Total population | |
---|---|
18,401 (by ancestry, 2021) [1] | |
Regions with significant populations | |
Melbourne · Perth · Brisbane · Townsville | |
Languages | |
Somali, Australian English | |
Religion | |
Islam [2] |
Somali Australians are citizens and residents of Australia who are of Somali ancestry.
Although the first Somali community in Victoria was established in 1988, most Somalis began to settle in the country in the early 1990s following the civil war in Somalia. [3] Somali Australians are active in the nation's cultural and political scenes, having also contributed significantly to local business. [4]
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the 2006 national census counted 6,403 Somali immigrants residing in Australia. [5]
While the Somali community in Victoria was first established in 1988, [3] most Somalis began to settle in the country in the early 1990s following the outbreak of the civil war in Somalia. About 80 per cent of the new arrivals came under the aegis of the local Refugee and Special Humanitarian Program. As with many other immigrant communities, Somali community organizations are also supported through the national Diverse Australia Program, a grass-roots informational and financial initiative aimed at enhancing societal relations. [4]
Somalis are especially well represented in Victoria, having been drawn to the region's Muslim community, job opportunities and reputation for cultural diversity. The 2006 census reported some 2,624 Somalia-born residents in Victoria, a 14% rise from the previous census five years prior. [3]
The 2016 census recorded 7,668 Somalia-born people in Australia, an increase of 34.9% from the 2011 census, five years earlier. Victoria has 3,904 residents born in Somalia, making up 51% of all Somalia-born people in Australia. Western Australia has 1,334 making up 17.4% of Somalis in Australia and QLD with 1,271 making up 16.6% of Somalis in Australia. [6]
Due to many ethnic Somalis in the diaspora originating in surrounding countries such as Kenya, a more accurate way of determining statistics is based on the "ancestry" data collected in the census. In the 2021 census, there were 18,401 people identifying their ancestry as "Somali" with 54% of these residing in Victoria. [7]
State of residence | Number of Somali population | Percentage of Somali ancestry in Australia |
---|---|---|
Victoria | 10,018 | 54% |
Queensland | 3,027 | 16% |
Western Australia | 2,994 | 16% |
New South Wales | 1,790 | 9% |
South Australia | 467 | 2.5% |
Australian Capital Territory (ACT) | 64 | 0.3% |
Northern Territory | 20 | 0.1% |
Tasmania | 11 | 0.06% |
Total | 18,401 | 100% |
This section needs additional citations for verification .(September 2023) |
While faced with challenges such as having to adjust to life in a new country, learn a foreign language, and support family members back in Somalia, community members have gradually begun to integrate into Victoria's broader multi-cultural society. Most Somali men have found jobs in the transport and production industries, and a rising number of women in the community do clerical work. [3]
Communal support networks have also expanded. In 1988, the Somali Community of Victoria was established to offer support to the local Somali community and to promote Somali culture, as was the Somali Cultural Association seven years later. A Muslim community, the Somali Cultural Association likewise assists Somalis in the country to observe the holy month of Ramadan and the yearly celebrations marking the hajj. [3] Multicultural broadcaster SBS broadcasts an hour-long radio program with news and information in Somali every Wednesday and Friday from 10:00 pm to 11:00 pm. SBS also broadcasts Somali broadcaster Universal TV's Warka news program as part of their "WorldWatch" programming block every Thursday from 10:30 am to 11:00 am.
The Somali community in Queensland is centred around the suburb of Moorooka, where many East African shops are located. However a significant number of Somalis now live in the suburbs of Acacia Ridge and Inala and this can be seen with many African grocery stores and hairdressers in both suburbs. The Somali Community Association of QLD is an organisation that supports Somali Australians in Brisbane and hosts community celebrations such as for Eid and Somali Independence Day. They are based in Inala. [9]
There is also a growing population of Somali Australians in the regional city of Townsville, where they make up a significant proportion of attendees at the Townsville Mosque and local Muslim community. [10] They have opened a restaurant and shops on Ross River Road and are supported by the community organisation, "Bright Horn of Africa: Somali Community Townsville".[ citation needed ]
Somali Australians are active in the nation's cultural, social and political scenes. [4]
Abdullahi Alim is the CEO of the Africa Future Fund and 2017 WA Young Australian of the Year (Western Australian of the Year Awards). [11] That same year, Abdullahi received the Queen's Young Leader Award from her late Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace. Born in Mogadishu — Alim’s family resettled in Perth having fled the Somali Civil War.
During the 2006 Ethiopian Invasion of Somalia, The Australian Federal Police began to investigate possible links between Islamist splinter groups such as Hizbul Islam and Al Shabaab to the Somali community in Melbourne. The AFP had concluded that around 20 Australians had joined the ranks of numerous jihadist factions in Somalia, with some of these men including the perpetrators of the Holsworthy Barracks Plot. By 2007, one Somali-Australian recruit had been reportedly killed in Mogadishu. [12] [13]
Nur Warsame, who was born in Somalia, is Australia's first openly gay imam. [14] [15]
Mogadishu, locally known as Xamar or Hamar, is the capital and most populous city of Somalia. The city has served as an important port connecting traders across the Indian Ocean for millennia and has an estimated urban population of 2,610,483.
The Music of the Somali people is music following the musical styles, techniques and sounds of the Somali people.
