Behind the anti-immigration March for Australia protests, why they singled out Indians

Thomas Sewell, founder of the neo-Nazi National Socialist Network, addressed the Melbourne rally from the steps of the Parliament House. Neo-Nazism is a modern political and social movement that seeks to revive the extremist 20th-century ideology of Nazism.

Promotional flyers in the run-up to the event claimed “Mass migration has torn at the bonds that held our communities together,” singling out the Indian expat community for purportedly immigrating en masse since 2020. The protests have drawn the ire of the Labor government, which said, “There is no place for any type of hate in Australia”. Here is what to know.

First, who took out the marches?

While no single group has publicly claimed responsibility, The Sydney Morning Herald reported that a self-styled digital creator identified as “Bec Freedom” had taken ownership of the Sydney protest. She told The Herald that she was a “freedom fighter”, “nationalist”, and “patriot”.

Freedom was in the news for a leaked audio in which she advertised the march as protecting white, Australian heritage: “…protect Australian heritage, culture, way of life. Next step, protect European culture, heritage, way of life. The next step is protect white heritage. It all means the same thing. It’s just different ways to put it, Australian heritage.” She said it would deter some members of the public from describing it as a Nazi rally, which holds more severe connotations.

An ABC investigation also identified far-right anti-immigration influencer Hugo Lennon as an organiser. Lennon has long promoted remigration, a far-right concept that calls for the mass deportation of non-white immigrants to the place of their racial ancestry, and the debunked white supremacist conspiracy theory “the great replacement”, which claims that white nationalists are being replaced as the societal majority by immigrants.

Why were the marches held in Australia?

Flyers promoting the marches claimed that Australia was facing a full-blown immigration crisis. Conservative radio host Ben Fordham in August claimed that 1,544 migrants, equivalent to five fully loaded Boeing 787 Dreamliners, were arriving in Australia “day after day, week after week”. “At this pace, in just three years, we will add 1.4 million people, and that’s around the population of Adelaide,” he said.

According to the government’s data, Net Overseas Migration (NOM) to Australia in 2023-2024 was 446,000. This marked a fall from the peak of 536,000 a year prior, but even then, it made for a slightly lower daily average figure than what Fordham cited.

However, SBS News reported in a fact-check that the figures also count things like overseas students moving in and out of the country multiple times, and don’t accurately show the exact number of immigrants.

One flyer also claimed that more Indians have migrated to Australia since 2020 than the total Greek and Italian arrivals since 1925. Noted Australian demographer Peter McDonald told SBS that official data collection began years after the European groups’ immigration began, making comparisons difficult, and that similar rhetoric played out against them at that time.

Overall, these claims align with the recent rise in anti-immigration sentiment, also seen in many other Western nations. A June 2025 poll by the Lowy Institute found that 53% Australians think the number of migrants coming into the country each year is “too high”, an increase of five points from the previous year.

Has immigration increased in Australia?

Over the last decade, immigration figures show a rise, from a NOM of around 187,000 people in June 2014 to more than 445,000 in June 2024.

A report in The Guardian noted that while the NOM hovered around 206,000 to 263,000 annually between 2016 and 2020, it fell into negative territory for a year owing to Covid-19 border closures. March 2021 saw 95,000 more people leaving Australia than arriving.

Once restrictions were eased in 2021 and 2022, the NOM rose again, hitting 342,000 by September 2022, and 433,000 by December 2022.

Anti-immigration protesters have also cited numbers from the Overseas Arrivals and Departures data. However, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said in a statement that “OAD data should not be used to measure migration or population change, as it reflects self-declared traveller intentions rather than changes in residency status.”

Liz Allen, a demographer at the Australian National University Centre for Social Policy Research, told SBS News that the current protests were largely driven by misinformation centred on a rise in anti-immigration sentiment, including claims that migrants suppress wages, steal local jobs, or inflate house prices. Specifically, rents have risen significantly since 2020.

Allen attributed the discontent to four major domestic crises – housing affordability, climate change, gender inequality and economic insecurity. These, coupled with a “fear of the other”, of being “taken over” or “left behind” by immigrants, “create a tipping point that undermines the certainty of tomorrow — and with that comes a great deal of fear,” she told SBS News.

How have neo-Nazis come into the picture?

In recent years, Australia has witnessed an increase in right-wing extremism, including protests by neo-Nazis. In 2020, the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO), the country’s top foreign intelligence agency, flagged the “real threat” to the country’s security from neo-Nazis.

According to ASIO Director General Mike Burgess, the country faced a higher threat from foreign espionage than during the Cold War, and a foreign “sleeper agent” had been planted.

This February, the Australian parliament passed a series of laws punishing hate symbols and terror offences with mandatory jail terms ranging from one to six years. These followed an uptick of attacks on Jewish targets, including setting synagogues in Sydney and Melbourne on fire.

What is the share of Indian immigrants in Australia?

According to the government, at the end of June 2023, 845,800 Indian-born people were living in Australia. This was more than twice the number (378,480) a decade ago. After the United Kingdom, the Indian-born population is the second-largest migrant community in Australia.

An Australian government report (“An India Economy Strategy to 2035”) noted that from 2006 to 2016, a rise in Indian immigration was reported. The growth in “education-related and skilled migration coincided with a period of significant labour shortages across the economy during Australia’s mining boom,” it said. The late 2000s also saw reports of attacks on Indians.

Today, India-born people comprise 10.3% of Australia’s overseas-born population and 3.2% of Australia’s total population. They are also nearly three times as likely as the wider Australian community to hold a bachelor’s or higher degree and possess greater wealth. Official data from 2016 showed that Hindi, Punjabi and Malayalam were the most spoken Indian languages in the country.