Corcoran, Jonathan

Liu, Yan

Sigler, Thomas

Wang, Siqin

University of Queensland eSpace

AUSTRALIAN POPULATION STUDIES  2018 | Volume 2 | Issue 1 | pages 56–58 
 
 
© Wang, Corcoran, Liu and Sigler 2018. Published under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial licence 3.0 
Australia (CC BY-NC 3.0 AU). Journal website: www.australianpopulationstudies.org 
Visualising the internal migration 
of the mainland China-born 
population between Australian 
capital cities over time 
Siqin Wang*  The University of Queensland 
Jonathan Corcoran  The University of Queensland 
Yan Liu  The University of Queensland 
Thomas Sigler  The University of Queensland 
* Corresponding author. Email: s.wang6@uq.edu.au. Address: School of Earth and 
Environmental Sciences, Chamberlain Building, The University of Queensland, St Lucia 4072, 
Queensland, Australia 
Paper received 1 March 2018; accepted 16 March 2018; published 28 May 2018 
Over the past three decades, migration from mainland China to Australia has become increasingly 
significant. The 2016 Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Census of Population and Housing (Census) 
recorded a total of 526,000 China-born migrants living in Australia, accounting for 2.2 per cent of the 
total national population, ranking it as the largest non-Commonwealth foreign-born group in the 
country (ABS 2016a). Drawing on data from three Australian censuses, we visualise 5-year internal 
migration flows of the China-born population between Australian state and territory capitals.  
Data were retrieved online from TableBuilder Pro for the 2006, 2011 and 2016 censuses (ABS 2006; 
2011; 2016a). The mainland China-born population was defined as those residing in Australia who 
were born in the People’s Republic of China but not the Special Administrative Regions of Macau and 
Hong Kong. Capital cities were spatially defined as Greater Capital City Statistical Areas (ABS 2016b). 
Our DemoGraphic is a series of three directional circular plots (Abel 2016) that depict the system of 
internal migration flows representing the relative size and direction of internal migration movements 
(Figure 1, page 58). The plots were created using the R statistical software and employing the 
package ‘circlize’ (available at: https://www.r-project.org/about.html).  
The circular plots represent the volumes, origins and destinations using lines of varying width and 
colours to capture migration flows between capital cities (Figure 1). The length of each segment for a 
given city represents the number of migrants moving to and/or from a particular capital. For each 
city the direction of migration flows is indicated by an arrow pointing from origins to destinations. 
Each capital city and the flows originating from that city are represented by a single colour (e.g. 
Sydney is depicted in red for each of the three plots). Each tick mark on the perimeter of the circle is 
used to represent a total of 200 migrants. We exclude the least numerically significant 30 per cent of 
flows from each of the circular plots. Excluding these smaller flows helps to enhance the visual clarity 
by focussing on the main residential migration movements. 
  
 
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Australian Population Studies 2 (1) 2018 Trauer J, Freak-Poli R, Kippen R and McNeil J 57 
 
Our DemoGraphic illustrates a number of interesting internal migration patterns over the decade to 2016. 
• The absolute volume of internal migration between capital cities has increased 340 per cent over 
the decade. This increase includes migration to and from the smaller capital cities of Hobart, 
Darwin and Canberra, which did not have large China-born populations in earlier decades 
compared to the larger capitals of Sydney and Melbourne.  
• There appears to be some stability in the internal migration trends of China-born migrants over 
time. More specifically, the share of migration across capital cities has principally remained the 
same, with Sydney the largest origin and destination followed by Melbourne and then Adelaide. 
• The proportion of overall flows by capital city shows little change over time in Sydney, Melbourne 
and Canberra. However, Brisbane’s in-migration flows of the China-born population increase 
substantially over the period to 2016, reflecting a growing Chinese community in Brisbane and 
sustained migration from the other capital cities – in particular Sydney and Melbourne. An 
increase in out-migration flows is observed in both Adelaide and Hobart, especially over the 
period 2011 to 2016. Out-migration from Adelaide, especially in the period 2011 to 2016 may be 
tied to a relatively weaker job market and economic outlook (Adzuna 2016; Beer 2008). 
• Sydney and Melbourne both remain the largest destinations for China-born migrants. The 
attraction of these two cities over the other Australian capitals for China-born migrants is 
arguably a function of denser social ties allied with a broader range of economic opportunities. 
There is a need to deepen our understanding of the internal migration patterns of the China-born 
population by capturing these movements at a range of spatial scales and unpacking the reasons 
under-pinning these flows. With such knowledge we will be able to better understand internal 
migration pathways after settlement, and how these pathways mesh with longer-term integration in 
Australian society. 
Acknowledgements 
An earlier version of this visualisation was presented at the Institute of Australian Geographers 
Conference in Brisbane, July 2017. We thank the organisers and participants for their comments. We 
also thank Karen Borchardt at The University of Queensland for help with the data collection.  
References  
Abel G (2016) Updated circular plots for directional bilateral migration data. 
https://gjabel.wordpress.com/tag/circular-plot/. Accessed on May 2016. 
ABS (Australian Bureau of Statistics) (2006) Census of Population and Housing – Fact Sheets, 2006. Cat. 
No. 2914.0. Canberra: ABS.  
ABS (2011) Census of Population and Housing: outcomes from the 2011 Census output geography 
discussion paper. Cat. No. 2911.0.55.003. Canberra: ABS.  
ABS (2016a) Migration, Australia, 2015–16. Cat. No. 3412.0. Canberra: ABS. 
ABS (2016b) Australian Statistical Geography Standard: Volume 1 – Main Structure and Greater Capital 
City Statistical Areas. Cat. No. 1270.0. Canberra: ABS.  
Adzuna (2016) Australia job market report. https://www.adzuna.com.au/blog/wp-
content/uploads/2016/03/Adzuna-March-Job-Report-Robots-by-20301.pdf. Accessed on March 2016. 
Beer A (2008) Risk and return: housing tenure and labour market adjustment after employment loss in the 
automotive sector in Southern Adelaide. Policy Studies 29(3): 319–330. 
58 Wang S, Corocan J, Liu Y and Sigler T Australian Population Studies 2 (1) 2018 
 
 
Source: ABS 2006, 2011 and 
2016 Census data. 
Note: Each tick mark on the 
perimeter of the circle is used 
to represent a total of 200 
migrants. 
 
Figure 1: The internal 
migration of the mainland 
China-born population 
between Australian capital 
cities over three census 
periods 


Visualising the internal migration of the mainland China-born population between Australian capital cities over time

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Visualising the internal migration of the mainland China-born population between Australian capital cities over time

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