When Mary Wang, a 27-year-old Chinese woman living in the West Australian capital of Perth, heard that thousands of anti-immigration protesters would be marching across the country late last month, she immediately cancelled plans to leave the house.

Wang, who works in IT, was planning to continue her volunteer work teaching the elderly how to use smartphones, but the disturbing rallies gave her pause.

“I just feel insecure,” Wang said. “I’m already in an environment I didn’t grow up in, and I don’t fit in. When something like this happens, it only makes those feelings worse.”

This is her fourth year in Australia. To improve her chances of gaining permanent residency, Wang moved from Melbourne to Perth with her husband, who is also Chinese.

But now they are facing an immediate and acute challenge – the country’s growing anti-immigration sentiment – which reached a new high with the marches on August 31.