Ecological Succession and Asian Immigrants in Australia

Abstract

In recent immigration policy debates in Australia, it has been asserted that Asian immigrants concentrate in ethnic ghettos, thus posing a threat to the social cohesion of Australian society. This assertion has been based mainlyon selective observations made by anti-immigration groups. Nevertheless, it is more or less consistent with expectations of an ecological succession model that has guided studies on patterns of housing consumption behaviour of new immigrants in the West. The ecological succession model contends that new immigrants concentrate in ethnic ghettos or low-cost housing areas and will move to good neighbourhoods only after they improve their socio-economic position in the host society. Using data from the 1991 Housing and Location Choice Survey conducted in Melbourne and Sydney, the article shows that the assertion concerning the poor housing condition of Asian immigrants in Australia is unfounded. There is no ecological succession among them because they lived in good neighbour-hoodsin Melbourne and Sydney shortly after their arrival in Australia. The ecological succession model is a valid framework for poor immigrants from Indo-China, but it does not apply to patterns of housing consumption behaviour among well-to-do immigrants from North and South-East Asia.