From 1992 to 2002, the Australian island state of Tasmania experienced a net migration loss that was a result of, as well as a contributor to, poor economic performance. Populations born on the island sought to leave as soon as they reached adulthood in order to find a steady income; recent overseas immigrants to the island state were leaving for mainland locations in Victoria, Queensland and New South Wales as soon as they could find lucrative employment and a culturally diverse community in which to live. Hobart, as the ‘whitest capital city’ in all of Australia, was losing recent immigrants not only because it could not provide adequate employment, but because it could not provide a sustained multicultural environment in which new overseas groups could feel comfortable to flourish as a community. Following a series of local, state and Commonwealth campaigns organized to attract and retain migrants from overseas, Tasmania is currently seeing a slow and tenuous return to population growth with a significant portion of potential future popular and economic increase relying on anticipated contributions from recent migrants from Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Congo, Rwanda and Sierra Leone. Tasmania's pressure to retain these migrant populations and to, in fact, use these populations as ‘ethnic magnets’ (groups of overseas migrants who will attract more migrants from those overseas locations) is of particular significance, especially when placed in the context of the state's economic and political historics.