Eastern European Australians


Eastern European Australians are Australians of Eastern European ancestry. Eastern European Australian people can usually trace back full or partial heritage to Belarus, Moldova, Russia, Ukraine and other nations bordering with or ethnoculturally related to Eastern Europe. They are a subgroup of European Australians, along with Northwestern European Australians and Southern European Australians.

Background

Eastern European Australians have been studied, researched and reported as a distinct pan-ethnic group which can be based on full or partial ancestry to Eastern Europe. The group can be broken down into national subgroups, such as Belarusian Australians.

History

Between 1947 and 1951, Commonwealth Bureau of Census and Statistics show that Eastern Europeans comprised 37 percent of arrivals to Australia, making them the most numerous immigrant group of non-British descent. Historian Malcolm David Prentis has theorized that Eastern European Australians, unlike Scottish Australians, settled in the country at a time where they were particularly bound by political concern to their ancestral region, making them a more distinct group in modern times than Anglo-Celtic people.
Mid-20th-century literature from Eastern European Australians, while separate from Anglo Australian centrality, has been described as significantly different from the immigrant perspectives of Asians in Australia. Dr Sonia Mycak has suggested these works from authors with heritage from Eastern Europe, in the post-war period, created a symbolic resistance to the Soviet Union from Australia, and a solidarity with occupied homelands.
In 1989, it was reported that up to 71 percent of Eastern Europeans living in Australia voted for The Coalition, while 23 percent voted Australian Labor Party.
In 2016, broadcaster Ray Hadley pointed to the contribution Eastern European Australians had made to the country since before World War II, in an interview with the Department of Home Affairs. MP Matt Keogh has also noted the contribution of the group, praising Eastern European Australians for helping construct the Snowy Mountains Scheme after the war.

Academic research

Political scientist Ian McAllister has conducted research since the 1980s, surveying after every federal election, and demonstrating that Eastern European Australians are consistently more likely to vote for Liberal–National Coalition than other parties. Research conducted by professor Ellie Vasta in 1992 found that 10 in 78 respondents, who reported at least one parent with Eastern European ancestry, did not associate with that heritage.
2015 research by the Menzies Institute for Medical Research, studied the DNA sequences of a consanguineous Eastern European Australian family who had historically suffered from macular degeneration due to a pathogenic variant in RS1 genes, causing retinoschisis.