Editor's note

In penning an article on immigration for the weekend papers, Labor spokesperson Kristina Keneally may have gone beyond the evidence.

She said although Australia’s high migration intake had played a key role in our economic prosperity, in recent years it had “hurt many Australian workers, contributing to unemployment, underemployment and low wage growth”.

Today Gabriela D'Souza tells us there is little evidence for those propositions. Her research builds on that of Robert Breunig, Nathan Deutscher and Hang Thi To, detailed in The Conversation at the time that used Australian data to identify the effects of immigration on the earnings and employment prospects of Australian workers.

It found it had no significant effects, and that if anything the impacts were slightly positive.

Australians bemoaning what the absence of tourists will do to our economy ought to consider what the absence of immigrants would do. Like tourists, immigrants spend at Australian shops and use Australian services. Unlike tourists, they also provide services. Our skills-based program ensures they are skilled services. Backing away from a program Labor championed while in office is not something it should do lightly.

That said, there are some areas that may be ripe for reform. Alex Reilly argues this morning that Keneally is right to call for a review of the “shape and size” of our intake, although not in the way she was suggesting.

He says Australia needs to find a better balance between its skilled intake and its family intake. Without the ability to bring their loved ones with them, skilled migrants are vulnerable and not as productive.

Peter Martin

Section Editor, Business and Economy

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