Migration

World population Day was established by the UN in 1989 to highlight concerns as the planet’s population went past 5 billion.  It is now at 7.4 billion and rising by about 80 million every year, so the problems are even more intractable (despite the rate of growth declining).  Medium scenarios produced by the UN estimate the world population could be between 9 and 10 billion by 2050.

Some weeks ago SPA sent a questionnaire to six political parties asking for their policy positions re population issues. In summary, we sought to find out from each of them:

1. Their views on the optimum population for Australia and the basis for their figure;

2. Whether they recognise that there are environmental constraints to population growth and which constraints are the most significant;

3. Skilled migrant intake versus training local workers;

1. OVERVIEW OF SUBMISSION

Sustainable Population Australia (SPA) welcomes the Productivity Commission’s (the “Commission”) inquiry regarding the Migrant Intake into Australia and its related call for submissions from interested parties.[1]
In preparing its submission, SPA has considered the Terms of Reference for the inquiry and the related Issues Paper developed by the Commission. In particular, SPA notes that section 1(b) of the Terms of Reference relates to the following considerations:
1. The benefits and costs that the intake of permanent entrants can generate with respect to:
b. The income, wealth and living standards of Australian citizens, including with respect to:
i. impacts on the salaries and employment of Australian citizens, knowledge and skill transfer, productivity, foreign investment, and linkages
to global value chains
ii. cultural, social and demographic impacts
iii. agglomeration, environmental, amenity and congestion effects.
SPA’s submission responds to this aspect of the Terms of Reference and provides recommended policy considerations for Australia’s migrant intake consistent with the following SPA objectives:
· To promote policies that will lead to the stabilisation, and then to reduction, of Australia's population by encouraging low fertility and low migration.
· To promote urban and rural lifestyles and practices that are in harmony with the realities of the Australian environment, its resource base and its biodiversity.
· To advocate low immigration rates while rejecting any selection based on ethnicity.
These objectives are expressed through the enclosed responses to three associated issues identified in the Issues Paper for ease of reference. Relevant research and information is cited for consideration by the Commission.
SPA acknowledges and welcomes the positive contribution of immigrants to Australia’s diverse and rich multicultural environment. Accordingly, SPA’s recommendations for reductions in the permanent migrant intake are in no way based on establishing limitations to specific ethnic groups. It is emphasised that SPA’s recommendations are applied against the consideration of the scale permanent immigration, with respect to its impact on the size and growth rate of Australia’s population.

Sustainable Population Australia (SPA) today called on the Federal Government to undertake a complete review of immigration into Australia in light of claims of widespread rorting of the system.

A significant study released today by Dr Katharine Betts and published on the Monash University Centre for Population and Urban Research website shows that, while high immigration can reduce the median age of the population by a few years, it comes at great cost.

The cost is significant population growth that lowers national productivity by taking resources away from productive investment and capital deepening. It also leads to many more older people than would be the case were the population to stabilise.

A major symposium* to be held in Canberra next week will address the ethical issues surrounding migration. The symposium is being organised by Sustainable Population Australia (SPA) which felt many important aspects of migration had been ignored, not least the environmental impact of additional population on the host country, and the issue of intergenerational equity.

Sustainable Population Australia (SPA) has called on the new Immigration Minister, Brendan O’Connor, to heed the findings of a paper issued yesterday. It found that the number of migrants arriving in Australia since the beginning of 2011 who found jobs about equals the number of new jobs created in Australia for everyone over the same period.

The paper was written by Professor Bob Birrell and Ernest Healy of the Centre for Population and Urban Research (CPUR), Monash University.