Pakistani Australians are

Australians Australians, colloquially known as Aussies, are the citizens, nationals and individuals associated with the country of Australia. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or ethno-cultural. For most Australians, several (or all) ...

who are of Pakistani descent or heritage. Most Pakistani Australians are

Muslims Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...

by religion, although there are also sizeable Christian, Hindu and other minorities.

History in Australia

An anthropological study by the

Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology The Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology (german: Max-Planck-Institut für evolutionäre Anthropologie, shortened to MPI EVA) is a research institute based in Leipzig, Germany, that was founded in 1997. It is part of the Max Plan ...

found a genetic pattern ( SNP) among

Aboriginal Australians Aboriginal Australians are the various Indigenous peoples of the Australian mainland and many of its islands, such as Tasmania, Fraser Island, Hinchinbrook Island, the Tiwi Islands, and Groote Eylandt, but excluding the Torres Strait ...

which is also present among some Dravidian speakers native to the

Indian subcontinent The Indian subcontinent is a physiographical region in Southern Asia. It is situated on the Indian Plate, projecting southwards into the Indian Ocean from the Himalayas. Geopolitically, it includes the countries of Bangladesh, Bhutan, In ...

. According to the study, the migration of these genes from the subcontinent to Australia may have occurred well over 4,200 years ago at around 2217 BC, roughly the same period when the

Indus Valley civilisation The Indus Valley Civilisation (IVC), also known as the Indus Civilisation was a Bronze Age civilisation in the northwestern regions of South Asia, lasting from 3300 BCE to 1300 BCE, and in its mature form 2600 BCE to 1900& ...

(IVC) was emerging. Although the IVC did not extend to the southern part of the Indian subcontinent where this SNP is predominantly found, it is a commonly held view that the Dravidians were "once more widespread than they are today." The Indus Valley states extensively used seafaring ships to trade with their West Asian neighbours, and it is believed that these may have facilitated the means to get to Australia. These early settlers were assimilated into the local population. Early Muslim migrants (known as " Ghans") entered

Outback Australia The Outback is a remote, vast, sparsely populated area of Australia. The Outback is more remote than the bush. While often envisaged as being arid, the Outback regions extend from the northern to southern Australian coastlines and encompass a ...

as camel drivers in the late 1800s from

Colonial India Colonial India was the part of the Indian subcontinent that was occupied by European colonial powers during the Age of Discovery. European power was exerted both by conquest and trade, especially in spices. The search for the wealth and prospe ...

and some of those areas are now part of present-day Pakistan. Many of these men were unmarried, and intermarried with local Aboriginal women, resulting in a mixed Aboriginal Australian population with ancestry in Pakistan. Immigration from lands that make up the historical territory of Pakistan to Australia has been occurring since the late 19 century. In the modern sense, Pakistan came into existence in 1947 as a result of the dissolution of the British Raj via the

Partition of India The Partition of British India in 1947 was the change of political borders and the division of other assets that accompanied the dissolution of the British Raj in South Asia and the creation of two independent dominions: India and Pakistan. T ...

. In the modern post-independence sense, Pakistani migrants can be dated back to the early 1950s, Immigration to Australia from Pakistan started to pick up in the 1970s. Since then the number of Pakistani immigrants increased dramatically, with thousands of Pakistanis entering Australia each year since that time.

Demographics

Figures from the

Australian Bureau of Statistics The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) is the independent statutory agency of the Australian Government responsible for statistical collection and analysis and for giving evidence-based advice to federal, state and territory governments ...

for 2011 indicated that there were about 33,049 Pakistani Australians, of whom 30,221 were born in Pakistan. By mid-2014, the number of Pakistani-born individuals stood at 49,770. At the time of the 2016 census, the total population reached 61,913 individuals. The Pakistani community is the second fastest-growing in terms of population growth. Pakistanis are also the largest contributor of overseas-born Muslims in Australia, at 14.7 percent.

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
'' and Sydney has the largest Pakistani community in Oceania. In June 2017, 76,590 Pakistani-born individuals were living in Australia. As of June 2018, the population was recorded at 84,340 by the ABS. In 2019, the population grew by eight percent to 91,000. According to the 2006 Census in Victoria, there were an estimated 4,703 Pakistani born persons, with the majority living in

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/ Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a metro ...

