The changing shape of Australia’s immigration policy

Article sourced from The Guardian

If the increasing numbers are well managed, it can be a ‘win-win’ situation, says professor.

How many and whom? Australia is – again – seized by a debate about migration to this country, its size, shape and character.

“Immigration is a defining feature of Australia’s economic and social life,” the productivity commission argued in a 2016 report that found, on current projections, the country’s population would reach 40 million by the middle of the century.

From the post-war creation of an immigration department and the public catch-cry of “populate or perish”, successive waves of migrants, from different parts of the world, have shaped the country’s character, and influenced its development.

But Australia’s broader migration program has been revolutionised over a generation, and with little consultative public debate.

Australia does not have an explicit population policy or minister – it did briefly between 2010 and 2013 but the annual migration intake is set by government as part of the budget.

“Australia’s immigration policy is its de facto population policy,” the productivity commission says.

Since the prime ministership of John Howard, immigration experts argue, successive governments of both stripes have altered, almost beyond recognition from its post-war origins, the size, emphases, and nature of Australia’s migration program.

In Guardian analysis of migration data from the beginning of Howard’s premiership in 1996, several key trends emerge:

  • A massive increase in Australia’s annual permanent migration intake – from 85,000 in 1996 to 208,000 last year.
  • The emergence of India and China as the largest sources – by far – of migrants.
  • The movement away from family migration to skilled migration targeting national workforce needs. In 1996, family migration was about two-thirds of the program, and skilled one-third. Those ratios are now reversed.
  • A huge increase in temporary migration to Australia – through short-term work visas (the soon-to-be-replaced 457) and international students.
  • The rise of “two-step migration”, where those on short-term visas (usually 457 or student visas) gain permanent residency.
  • The emergence of migration, rather than natural increase (i.e. births) as the primary driver of population increase.

Publicly, the debate about migration rarely remains within the narrow confines of the number or origin of new people seeking to come to Australia to live.

Continue reading this article on The Guardian website.