FACTBase 33 - Connectivity of Perth’s Migrant Diasporas

Perth is one of Australia’s most multi-cultural cities. In 2001, it had the second highest percentage of overseas born residents (31.1%, behind Sydney’s 31.2%), but by 2011, it ranked first (34.6% overtaking Sydney’s 34.3%). It has above national average migration growth rates (2001- 2011) with Asian proportions slowly rising against the dominate Anglo-sphere group (Maginn, 2012). This cultural diversity has direct implications for Perth’s global competitiveness and its capacity to ‘grow, innovate and diversify towards more knowledge-intensive industries’ (Huddleston et al., 2012, 8). This FACTBase Bulletin examines Perth’s in- and out-flow of migrants under the intensifying transnational paradigm of the Internet and social media technologies, like Facebook and Skype. Their relatively recent and rapid rise has allowed limited understanding of how this flow of lives and ideologies are shaped and changing global social, political and professional networks (see Banerjee & German, 2010; Cosmini-Rose, 2008; Oiarzabal & Reips, 2012; Soehl & Waldinger, 2010; van Bochove et al., 2010). A recent example of this is the Egyptian Revolution, sparked by a Dubai-residing Egyptian ‘activist’ who started a Facebook protest page after seeing a bloodied and beaten web image of his countryman (Vargas, 2012). This FACTBase Bulletin discusses the profound and continuing influence that social media has had on Perth’s global connectivity through its migrant communities, being first addressed in FACTBase 20’s investigation of on-line blogger perceptions of Perth’s vitality (Wojcik, 2011).