corporation |url=https://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2015/s4240633.html |access-date=13 September 2015}}</ref> However, later in the year the government unexpectedly increased its intake of refugees to accommodate persecuted minorities, such as Maronites, Yazidis and Druze, from the conflicts of the Syrian Civil War and Iraq War.<ref>{{cite news |date=9 September 2015 |title=Migrants and Australia: Why Australia is accepting 12,000 more Syrian migrants |newspaper=The Economist |url=https://www.economist.com/news/asia/21663984-keeps-other-asylum-seekers-locked-away-why-tony-abbott-now-agrees-take-syrian-refugees |access-date=12 September 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |author1=Lenore Taylor |author2=Shalailah Medhora |date=8 September 2015 |title=Tony Abbott to confirm Syrian airstrikes as pressure grows over refugees |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2015/sep/08/tony-abbott-to-confirm-syrian-airstrikes-as-pressure-grows-over-refugees |access-date=12 September 2015}}</ref> (It was these refugees who swelled the figures for 2016–2017.<ref name="largest">{{cite news |last=Doherty |first=Ben |date=11 February 2019 |title=Australia takes the most refugees since start of humanitarian program |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/feb/10/australia-takes-the-most-refugees-since-start-of-humanitarian-program |access-date=22 February 2019}}</ref>)
=== Discrimination and violence === {{Excerpt|Anti–Middle Eastern sentiment|Australia}}
==== Islamophobia ==== {{Main|Islamophobia in Australia}} Islamophobia is highly speculative and affective distrust and hostility towards Muslims, Islam, and those perceived as following the religion.<ref name=":12">{{Cite journal |last1=Khan |first1=Fazal Rahim |last2=Iqbal |first2=Zafar |last3=Gazzaz |first3=Osman B. |last4=Ahrari |first4=Sadollah |date=Spring 2012 |title=Global Media Image of Islam and Muslims and the Problematics of a Response Strategy |journal=Islamic Studies |volume=51 |issue=1 |pages=5–25 |jstor=23643922}}</ref> This social aversion and bias is often facilitated and perpetuated in the media through the stereotyping of Muslims as violent and uncivilised. Various Australian politicians and political commentators have capitalised on these negative stereotypes and this has contributed to the marginalisation, discrimination and exclusion of the Muslim community.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=Saeed |first=Amir |date=October 2007 |title=Media, Racism and Islamophobia: The Representation of Islam and Muslims in the Media |url=https://www.academia.edu/download/32861058/Media_and_islam_Sociology_Compass.pdf |journal=Sociology Compass |volume=1 |issue=2 |pages=12–18 |doi=10.1111/j.1751-9020.2007.00039.x |via=Academia.edu}}{{dead link|date=July 2022|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref>
Islamophobia and intolerance towards Muslims existed well prior to the September 11 attacks in the United States. For example, Muslim immigration to Australia was restricted under the White Australia Policy (1901-1975).<ref name="Poynting">{{Cite journal |last1=Poynting |first1=Scott |last2=Mason |first2=Victoria |date=March 2007 |title=The resistible rise of Islamophobia: Anti-Muslim racism in the UK and Australia before 11 September 2001 |journal=Journal of Sociology |volume=43 |issue=1 |pages=61–86 |doi=10.1177/1440783307073935 |s2cid=145065236}}</ref>
== See also == * African Australians * American Australians * Arab Australians * Asian Australians * Black Australians * Caribbean and West Indian Australians * European Australians * Indigenous Australians * Latin American Australians * Arab diaspora * Assyrian Australians * Australian Jews * Christianity in Australia * Coptic Australians * Egyptian diaspora * Islam in Australia * Lebanese diaspora * Palestinian diaspora * Syrian diaspora * Syrian Australians
== References == {{Reflist}}
{{MENA Australians}} {{Ethnic groups in Australia}}
Category:Australian people of Asian descent Category:Australian people of North African descent Category:Ethnic groups in Australia