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Immigration to Australia began at least 40,000 years ago, when the ancestors of Australian Aborigines arrived via the islands of the Malay Archipelago and New Guinea. Europeans began landing in the 1600s and 1700s, and the country was colonised by Britain in 1788.
The overall level of immigration has grown substantially during the last decade. Net overseas migration increased from a low of 30,000 in 1993 Australian Bureau of Statistics, International migration to 118,000 in 2003-04.Australian Bureau of Statistics, 3101.0 Australian Demographic Statistics The largest components of immigration are the skilled migration and family re-union programs. In recent years the mandatory detention of unauthorised arrivals by boat has generated controversy.
History
Human migration to the Australian continent was first achieved during the closing stages of the Pleistocene epoch, when sea levels were typically much lower than they are today. It is theorised that these ancestral peoples arrived via the nearest islands of the Malay Archipelago, crossing over the intervening straits (which were then narrower) to reach the single landmass which then existed. Known as Sahul, this landmass connected Australia with New Guinea via a land bridge which emerged when prevailing glacial conditions lowered sea levels by some 100-150 m. Australia's coastline also extended much further out into the Timor Sea than at present, affording another possible route by which these first peoples reached the continent. Estimates of the timing of these migrations vary considerably: the most widely-accepted conservative evidential view places this somewhere between 40,000 to 45,000 years ago, with earlier cited (but not universally accepted) dates of up to 60,000 years or more also proposed; the debate continues within the academic community.
On January 26, 1788, a date now celebrated as Australia Day, a landing was made by the British at Sydney Cove for the purposes of establishing a penal colony. The new colony was formally proclaimed as the Colony of New South Wales on February 7.
The Gold rush era, beginning in 1851, led to an enormous expansion in population, including large numbers of British and Irish settlers, followed by smaller numbers of Germans and other Europeans, and Chinese. After Federation, the White Australia policy was created to counteract the immigration of non-whites.
After World War II, Australia launched a massive immigration program, believing that having narrowly avoided a Japanese invasion, Australia must "populate or perish." Hundreds of thousands of displaced Europeans migrated to Australia and over 1,000,000 British Citizens immigrated under the Ten Pound Poms scheme.
During the 2001 election campaign, immigration and border protection became the hot issue, as a result of incidents such as the Tampa affair, Children overboard affair, and the sinking of the SIEV-X. Some commentators attrubute the victory of the Coalition to this issue. This incident marked the beginning of the controversial Pacific Solution.
Australian immigration law
Since 1958, immigration has been regulated according to the Migration Act 1958. This Act replaced the numerous Acts of immigration legislation that had been enacted since 1901.
The Act is supplemented by an extensive and frequently amended body of rules called the Migration Regulations 1994. This contains amongst other things the criteria for each of the 200 or more visa classes and subclasses.
Current Australian immigration policy
The Department of Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs (DIMIA) executes government policy on immigration under the Migration Act 1958.
There are currently two immigration programs that allow permanent migration to Australia, they are the migration program and the humanitarian program. Foreigners currently living in Australia under one of a number of temporary visas can apply to be granted permanent residence. New Zealanders are a special case and can migrate to Australia without official permission. Illegal migrants typically fall into categories, unauthorised entrants and those who have violated conditions of, or overstayed their visa.
Migration program
To be accepted into Australia under the migration program a person must be a skilled migrant or sponsored by a family member who is "an Australian citizen, permanent resident, or eligible New Zealand citizen aged 18 years or over who lives in Australia".http://www.immi.gov.au/allforms/pdf/40.pdf A third class covers special eligibility migrants which includes Australians returning to Australia that had to give up citizenship to live overseas. DIMA says that the migration program for 2004-05 has 120,000 places available for migrants, with a strong focus on attracting skilled people and people who agree to live in regional areas of Australia. 42,000 places were allocated to the family stream.
In April 13, 2005, Australia announced that it will take an extra 20,000 skilled migrants in 2005-06 to help meet labour force needs. Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone said that between 130,000 and 140,000 non-humanitarian migrants would be taken, with a skilled migrant component of 97,500.
Some in Australia have expressed concern that skilled migration is being used as a solution to the current shortage of skilled labour in Australia, as opposed to training Australian workers. During the 2006 budget "right of reply" on 12 May, 2006, Opposition Australian Labor Party leader Kim Beazley stated that under a Labor government, foreign apprentices would be banned from seeking work in Australia.Australian Broadcasting Commission "Beazley stands of budget reply" *
New Zealanders
New Zealand citizens are entitled to live and work in Australia under the Trans-Tasman Travel Arrangement. New rules in 2001 divided New Zealanders living in Australia into two categories: those who were resident in Australia before 2001, and those who arrived in Australia after 2001. Those who were resident before 2001 may claim unemployment benefits after two years' residence, as is the norm for permanent residents of other nationalities. New Zealanders who arrive in Australia after 2001 are not entitled to any unemployment benefits at all, as is the norm for people living in Australia only on work permits.