. The number has since tripled from the previous census which was in

1996 File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 800, causing the plane to crash and killing everyone o ...

. Those living in

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

that are Pakistani-born are highly educated with more than a third working in professional positions and about half working in 'clerical, production, service, transport and sales positions'. In 2012, 7,400 Pakistani international students were studying in Australia, an increase from close to 5,000 in 2007. Under the Australia-Pakistan Scholarship Program, 500 scholarships were available to Pakistani students from 2005 to 2010 to facilitate postgraduate studies in Australia. Australia has become one of the largest markets for Pakistani students outside the United States and United Kingdom. Around 1,000 Pakistanis live in the federal capital,

Canberra Canberra ( ) is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The ci ...

Education and qualifications

Pakistani Australians tend to be urban, well-educated, and professional. Most of them migrate from large cities like

Karachi Karachi (; ur, ; ; ) is the most populous city in Pakistan and 12th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 20 million. It is situated at the southern tip of the country along the Arabian Sea coast. It is the former c ...

Lahore Lahore ( ; pnb, ; ur, ) is the second List of cities in Pakistan by population, most populous city in Pakistan after Karachi and 26th List of largest cities, most populous city in the world, with a population of over 13 million. It is th ...

Islamabad Islamabad (; ur, , ) is the capital city of Pakistan. It is the country's ninth-most populous city, with a population of over 1.2 million people, and is federally administered by the Pakistani government as part of the Islamabad Capital ...

Rawalpindi Rawalpindi ( or ; Urdu, ) is a city in the Punjab province of Pakistan. It is the fourth largest city in Pakistan after Karachi, Lahore and Faisalabad, and third largest in Punjab after Lahore and Faisalabad. Rawalpindi is next to Pakistan ...

Hyderabad Hyderabad ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana and the ''de jure'' capital of Andhra Pradesh. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River, in the northern part of Southern Indi ...

Multan Multan (; ) is a city in Punjab, Pakistan, on the bank of the Chenab River. Multan is Pakistan's seventh largest city as per the 2017 census, and the major cultural, religious and economic centre of southern Punjab. Multan is one of the ol ...

and

Peshawar Peshawar (; ps, پېښور ; hnd, ; ; ur, ) is the sixth most populous city in Pakistan, with a population of over 2.3 million. It is situated in the north-west of the country, close to the International border with Afghanistan. It is ...

, and tend to be familiar with

Western culture Leonardo da Vinci's ''Vitruvian Man''. Based on the correlations of ideal Body proportions">human proportions with geometry described by the ancient Roman architect Vitruvius in Book III of his treatise ''De architectura''. image:Plato Pio-Cle ...

and ways of living. According to the

Department of Immigration and Border Protection The Department of Immigration and Border Protection (DIBP) was a department of the Government of Australia that was responsible for immigration, citizenship and border control (including visa issuance). It has now been subsumed into the Depart ...

, around 50 percent of Pakistani-born Australians hold an

undergraduate degree An undergraduate degree (also called first degree or simply degree) is a colloquial term for an academic degree earned by a person who has completed undergraduate courses. In the United States, it is usually offered at an institution of higher e ...

or higher qualification, compared to the national average of 20 percent. Similarly, 52 percent of Pakistanis fall within the age bracket of 22 to 44 years. Occupationally, 29 percent of Pakistanis are employed as professionals, 10 percent are in managerial roles, 12 percent are involved in

clerical Clerical may refer to: * Pertaining to the clergy * Pertaining to a clerical worker * Clerical script, a style of Chinese calligraphy * Clerical People's Party See also * Cleric (disambiguation) Cleric is a member of the clergy. Cleric may al ...

and administration roles, another 12 percent are involved in community work and personal services, nine percent are sales workers, while 13 percent are drivers/machine operators, 8 percent are labourers and 7 percent are tradespeople.

Notable people

References

External links

High Commission For Pakistan

Pakistan Cultural Association

Pakistan Australia Friendship Association
{{Overseas Pakistani Asian Australian Immigration to Australia *