I have an interest in possibly moving to Australia, specificially the
Perth region, and I currently reside in the United States. I have one
concern, though, that has caused me to have mixed feelings about ever
doing something like this. I have Latino heritage, and I would like to
be able to surround myself with other people who are of latin american
(or Spanish) descent. I haven't been able to find much information
about people of Latin or Spanish origen living in Australia, and I
assume the number is low.

Basically, my question is, are latinos totally unheard of in Australia
(specifically Perth), or will I be able to find at least some others
like myself there? I don't need to be totally surrounded by other
latinos, but having at least some around is pretty important to me.

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Clarification of Question by s_fernandez-ga on 02 Mar 2006 22:34 PST

By Latinos, I refer to immigrants or descendents from/of
Spanish-speaking Latin American countries in Central and South
America. Immigrants/descendents from/of Spain also count, in terms of
what I'm looking for.

Dear s_fernandez-ga,

Latinos form a very small part of the population of Western Australia
and Perth. In 2001 there were 4,400 Central and South America-born
persons in Western Australia (WA).

I have found a very useful 43 page document from the WA Office of
Multi-cultural interests. It is a very detailed report on the
structure of the Latino community in WA. You can download it on this
link.
http://www.omi.wa.gov.au/publications/community_profiles/South_America.pdf

The office also provides a multicultural directory which gives sources
for advice to migrants on a multitude of topics. You can search the
directory from this page.
http://www.omi.wa.gov.au/omi_msd.asp

Through this directory, the WA Multicultural Communities Gateway (see
link below), and Google searches, these are the only Latino
organisations I could find. You may be able to get further advice and
information from these organisations.

Latin American Cultural Association
http://www.laca.com.au/

Latin American Association
http://www.latinamerican.asn.au/#

WA Multicultural Communities Gateway
http://www.multicultural.online.wa.gov.au/


I hope this answers your question. If it does not, or the answer is
unclear, then please ask for clarification of this research before
rating the answer. I shall respond to the clarification request as
soon as I receive it.
Thank you
answerfinder

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Request for Answer Clarification by s_fernandez-ga on 03 Mar 2006 03:52 PST

Thank for you for this information, it's very helpful. My one thing
I'm a bit confused about though is when you said how many Central and
South-Aerican born persons were living in Western Australia. Does this
number also count Australian-born people of Latin American descent, or
just immigrants?

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Clarification of Answer by answerfinder-ga on 03 Mar 2006 05:06 PST

The information I supplied comes from the 2001 census in which people
were asked for their country of birth. It does not reveal the
statistics for the second-generation Latinos. However, on page 8 of
the document I referred you to, it does state that some "5,900 Western
Australians identified with a Spanish ancestry, 1200 with a Chilean
ancestry, 1200 with an Argentinian ancestry, 850 with a Salvadorean
ancestry and 350 with a Brazilian ancestry."

You may also be interested on page 18 of the report - the information
on the relatively recent imigration dates of these people.

Otherwise I could find no information on second generation Latinos.

Hope this clarifies the matter.
answerfinder-ga

Best answer I could have found. Thanks!

Try writing to the Spanish Club of W.A. Inc. Baker Road, North Lake.
Perth, Western Australia. Phone [08] 9310 3919.

I would not expect in WA anything like the Latino community you know
in the U.S.  I would imagine most of the immigrants there are from
South America rather than Mexico and moved there because of marriage
or high-paying employment.  Just a thought.  I'm not Australian but I
have been there, and Latinos - other than perhaps a few relatively
well-educated Spainards or Chileans - are just not a large prescence
at all.