Humanitarian program
The humanitarian program is designed for refugees and others in special humanitarian need. A major component of the humanitarian program is the offshore resettlement program, which assists people in humanitarian need overseas for whom resettlement in another country is the only option. The onshore protection component is for those people already in Australia who arrived on temporary visas or in an unauthorised manner, and who claim Australia’s protection. The United Nations High Commission for Refugees estimates that Australia took 16,000 refugees through its resettlement program.United Nations High Commission for Refugees, June 2005. "2004 Global Refugee Trends" * This consisted of both UNHCR assisted refugees and those taken through bilateral arrangements. This is the second largest program in the world after that of the United States and Australia takes 19% of those refuges being assisted by the UNHCR.
Types of visas under the humanitarian program:
Illegal migration
Illegal migrants under Australia's immigration laws are those who- enter Australia without authority; or
- overstay visas, work without appropriate approval or have their visas cancelled.
Australia's Migration Act 1958 requires that all non-Australian citizens who are unlawfully in Australia be detained and, that unless they are given permission to remain in Australia, they must be deported as soon as practical. Australia's policy of mandatory immigration detention for illegal arrivals was introduced in 1992, and has been maintained by successive governments. The Australian migration zone was reduced in 2001 by excising many offshore islands that had been used by illegal immigrants and asylum seekers, often under the guidance of people smugglers.
DIMIA statistics show that the most common nationalities of detainees since 2000 are: Afghan, Iraqi, Iranian, Chinese, Indonesian, Sri Lankan, Palestinian, Korean, Vietnamese and Bangladeshi. The largest proportion of illegals in Australia, however, are British nationals who have overstayed their Visas.
Community views on immigration
Views within the Australian community differ with regard to the acceptance of migrants and the amount of immigration that should be allowed. While some Australians believe that immigration leads to strong economic and cultural benefits, including the enrichment of the Australian culture, others do not share the same opinions. Some disagree with significant levels of immigration with various rationales:
- Some members of the Australian environmental movement, notably the organisation Sustainable Population Australia, believe that as the driest inhabited continent, Australia cannot continue to sustain its current rate of population growth without becoming overpopulated.
- Some Australians claim that Australia's recent level of immigration has (along with natural population growth and other economic factors) contributed to a widespread shortage of affordable housing, particularly in the major cities.Productivity Commission, First Home Ownership Inquiry Report, p 63 (final par.) & p68 (pen. par.)People & Place Volume 11, Issue 3 (2003), Migration and the Housing Affordability Crisis, Birrell, B. and Healy, E
- Australian Trade unions have at times exposed attempts by employers to import foreign labour for lower wages.LaborNET Foreign Labour Used to Lower Wages
- One expert found that thousands of low-cost IT workers entering Australia are undermining the job prospects of new computer science graduates and driving down salaries in the IT industry.Australian Financial Review 7/7/04, “Immigrants taking local IT jobs: report” However other research has found that due to Australia’s structured labour market, immigration is more likely to cause increased unemployment (especially amongst the immigrants) than a fall in wages.Garnaut, Migration to Australia and Comparisons with the United States: Who Benefits?, p 21, 36
There is significant concern amongst organisations such as Amnesty International about the use and humanitarian impact of mandatory detention.
Economic arguments on immigration
Chapman and Cobb-Clark believe that "immigrant spending from past savings will increase the demand for labour and create job vacancies".Chapman, B. and Cobb-Clark, D. (1999). A comparative static model of the relationship between immigration and the short-run job prospects of unemployed residents. Economic Record, Vol. 75, pp. 358-368. However, immigration also increases the supply of labour and the number of people applying for job vacancies.
Using regression analysis, Addison and Worswick found that “there is no evidence that immigration has negatively impacted on the wages of young or low-skilled natives.” Furthermore, Addison's study found that immigration did not increase unemployment among native workers. Rather, immigration decreased unemployment.Addison, T. and Worswick, C. (2002). The impact of immigration on the earnings of natives: Evidence from Australian micro data. Economic Record, Vol. 78, pp. 68-78. The evidence from the Economic Record runs counter to the common view that immigration adds only to labour supply and reduce wages. Economic empirical data show that immigrants not only add to labour supply but also to labour demand. Whether labour demand increase is greater than labor supply increase after immigration is an empirical issue. When the magnitude of change in aggregate labour supply is much greater than the magnitude of change in aggregate labour demand as a result of increased immigration then immigration can cause wages to decrease. Analysis by Garnaut shows this.
