Border crossings: Cross-cultural issues in Australian palliative care

Australia is a culturally and ethnically diverse nation, with immigrants from all over the world now calling Australia home. The latest Australian census found that approximately 26% of the Australian population originated outside Australia (ABS, 2011). Initially, Europe was the main source of migration, however, increasingly more Australians are born in Asia before migrating to Australia. Our diversity is also evidenced by the facts that there are a variety of languages spoken and religions reported. For example, there are over 400 languages spoken in the home, the most common being (apart from English), in decreasing order - Mandarin, Italian, Arabic, Cantonese and Greek. However, approximately 2% of Australians do not speak any English at all. In terms of religious affiliations, 61% of Australians reported a Christian affiliation, although this figure has been decreasing with each subsequent census. The most common non-Christian religions were Buddhism, Islam and Hinduism (ABS, 2011).