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A reputation as a tolerant nation with strong Humanitarian values is marred by past government policies excluding non-whites, and more recently a succession of Scandal s resulting in much criticism of Australia’s Refugee programs. The overall level of immigration has grown substantially during the last decade. Net overseas migration increased from a low of 30,000 in 1993 to 118,000 in 2003-04 . The largest components of immigration are the skilled migration and family reunion programs. Less than 10% of total immigration, and only a small proportion of refugees are unauthorised boat arrivals. It is the unauthorised arrivals that have generated the greatest controversy. HISTORY ''Main article: History Of Immigration To Australia '' Human migration to the Australia n continent was first achieved during the closing stages of the Pleistocene Epoch , when Sea Level s 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 . The new colony was formally proclaimed as the Colony of New South Wales on February 7 . Thus European settlement began with a troupe of petty criminals, second-rate soldiers, and a crew of sailors. 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 . This was a major factor contributing to the victory of the Coalition, deemed impossible only a few months earlier, and also marked the beginning of the controversial Pacific Solution . AUSTRALIAN IMMIGRATION LAW Since . 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 Affairs (DIMA) 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" {Link without Title} . A third class covers special eligibility migrants which includes Australians returning to Australia that had to give up citizenship to live overseas. DIMIA 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. New Zealanders s 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 Department of Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs says that the size of the 2004-05 humanitarian program is 13,000 places Types of visas under the humanitarian program: Illegal migration Illegal migrants under Australia's Immigration Laws are those who
There are estimated to be about 50,000 visa overstayers in Australia. 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 Immigrant s 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. Many individuals and groups disagree with significant levels of immigration for various reasons. For example, some people including members of the Environmental Movement believe that as the driest inhabited continent, Australia cannot continue to sustain its current rate of population growth without becoming Overpopulated . Some also 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 . Trade Union s have at times exposed attempts by employers to import foreign labour for lower wages. One expert found that thousands of low-cost IT workers entering the country are undermining the job prospects of new computer science graduates and driving down salaries in the IT industry. 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. However, many others do not accept such claims and believe that immigration leads to strong economic and cultural benefits, including the enrichment of the Australian Culture . There is also significant concern amongst some people and organisations such as Amnesty International about the use and humanitarian impact of Mandatory Detention . Views of economists Most Economist s believe that a high level of immigration increases economic growth and business profits (although not necessarily a long-term increase in GDP per capita or economic well-being). Chapman and Cobb-Clark believe that "immigrant spending from past savings will increase the demand for labour and create job vacancies". 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. This is contradicted by Garnaut’s analysis, and runs counter to the common view that immigration adds only to labour supply and thereby reduce wages. Economic empirical data show that immigrants not only add to labour supply but also to labour demand. Increased labour supply decreases wages and increases unemployment; conversely, increased labour demand increases wages and decreases unemployment. In July 2005 the Productivity Commission launched a commissioned study entitled "Economic Impacts of Migration and Population Growth", {Link without Title} and released an initial position paper on 17 January 2006 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. 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 rate (although when the 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). 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 conservative 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 overburdened infrastructure, creating a costly demand for new infrastructure . These submissions do not however includes economic evidence in support of such claims. REFERENCES
Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Govts warned over affordable housing shortfall 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 DIMIA, Australian Immigration Fact Sheet Australian Bureau of Statistics, International migration Australian Bureau of Statistics, 3101.0 Australian Demographic Statistics LaborNET Foreign Labour Used to Lower Wages Australian Financial Review 7/7/04, “Immigrants taking local IT jobs: report” Garnaut, Migration to Australia and Comparisons with the United States: Who Benefits? , p 21, 36 Public Opinion about Immigration, The Cato Institute {Link without Title} 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. 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. Junankar, P., Pope, D. and Withers, G. (1998). Immigration and the Australian macroeconomy: Perspective and prospective. Australian Economic Review , Vol. 31, pp. 435-444. 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). Productivity Commission, Economic Impacts of Migration and Population Growth Key Points Productivity Commission, Economic Impacts of Migration and Population Growth Position Paper , p73 EXTERNAL LINKS
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