Chilean Australians are citizens of Australia whose ancestry originates in the South American nation of Chile. In Australia, Chileans are the biggest Latin American group residing in the nation. The biggest Chilean Australian communities are primarily found in Sydney and Melbourne. Australia ranks the third largest in Chilean refugees next to Argentina and Brazil; and Europe (esp. France and Sweden), and historically, there was some cultural exchange between Australia (and New Zealand) with Chile, despite the long distance from South America.
Chilean migration to Australia occurred at different times through out the late 19th and 20th centuries. The first Labor Party Prime Miister of Australia, Chris Watson, was the son of a Chilean citizen of German descent. Chilean people first arrived in great numbers in late 1970's and 1980's. Many came seeking work, skills and education after the economic crisis in Chile. It was also motivated by the presidential election of Salvador Allende in 1970. By 1971, 3,760 Chilean-born people were registered in Australia. Current Chilean president Michelle Bachelet briefly lived in Australia with family already present in the country after the Chilean coup of 1973, but she later moved to East Germany as a refugee for her socialist leanings.
The 2001 Census reported that there are 21,579 people of Chilean ancestry in Australia . It is estimated that 857,781 Chileans are living outside of Chile . Around 2% of those live in Australia. Despite the small size of the Chilean community, they are held as fine examples of further assimilation into Australia's primarily "Anglo-British" socio-cultural structure. But the majority of Chileans have both European (not limited to Spanish, noting Chile had British immigration) and Amerindian ancestry.
List of Noble Chilean Australians
- Peggy Antonio
- Nick Carle
- Rodrigo Vargas
- Chris Watson
Jose Romero
Played AFL for both North Melbourne and Western Bulldogs
See also
Further reading
Other pages about Chilean Australians
-Andy Vargas -Chilean Australian -Chris Watson -Dion Valle -Hispanic Australian -Nick Carle -Peggy Antonio -Rodrigo Vargas
Other pages about People of Chilean descent
-Chilean American -Chilean Australian -Matias Concha
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Chilean_Australian
