Incidencias comunes a los diversos tipos de contratos

Given the concentration in this thesis on migrant/refugee pastoral care within the Archdiocese of Perth, it is pertinent to consider the religious profile of Western Australia and Perth in particular. In the 2006 Census Catholicism was found to be the most common Christian affiliation in Western Australia, at 24%, in common with other Australian states and territories.590 In addition, between 1996 to 2006 Catholicism had experienced the largest increase in numbers in the state.591 In Perth alone the Catholic population in 2006 represented 24.6% of Perth’s overall population.592

Such statistics need to be considered alongside statistics for immigration to Western Australia as it is not unrealistic to assume that the Catholic Church, as elsewhere in Australia, has been significantly affected in its composition and outreach by immigration. Indeed, the 2001 Census showed that Western Australian Catholic immigrants from non- English speaking countries in the decade 1991 to 2001 numbered 14,338 while Catholics born overseas, in English-speaking as well as non-English speaking countries, represented a growth rate of 9.7% and 19.1% respectively.593 The 2006 Census594

589 _Idem.

590 _{ABS, 2914.0.55.002 – “Census shows non-Christian religions continue to grow at a faster rate”.} 591

Ibid.

592 _{Data from Fr Pat Cunningham, “WA Diocese: Census 2006”, Perth Pastoral Data Project, in association}

with the ACBC Pastoral Projects Office, www.ppo.catholic.org.au. The actual Catholic population numbered 379,329, according to the ACBC Pastoral Projects Office, “Diocesan Social Profile – Archdiocese of Perth”, issued in December, 2008, 2.

593

ACBC Pastoral Projects Office, “National Catholic Census Project – Census characteristics of Catholics by State and Territory, 2001”,

revealed that more than half a million of the State’s population were born overseas595 and almost half had one or both parents born overseas.596 Significantly, Perth appears to be the principal settlement destination in Australia for overseas-born migrants and refugees – in 2006 31% of Perth’s resident population were born overseas, the highest proportion in Western Australia and second only to Sydney.597 Among these are included high levels of skilled migrants598 and significant levels of humanitarian entrants. Moreover, in the Census 120,939 identified themselves as Catholic with 21.1% being born in non-English speaking countries.599 In the light of these facts it is worthy of note that a recent newspaper report cited information from the Immigration Department to the effect that

[n]early all the 14,000 refugees Australian will accept in 2008-09 will come from Africa, Asia and the Middle East. Among the intake will be 500 places specifically set aside for refugees from Iraq, with 600 places already earmarked this year specifically for Iraqis who worked with Australian forces.600

Like the rest of Australia, immigrants to Western Australia represent all the countries and continents of the world, except Antarctica. The 2006 Census recorded approximately 200 birthplaces for Western Australian residents.601 In recent years, 2001-2006, arrivals to Western Australia have included people with birthplaces not only in North-West Europe (32%) and South-East Asia (17%) but also Sub-Saharan Africa (17%).602 Many of the

http://www.ppo.catholic.ort.au/researchcharts/catholicsincensus.shtml.

594 _{ABS, 1367.5, “Cultural Diversity in Western Australia”.} 595 _{531,747 or 27.1% of the population.}

596

962,892 or 49.2%.

597 _{Ibid. Overall, Western Australia had the highest proportion of overseas-born residents of all states and}

territories.

598 _{In the 2006-7 financial year WA ranked third behind NSW and Victoria, receiving 8.351 or 14% of}

Australia’s skilled migrants

599 _{ACBC Pastoral Projects Office, “Diocesan Social Profile”, 2-3 and 5. 6,998 non-English speaking}

immigrants arrived in the perth Archdiocese in the 2006 Census year or in the previous three years.

600 _{The West Australian, 21}st _{June, 2008.} 601

ABS, 1367.5 – “Cultural Diversity in Western Australia”.

602

Ibid. Another interesting finding is that the number of Arabic speakers from Middle Eastern nations and sub-Saharan Africa more than doubled between 1996 and 2006. The ACBC Pastoral Projects Office has

latest Burmese and Sudanese refugees are Catholic and young while Catholic populations who migrated in the immediate post-World War II years are beginning to age and decline.603

All this statistical information has significant implications for the poly-ethnicity and future of the Catholic Church in Western Australia. When one includes Aboriginal Catholics, Church membership, in Western Australia as elsewhere in Australia, has become truly multicultural and multilingual; a fact which has important consequences for the inculturation of the Gospel and for the Church’s mission. No longer is the “Irish ascendancy” over the life and work of the Church adequate to cater for its spiritual and pastoral needs.. As the Australian episcopacy realizes, deep discernment needs to be carried out in relation to the impact of immigration on Catholicism in Australia, and Western Australia in particular. Such discernment needs to consider the impact of Catholicism on the settlement and integration of migrants and refugees into both religious and the secular communities in their new country and the relationship between their ethnicity and their spiritual identity formation in a multicultural church and society. Thus the Australian bishops write

[l]ike Australia, the Australian Catholic Church has been graced by migration and diversity. … Immigrants and refugees can … no longer be considered as additions or appendages … . Rather they are an integral part of the Church; they are an integral part of its Australian history. They are part of the Church as God’s mystery of communion and community. They are part of the history of God’s salvific and liberating action.604

calculated that among the Catholic population of the Archdiocese of Perth the five birthplaces with the highest proportions of recent arrivals are South Korea, other Middle Eastern and North African countries, North America, Indonesia and the Philippines, “Diocesan Social Profile – Archdiocese of Perth”, 17.

603 _{ABS, 1367.5 – “Cultural Diversity in Western Australia”. This fact is reflected in calculations of the age}

profile of the Catholic population of the Archdiocese of Perth which indicates that of a total 379,292, 113,628 are over the age of 50, ACBC Pastoral Projects Office, “Diocesan Social Profile – Archdiocese of Perth”, 9.