Australia

During the first waves of Italian migration, between the late nineteenth century and the first decades of the twentieth century, Australia was not a very popular destination for our countrymen. This was probably due to the fact that it was a poorly known region, much more distant and more difficult, not least because of the high cost of travel, to reach than other countries.

In the following decades interest in Australia increased, but it was only with the ambitious program of Australian Immigration Minister Arthur Caldwell, which was very beneficial to emigrants from Europe, that a real flow of migration from Italy began. Between 1951 and 1969 more than 200,000 Italians arrived in cities such as Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, and Adelaide where they found work in construction and road and railroad building. Others chose the Australian countryside, reaching, for example, the Northeastern territories, such as Queensland, where there was much demand for labor in sugar cane cultivation.

Beginning in 1970, the flow of emigration waned, but thanks to emigrants, Italian became at the time the second most spoken and taught language in Australia after English, and Italians had a significant influence on Australian culture and society.