Burmese Australians
Burmese Australians are Australian citizens or permanent residents who carry full or partial ancestry from Burma, also known as Myanmar, a country located in Southeast Asia. The dominant ethnic group of Burma is the Bamar people but there are also numerous Burmese ethnic minorities.
Total population | |
---|---|
Burmese 21,760 (by birth, 2011 Census)[1] 207,112 (by ancestry, 2011 Census)[1] | |
Regions with significant populations | |
Western Australia | 7,456 |
Victoria | 5,607 |
Languages | |
Australian English · Burmese | |
Related ethnic groups | |
Anglo-Burmese people, Bangladeshi Australians, Chinese Australians, Indian Australians, Rohingya people, Thai Australians |
Burma was historically ruled as a British colony throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and it was part of the British Raj (i.e. British India) at one point. The United Kingdom lost control of Burma to the Empire of Japan during World War II (1942), regained control over Burma in 1945, and was subsequently expelled from Burma in 1948 when the country became independent.
Like Burma, Australia was also historically a British colony, though Australia's indigenous population has largely been replaced by Anglo-Celtic Australians and other settler groups, whereas Anglo-Burmese people constitute a minority of Burma's native population.
Most Burmese Australians are ethnic-Bamar, though there are also many Sino-Burmese, Indo-Burmese and some Rohingya people in Australia.
References
- Australian Government - Department of Immigration and Border Protection. "Burmese Australians". Archived from the original on 16 January 2014. Retrieved 15 January 2014.