2012年9月12日星期三

趋势已不可阻挡 澳大利亚变得越来越"亚洲"

据2012年9月11日《华尔街日报》报道,A resources boom and growing immigration from Asia are reshaping Australia's population.

资源热潮以及越来越多的亚洲移民正在重塑澳大利亚的人口构成。

Mandarin overtook Italian as the second most popular language spoken at home, after English, figures from the 2011 census published recently showed.

最近公布的2011年人口普查数字显示,普通话超过意大利语成为仅次于英语的澳大利亚最为普及的语言。

Data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed that the resource-rich regions of Western Australia and Queensland both recorded double-digit population growth over the past five years, more than double that of Australia's most populous state, New South Wales, and sharply outstripping the national average of 8.3%.

澳大利亚统计局(Australian Bureau of Statistics)的数据显示,过去五年在资源丰富的西澳大利亚和昆士兰地区均录得了两位数的人口增速。这一增幅是澳大利亚人口最稠密的新南威尔士州的两倍多,也大幅超过8.3%的全国平均水平。

Asians accounted for the biggest jump in immigration to Australia in terms of ethnicity, with Indian and Chinese the fastest-growing groups. The census showed that around one in four of the 21.5 million people surveyed in the census last year was born outside Australia, compared with 22% a decade ago. Of those, a third was born in Asia, a sharp increase from 24% in 2006.

亚裔是澳洲移民中增长速度最快的族群,其中印度和中国移民的增长速度最快。人口普查结果显示,去年在普查中接受调查的2,150万人中有四分之一出生在澳洲之外的国家。而10年前这一比例为22%。在这些人当中,三分之一出生在亚洲,和2006年的24%相比明显增加。

Meanwhile, the proportion of European migrants has fallen from more than half of arrivals a decade ago to 40% last year. The U.K. remains the leading country of origin for Australia's overseas-born population at 21%, including more than a quarter of long-standing migrants.

与此同时,欧洲移民所占比例已经从10年前超过一半降到去年的40%。在澳大利亚海外出生的人口中,来自英国的移民数量依然保持领先,其占比达到21%,其中包括超过四分之一的长期移民。

'We're in the midst of a huge mining boom and we have many young people come here to study to go to university,' said Andrew Henderson, executive director of the ABS. 'These [factors] are giving us a lot more exposure in Asia.'

澳大利亚统计局执行董事亨德森(Andrew Henderson)说,我们正处于矿业的巨大繁荣期,有很多年轻人到澳洲来上大学。这些因素令亚裔移民数量增加。

Australia's population is becoming more Asian in origin at a time when its economy has grown dependent on countries like China. But the country, which maintains strict immigration regulations, still struggles to attract enough workers for its mining industry, although states rich in resources showed the fastest rates of population growth in the census.

在眼下澳大利亚经济越来越依赖中国这样的国家的时候,从来源看其人口构成正越来越"亚洲化"。尽管此次人口普查结果显示资源丰富的州也是人口增速最快的地区,但由于澳大利亚仍保持着严格的移民制度,它仍未能吸引到足够多的工人到其采矿业工作。

Exploding population growth in some areas has also put growing pressure on housing, driving a sharp rise in rents relative to average incomes. The overall national median weekly income rose 24% to 577 Australian dollars (US$586) in 2011, up from A$466 in 2006, while the median household weekly rent rose by almost half to A$285 from A$191, the data showed. In Western Australia the trend was even more pronounced: Weekly rent in the state surged by more than three-quarters to A$300 a week-A$320 in its capital, Perth-while weekly incomes in the state rose around a third to A$662.

某些地区爆炸式的人口增长也对住房构成越来越大的压力,令相对于平均收入的房租水平大幅上升。数据表明,2011年澳大利亚全国周薪中值整体水平上升24%至577澳元(约合586美元),高于2006年466澳元的水平。而周房租中值则上升了近50%,从191澳元涨至285澳元。在西澳大利亚这一趋势更为明显:该州周房租涨幅超过四分之三至300澳元,该州首府珀斯的周房租甚至高达320澳元,而该州周薪涨幅只有大约三分之一,至662澳元。

The largest decreases in migrant populations were among Greeks and Italians, which fell by 33,300 and 16,500 respectively, as low migration levels failed to replenish existing communities, many of whom originally arrived following the devastation wreaked across Europe in World War II.

移民人口中数量减少最多的两个群体是希腊人和意大利人,这两大移民群体各自减少了3.33万和1.65万人。较低的移民数量无法维持其现有社区的人口规模。很多欧洲移民最初是在二战给欧洲造成重大破坏之后到澳洲来的。

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