The culture of Somalia is an amalgamation of traditions that were developed independently since the Proto-Somali era. The hypernym of the term Somali from a geopolitical sense is Horner and from an ethnic sense, it is Cushite.
The Somali people are a Cushitic ethnic group native to the Horn of Africa who share a common ancestry, culture and history. The East Cushitic Somali language is the shared mother tongue of ethnic Somalis, which is part of the Cushitic branch of the Afroasiatic language family. They are predominantly Sunni Muslim. Forming one of the largest ethnic groups on the continent, they cover one of the most expansive landmasses by a single ethnic group in Africa.
Islam is the second-largest religion in Australia. According to the 2021 Census in Australia, the combined number of people who self-identified as Australian Muslims, from all forms of Islam, constituted 813,392 people, or 3.2% of the total Australian population. That total Muslim population makes Islam, in all its denominations and sects, the second largest religious grouping in Australia, after all denominations of Christianity.
The Hawiye are one of the principal and largest of the Somali clans, tracing their lineage back to Sheikh Ahmed Bin Abdulrahman Bin Uthman, also known as Sheikh Hawiye, the eponymous figure of the clan. They are considered the earliest documented clan to have settled in the Somali peninsula, as noted in the 12th century by Al-Idrisi, occupying the regions spanning from Ras Hafun to Merca, which served as their capital. Presently, the Hawiye reside in central and southern Somalia, Somaliland, Djibouti, the Somali region of Ethiopia, Harar, Oromia, and Afar regions, as well as Kenya. Furthermore, they represent the majority of the population in the capital city of Mogadishu.
The Marehan is a Somali clan, which is part of one of the largest Somali clan families, the Darod.
Following the civil war and the ensuing societal chaos, some factions managed to exert a degree of authority over certain regions of Somalia where they maintained broad, clan-based support. This allowed these factions to establish working administrations and eventually coherent states, and restored order to their regions. This occurred first in Puntland, Southwestern Somalia, Galmudug, Jubaland and finally Banadir.
Bosnian Australians are Australians of Bosnian ancestry. At the 2021 census, 28,246 people stated that they had Bosnian ancestry. At the 2021 census, 26,171 Australian residents were born in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Over the course of the Somali Civil War, there have been many revolutionary movements and militia groups run by competing rebel leaders which have held de facto control over vast areas within Somalia.
African Australians are Australians descended from any peoples of Sub-Saharan Africa, including naturalised Australians who are immigrants from various regions in Sub-Saharan Africa and descendants of such immigrants. At the 2021 census, the number of ancestry responses categorised within Sub-Saharan African ancestral groups as a proportion of the total population amounted to 1.3%. Note that Australian official statistics are based on country of origin not race, hence African immigrants of European descent and their descendants are included as African Australians.
Mogadishu is the largest city in Somalia and the nation's capital. Located in the coastal Benadir region on the Indian Ocean, the city has served as an important port for centuries.
Somali Americans are Americans of Somali ancestry. The first ethnic Somalis to arrive in the U.S. were sailors who came in the 1920s from British Somaliland. They were followed by students pursuing higher studies in the 1960s and 1970s, by the late 1970s through the late 1980s and early 1990s more Somalis arrived. However, it was not until the mid and late 1990s when the civil war in Somalia broke out that the majority of Somalis arrived in the United States. The Somali community in the U.S. is now among the largest in the Somali diaspora.
Somali Canadians are Canadians of Somali origin or are dual Somali and Canadian nationality.
Omar hassan farah(Somali: Omar Hassan farah, Arabic: يوسف محمود ابراهيم; died 1848) was a Somali ruler. He was the third and most powerful Sultan of the Geledi sultanate, reigning from 1798 to 1848. Under the reign of Sultan Yusuf, his kingdom entered its apex, he managed to modernize his economy and his kingdom quickly became one of the wealthiest states in East Africa. Yusuf frequently toured the sultanate and built rapport with his many clients and allies. He successfully consolidated Geledi power during conquest of Bardera and expelling extremist ideology from his region. It was under his rule he manage to establish many trading partners and allies such as the Sultanate of Witu. He also exacted tribute from Sultan Said of the Omani Empire starting from 1843.
Abdi Warsame is a Somali-American politician in Minnesota's Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party. After moving to London as an asylum-seeker, he immigrated to Minnesota in 2006. In November 2013, he was elected to the Minneapolis City Council, becoming the first Somali official to be elected to the position. Warsame was reelected for a second term in 2017. He resigned from the position in 2020 to become the head of the Minneapolis Public Housing Authority.
Anti-Somali sentiment or Somalophobia refers to fear, hostility, or other negative attitudes towards Somalis or Somali culture.
Abdirahman Abdishakur Warsame is a Somali politician and a constitutional expert. He is currently the leader of the Wadajir Party. He served as a member of the Somali Parliament from 2009 to 2010, and as the Minister of Planning and International relations under President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed between 2009 and 2010. He contested in the 2017 Somali presidential elections against Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo. Warsame was one of the most prominent opposition politicians in Somalia, and a fierce critic of the Farmajo administration, in 2017–2022.
Nur Warsame is a gay imam from Australia. He is a hafiz, i.e. one who has memorised the Quran; he is the second Victorian imam to earn this title.