澳大利亞——移民樂土

NANCY LIU arrived in Sydney from China as a “skilled immigrant” with an economics degree 14 years ago. With her husband, she set up a business consultancy in the suburb of Hurstville, once an Anglo-Celtic working-class stronghold. Since then, Chinese investment has transformed it: most of its shop signs are now in Chinese. Last year, Ms Liu was elected Hurstville’s deputy mayor.

Ms Liu was a forerunner of a new wave of Chinese immigrants to Australia’s oldest and biggest city. Hong Kong once supplied most of Australia’s Chinese settlers, but over the past few years the pattern has shifted. Now it is the rising middle classes from mainland China who go there, looking for a cleaner, more relaxed lifestyle. About 4% of Sydney’s 4.6m people were born in China. Hurstville’s China-born population is about a third of its total and almost half its residents claim Chinese ancestry.

Sydney’s first Chinese immigrants arrived as farm workers in the 1840s. The gold rush a decade later drew more. “Celestial City: Sydney’s Chinese story”, an exhibition at the Museum of Sydney, shows what happened next. By the 1880s, political fears of a “Chinese invasion” sparked anti-Asian immigration laws known as the White Australia policy, which lasted well into the 20th century.

But China’s emergence as Australia’s biggest trading partner, and its largest source of foreign university students, has revolutionised the relationship. In the fiscal year 2011-12, more than 25,000 Chinese people obtained permanent residence in Australia. Most of them were from the new middle classes. Then in late 2012 Australia launched a “significant investor” visa, aimed at China’s super-rich. To get one, people need A$5m ($4.6m) to sink in “qualifying” investments. After investing for four years, successful applicants can apply for permanent residence.

The visas are called “subclass 188” and “subclass 888”. As the number eight represents luck and prosperity in Chinese culture, the visa’s main target is obvious. More than 90% of 702 applicants so far have been Chinese.

Many of the émigrés are media-shy. But their influence is visible in Chatswood, another formerly Anglo-Australian suburb. Towers of apartments, many owned by Chinese immigrants, now overlook the Edwardian-era stone and timber bungalows. Shops on the main street are crammed with Chinese noodles and vegetables, and Mandarin is the chief language among shoppers. Stacks of Chinese newspapers outnumber English ones.

Yan Zhang, who settled in Sydney after studying at Macquarie University, orders a lunch of pork dumplings at the New Shanghai restaurant. He reckons the new wave of middle-class Chinese immigrants, who arrive with residence already granted, come to Australia for the same reasons he did. “They want to make life more enjoyable and more secure,” he says. “If I’d returned to China, I’d have had to be more selfish to survive.”據《經濟學人》報道，14年前，作爲一個擁有經濟學學位的“專業技能型移民”，劉女士（南希）從中國奔赴至澳大利亞。她同她的丈夫一起在赫斯特維爾的郊區成立了一個商業諮詢公司，而那裏曾是凱爾特工作階級的聚集地。之後，中國投資者改變了這一狀態，現在，那裏大多數的商店符號都是漢字。去年，劉女士選舉成爲赫斯特維爾副市長。

劉女士是新掀起的中國移民到澳大利亞古老大城市浪潮中的先行者。香港曾向澳大利亞提供了大部分的中國居民，但就過去幾年來看，形勢已經改變。現在，日益增長的中國大陸中產階級爲了更乾淨舒適的生活，移民至澳。悉尼460萬人口中有4%是中國移民。赫斯特維爾的中國移民則佔據了其總人口數的三分之一，而接近一半的居民有着中華血統。

悉尼的第一批中國移民是19世紀40年代來澳的農民。十年後的淘金熱則吸引了更多的人前往。悉尼博物館開展了主題爲“人間天堂：悉尼的中國人的故事”的展會，敘述了後續故事。到了19世紀80年代，政治上提出“中國式入侵”的恐懼論，觸發了反亞洲移民政策，也就是白澳政策。這一政策直到20世紀才被取消。

中國已新興成爲澳大利亞最大的貿易伙伴，以及最多來澳大學留學生的來源地，這一切都徹底改變了兩國關係。在2011年至2012年的財政年度間，超過2.5萬的中國人取得了澳大利亞的永久居住權。其中，大部分都是年輕的中產階級。2012年年末，澳大利亞針對中國的頂級富豪發行了“重要投資者”簽證。申請此簽證的人需要在澳投資500萬澳元才能獲得資格。而在連續四年的投資之後，成功的投資者可以申請永久居住權。

該簽證被稱爲188類別和888類別簽證。因爲數字8在中國文化中代表着好運和發達，該簽證的目標人羣就顯而易見了。截至目前，702位申請者中有90%是中國人。

許多移民者是躲避媒體的。但他們對查茨伍德區的影響卻是引人注目的，而那裏之前是英國僑民聚集地。中國移民居住的高層公寓現如今俯瞰着英國人的木質平房。主街上的商店裏堆滿了中國麪條和蔬菜，普通話則成爲了店員們的主要語言。成摞的中文報紙的數量遠超出了英文報紙。

張巖（音）在麥考瑞大學就讀之後就定居在悉尼了。他在新上海餐館訂了一份豬肉水餃作爲午飯。他認爲新興的中國中產階級移民來澳的原因同他一致，他們在獲得合法居住權後到來。“他們都希望更享受、更安全的生活，”他說。“如果回國的話，我可能會爲了生存而變得更自私。”