In July 2005 the Productivity Commission launched a commissioned study entitled "Economic Impacts of Migration and Population Growth",http://www.pc.gov.au/study/migrationandpopulation/index.html and released an initial position paper on 17 January 2006Productivity Commission, Economic Impacts of Migration and Population Growth Position Paper, p73 which states that the increase of income per capita provided by higher migration (50% more than the base model) by the 2024-2025 financial year would be $335 (0.6%), an amount described as "very small". The paper also found that Australians would on average work 1.3% longer hours, about twice the proportional increase in income.Productivity Commission, Economic Impacts of Migration and Population Growth Key Points This may be due to an increased supply of labour relative to capital resulted in a decrease in labour productivity.
In a study in the Australian Economic Review, Junankar finds that during the 1980s the Hawke Government’s decision not to decrease immigration lowered the unemployment rateJunankar, P., Pope, D. and Withers, G. (1998). Immigration and the Australian macroeconomy: Perspective and prospective. Australian Economic Review, Vol. 31, pp. 435-444.. When a recession occurred in 1990-91 after several years of record immigration the unemployment rate jumped to over 11 percent, with more than a million people unemployed. One may argue that pointing to a case of increased unemployment after high immigration as evidence of immigration's ineffectiveness to decrease unemployment is a Post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy. Junankar also states that immigration has positive effects on Australian GDP and enhances the growth of the economy by building up labour market and entrepreneurial skills.
Others disagree with these views. Individuals and interest groups such as Sustainable Population Australia have filed submissions in response to the Productivity Commission's position paper, arguing amongst other things that immigration causes a decline in wealth per capita and leads to environmental degradation and overburdened infrastructure, the latter creating a costly demand for new infrastructure.Claus, E (2005) Submission to the Productivity Commission on Population and Migration (submission 12 to the Productivity Commission's position paper on Economic Impacts of Migration and Population Growth).Nilsson (2005) Negative Economic Impacts of Immigration and Population Growth (submission 9 to the Productivity Commission's position paper on Economic Impacts of Migration and Population Growth). The Productivity Commission's report in part accepted these arguments as valid but regarded the environmental costs of increased population growth as being too difficult to measure and thus outside the scope of the study. The costs mentioned, but not counted, by the Productivity Commission included air, river and ocean pollution, land degradation, increased use of natural resources (including increased water shortages), biodiversity loss, and increased congestion of roads and public transport.
Immigration and Australian politics
In general both major parties favour a relatively high level of immigration. When John Howard came into office, net migration was climbing, and the upward trend in the number of immigrants has increased over the decade of Howard's Government. According to Banham, australian political leaders who support higher immigration include Amanda Vanstone, John Howard, Peter Costello, Kim Beasley, and Steve Bracks, with vocal opposition to immigration coming from former New South Wales premier Bob Carr who cites environment reasons for his opposition to immigrationBanham, C. (2004, April 2). Door opens to 6000 more immigrants. Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved October 2 from http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/04/01/1080544631282.html.
The Howard Government's very public strictness on illegal immigration and its less public high-legal-immigration policy has raised suspicion among some such as Ross Gittens, a columnist at The Age. In his piece entitled Honest John's Migrant TwostepGittens, R. (2003, August 20). Honest John's migrant twostep. The Age. Retrieved October 2 from http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/08/19/1061261148920.html , Gittens accuses John Howard of deception by projecting an image of toughness on illegal immigration to win support from the working class while simultaneously winning support from the upper class with high legal immigration.
Recently the Labor Party under Kim Beazley has taken a stance against the importation of increasingly large numbers of temporary migrants workers ("foreign workers") by employers, arguing that this is simply a way for employers to drive down wages.
References
“Workers of the World”, Background Briefing, Radio National Sunday 18 June 2006
- Commonwealth of Australia. Migration Act 1958
- Department of Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs. Fact Sheet 82, Immigration Detention, 2004
External links
- Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs, R. 2003. Migration to Australia and comparisons with the United States:Who Benefits? (PDF file).
- Economic Benefits of Migration, DIMIA 2002.
- Worswick, C. The Economics of the Immigration Debate, Department of Economics, University of Melbourne.
- Costello hope for skilled migrant intake
- Origins: Immigrant Communities in Victoria - Immigration Museum, Victoria, Australia
"Immigration to Australia"