WHAT ARE THE MAIN AREAS OF MIGRATION SETTLERS IN SOUTH AUSTRALIA

The vast majority of new migrants settle in metropolitan Adelaide, and the bulk of migration is into two corridors of northern and southern Adelaide.

The City of Port Adelaide-Enfield (7, 035) – Along with Salisbury, this area took the largest share of migrants into SA. By far the largest number was from India (1, 750 – 24.9%), followed by China (780), Afghanistan (670) and the Philippines (490). Unfortunately this highly diverse area doesn’t have profile.id so details of the existing makeup of the population are not available.

The City of Salisbury (5, 489) – Part of the same region as Port Adelaide-Enfield, in the diverse northern suburbs of Adelaide. In 2006, 25.7% of the population were born overseas – UK was dominant, making up almost 10%, but only a handful of UK arrivals since 2006 the makeup is changing. Since 2006 the largest arrival groups are India (720), Afghanistan (550 – a huge increase given there were only 140 people from Afghanistan there in 2006), China (530), Philippines (480) and Bhutan (340). Half the Bhutani migrants into SA and about 15% of the national total have settled in Salisbury.

The City of Charles Sturt (4, 231) – Also part of the northern Adelaide corridor, and also unfortunately lacking a community profile. The largest groups to settle in Charles Sturt are from India (1, 030), UK (650), China (390), and Afghanistan (215). There are also smaller numbers from many humanitarian arrival groups like Liberia, Sudan, Kenya and Burma.

The City of Onkaparinga (4, 004) – This remains the hotspot for UK migration – they made up 12.6% of the total population in 2006, and another 2, 560 have arrived since – in fact that’s more than a quarter of SA migration from the UK into one LGA. The next largest groups are very small in comparison, South Africa (240) and China (180).

The City of West Torrens (3, 281) – A fairly diverse and changing area of inner western Adelaide, this LGA already had 20% of population from a non-English speaking background in 2006. Large older Greek and Italian communities are being replaced by new arrivals. Arrivals since 2006 include India (890), China (700), Philippines (170), Malaysia (120), the UK (120) and Afghanistan (110). Some other small humanitarian arrival groups here as well.

Other fairly large numbers went into Marion (2, 841 – UK, China, India), Campbelltown (2, 655 – China, India, Korea) and Mitcham (2, 045 – China, UK, India).

Very few regional parts of SA had significant overseas migration. The two largest regional centres, Whyalla and Mount Gambier, are the notable exceptions

Whyalla had 437 arrivals, almost all skilled migration, presumably associated with Iron Ore mining. Whyalla’s population, in decline for many years, recently increased due to the mining boom. The main countries of arrival here are South Africa (140), Philippines (110) and India (75). Similar migration from South Africa and Zimbabwe can be seen in the small, remote mining settlement of Roxby Downs.

Mount Gambier, on the other hand, has taken a large number of humanitarian migrants, with a different makeup from most of SA -  Burma (130), Thailand (80), Phillippines (40) and DR Congo (30). 

(data for 2011)