Greek immigration to Australia

Answer 1

There were a couple of reasons why the Greeks left Greece and moved to Australia. One reason was because of United States imposing Immigration quotas. Another was due to Greeks being expelled from Asia Minor.

Answer 2

Any person from Greece will need to immigrate to Australia the same as any other country. All immigrants apart from English predominant speaking countries will need to supply an English language test.

In Australia there is a large Greeek society in most if not all capital cities.

Answer 3

The Greeks in Australia initially settled in regions of New South Wales, specifically Sydney. They also went to the goldfields, whilst many went to Queensland as cane-cutters.

In post-WW2 Australia, as in the Italian case, there was a huge migration campaign involving Greek migrants to Australia. At the time, most of those settling in Melbourne settled in Brunswick, Collingwood, Preston and Northcote, etc.

These days, the majority of the Greek Australian community (47 per cent) lives in Melbourne and 29 per cent in Sydney. Further, almost exactly half of the Greek-born population in Australia now lives somewhere within Victoria, and Greek is the 4th-most common language spoken in Australia behind English, Italian and Chinese.

By the late 1960's, Melbourne was believed to have the 3rd most number of Greeks of any city in the world! Now, due to a great percentage of returned Greek-emigrants, it is believed to be 4th or 5th.

Within their Melbourne stronghold, although quite well-spread, the greater percentages now live in the northern, north eastern, outer north-eastern and eastern suburbs.

Answer 4

The first Greeks in Australia were convicts, so were transported for committing crimes.

Oral tradition states that the first Greek in Australia was a convict named Damianos Gikas who arrived in 1802, but there are no written records to confirm this.

The first Greeks actually documented to arrive in Australia were a group of 7 men from Hydra who were convicted of being pirates: they arrived in Australia in 1828.

Answer 5

Yes, there are many people from Greek descent in Australia.

Answer 6

Greek people migrated to Australia mainly to escape the poverty in Greece.

Answer 7

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