The Changing Spatial Distribution of Australia's Vietnamese Communities

Since the late 1980s there has been debate concerning the formation of Vietnamese 'ethnic enclaves' and 'ghettos' in some Australian cities. Most of this debate has been based on a somewhat contested analysis of country of birth data from various Australian censuses, and at times the debate was driven by dated assimilationist philosophies. This paper describes the changing spatial distribution and concentration of Vietnamese communities in Australia over the two past decades, through an examination of national Statistical Local Area (SLA) level data from recent Australian Censuses. Rather than focus analysis on country of birth data, this research analyses data of individuals (i) of Vietnamese ancestry and (ii) who spoke the Vietnamese language at home. A number of SLA factors are considered in an attempt to provide an initial discussion of meso-level factors which have contributed to changes in the Vietnamese-Australian distributions and concentrations. The data reveal a contrasting picture of the spatial distribution and concentration of the Vietnamese-Australian communities, and indicate that although a few areas of 'high' Vietnamese spatial concentration have persisted into 2006, overall there is an increasing dispersion of Vietnamese-Australians into the broader Australian community.