Country of birth differentiates those born overseas from those born in Australia. While the concept of ‘overseas-born’ population is relatively straightforward—that is, it refers to those residents of Australia who were not born in Australia ^[27] —that of ‘country of birth’ is often ambiguous. For example, the post-World War II boundary changes in Europe have made it difficult to determine the country of birth of many displaced persons. ^[28] Not surprisingly, boundary changes and the resultant population displacement make concepts such as ‘country of birth’ and ‘nationality at birth’ highly contentious. ^[29] The ABS approach to these issues is to code people to the country they name as their country of birth—that is, ‘all persons who give their country of birth as “Poland” are coded to Poland’ and ‘Birthplace responses which relate to particular cities or regions which are now in one country, but which may have been in another country at the time of birth, should be coded to the country, the city or region is in at the time of collection of the data. For example, the response “Danzig” should be coded to Poland not to Germany.’ ^[30] Thus, a person born in the pre-1939 Polish city of Lvov who lists ‘Poland’ as his/her country of birth is coded as ‘Poland-born’ while those who are ethnically Polish but give Lvov as their city of birth are coded ‘Ukraine-born’. Similarly, not all those Poland-born are ethnically Polish. In 1986, 84.7 per cent of Poland-born residents of Australia stated their ancestry as Polish, 7 per cent described themselves as Jewish, 1.7 per cent German, 1.5 per cent Ukrainian and 4.2 per cent ‘Other’. ^[31]

Concepts such as ancestry and ethnicity may also be used to identify migrant groups within the broader Australian population. In the census, ancestry is self-determined. ^[32] But, the concept of ‘ancestry’ is even more ambiguous than that of ‘country of birth’. A person may also have more than one ancestry. ^[33] The concept of ancestry also depends on how it is probed in terms of past generations. For example, the 2001 Australian Census asked respondents to consider their ancestry as far back as three generations. ^[34] Thus, a person’s perception of ‘ancestry’ may not depend only on where he/she was born but on their nationality, country (or countries) of birth of their parents, language spoken at home, religion and numerous cultural factors. For example, one of our survey respondents described his/her identity as ‘by birth: Canadian; by citizenship: Australian; by parentage: Anglo-Polish; by culture: Polish; and by upbringing: European’. In 2001, the most commonly stated ancestries in Australia were Australian (38 per cent of respondents), English (36 per cent), Irish (11 per cent), Italian (5 per cent), German (4 per cent), Chinese (3 per cent) and Scottish (3 per cent). ^[35] Polish ancestry was stated by 150 900 respondents (0.9 per cent). ^[36] The ‘revealed ancestry’ also depends on how the population at large feels about various national groups and, thus, a person’s willingness to reveal their ancestry. Consequently, a person’s ‘stated ancestry’ may change over time. ^[37]

In the 2006 Census, nearly 164 000 people stated their ancestry as Polish while more than 52 000 gave Poland as their country of birth (see Table 5.1). ^[38] Although those of Polish ancestry were the thirteenth-largest ancestry group, this was, to use a sporting analogy, only the ‘fifth division’ in the ‘ancestry league’ with the ‘first division’ English ancestry group numbering 6.4 million people and the ‘fourth division’ Greek ancestry group totalling 376 000 people. And, while the number of Australians of Polish ancestry has increased over time, the number of Poland-born residents has declined (on average by 2 per cent per annum between 1996 and 2006).

English proficiency and the use of another language at home are also useful measures of migrant distinctiveness. The 2001 Census revealed that 2.8 million people (16 per cent of the Australian population) spoke a language other than English at home. ^[39] This represents an 8 per cent increase since 1996 and reflects the growing multicultural make-up of the Australian population. It also reflects changes in the prevailing social climate, as, in contrast with the 1950s and the 1960s, migrants to Australia have recently been encouraged to retain their distinct ethnic and cultural identities. In 2001, the five most commonly spoken second languages were Italian, Greek, Cantonese, Arabic and Vietnamese. Polish was the twelfth-most common ‘other language’, with 59 000 people (0.3 per cent of the population) speaking it at home.

The propensity to speak the ‘home country’ language can also be used as a proxy for the ethnic distinctiveness of a migrant group, in particular when it is spoken by those born in Australia. But, as immigrants assimilate, successive generations tend to lose their command of the ‘home country’ language. For example, in 2001, 51 per cent of people speaking Greek at home were born in Australia, 43 per cent of those speaking Arabic and Italian were Australia-born, 40 per cent of those speaking Serbian and 39 per cent Macedonian. But only 20 per cent of Polish speakers were Australia-born, 15 per cent Dutch and 9 per cent German. ^[40] In comparison with their Australian-Greek, Australian-Italian or Australian-Lebanese compatriots, the second generation of Polish immigrants appears to have lost a great deal of its language-related ethnic identity. Nevertheless, people may continue to identify with a particular ancestry or ancestries even if they no longer relate to their ancestral language, religion or culture.

In migrant communities, English language proficiency tends to be age related. For example, 88 per cent of the people aged under twenty-five who spoke a language other than English at home described their command of spoken English as good or very good, compared with 60 per cent of those aged sixty-five years and over. ^[41] And 91 per cent of those born in Australia who spoke a language other than English at home described their English as good or very good.