Population expert Dr Bob Birrell says that Australia faces big integration challenge amid massive migrant intakes

A THIRD of the nation’s Muslim population arrived in the past decade, according to Census data, and a large percentage of believers calls Victoria home. But the figures have prompted a warning from a leading researcher.

A THIRD of the nation’s Muslim population arrived in the last decade, according to an analysis of census data.

And more than half of Australia’s Hindu residents came during the same period, prompting a demographer to warn that the nation faced an integration challenge amid very high migrant intakes.

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Worshippers outside Lakemba Mosque in suburban Sydney.

As the nation debated controversial comments about Islamic immigration by a federal MP this week, census figures show how recent arrivals are changing Australia’s religious landscape.

From 2006 to 2016, about 205,000 Muslims migrated to Australia, compared to fewer than 120,000 in the two decades up to 2005, Australian Bureau of Statistics data show.

Australia now has more than 600,000 Islamic followers, including about 200,000 living in Victoria.

More than one-third, or about 220,000 of the nation’s Muslims are Australian-born, followed by those born in Pakistan (54,372), Afghanistan (42,708), Lebanon (34,193) and Iraq (21,138).

The Australian Population Research Institute’s Dr Bob Bob Birrell (left).

The Australian Population Research Institute’s Dr Bob Birrell said while Muslims comprised only 2.6 per cent of the nation’s population, mass migration meant their numbers were growing rapidly.

“They are significantly concentrated in parts of Melbourne and Sydney,” he said.

“This presents an integration challenge that has to be faced — this is what you get when you run the biggest per capita migration program in the developed world.”

The nation’s Hindu population has also risen dramatically in recent times thanks to very high migrant intakes from India.

Between 2006 and 2016, 248,000 Hindus arrived here, compared to only 90,571 in the 20-year period before 2006.

Australia’s Hindu population is more than 440,000, with at least 135,000 residing in Victoria.

Dandenong’s Little India precinct.

Buddhist migration has also been significant, with more than 160,000 adherents arriving from 2016-2016, mainly from countries like Vietnam and China.

Australia has about 564,000 Buddhists, including 182,000 in Victoria, census figures reveal.

A decade ago Victoria had more Buddhists than Muslims, but that has been reversed.

This week, Katter’s Australian Party Senator Fraser Anning caused a storm by calling for a ban on Muslim immigration because of terrorism threats and their alleged failure to integrate.

Islamic Council of Victoria spokesman Adel Salman said it was a misrepresentation to say that Muslims weren’t integrating.

“I don’t think anyone, Muslim or otherwise, actually comes to Australia wanting to live a separate, parallel existence, I think people want to be part of society, that’s why they’ve chosen Australia,” he said.

“There’s a lot of race-baiting going on, I think Muslims want to be part of society but they also want their traditions and their values and their religion to be respected — I think everyone feels the same way.”

Senator Fraser Anning of Katter’s Australia Party.

Victorian Multicultural Affairs Minister Robin Scott said that Senator Anning’s description of Muslim Australians was inaccurate and unfair.

“It does not in any way reflect the Muslim people that I and many others meet in our communities every day,” he said.

“This type of rhetoric is extremely harmful and can create a culture of disharmony, leading to instances of racism and racial discrimination.”

@JMasanauskas