Immigration

Do TheRealists exaggerate?
Doesn’t immigration boost our economy?
Don’t we need immigrants to ‘Do the jobs Australians won’t do’?
What gives us the right to decide who comes to this country? After all, the Aboriginals were here first.
Does immigration have an effect on housing prices?
Don’t we need immigrants to prevent the ageing of the population?

Multiculturalism

Doesn’t globalisation mean that we have to be multicultural to compete?
Wasn’t Australia built on Multiculturalism?
Is there ‘white flight’ in Australia?

Immigration

Do TheRealists exaggerate?

The statistics provided on “TheRealists” originate from reputable sources. These statistics are not altered and thus are not exaggerated.

The facts are presented to inform those who visit this site.

Doesn’t immigration boost our economy?

Major studies both here and overseas show that immigration does not have a substantial impact on income per capita.[8] Commenting on a report released in January 2006, Professor Judith Sloan of the Productivity Commission stated that “…migration policy is not an economic lever and you wouldn’t use it as such.”[9]

The effects of immigration on the economy are at best positive but small. This leads us to question why the government is persuing such a large scale immigration policy. The environmental and social impact of mass immigration should be considered ahead of any small economic gains.

Don’t we need immigrants to ‘Do the jobs Australians won’t do’?

No. Jobs that are being done by immigrants are being done by Australians in parts of the country where there are few, if any, immigrants.

What gives us the right to decide who comes to this country? After all, the Aboriginals were here first.

European settlement of Australia caused the almost total destruction of Aboriginal beliefs, traditions, languages and customs. The oldest culture that ever existed took less than 200 years to destroy.

Obviously we cannot control historical events that occurred 200 years ago, however we can and should deal with the current status quo.

TheRealists believe that the people who live in Australia should decide by democratic means who and how many come to this country.

Does immigration have an effect on housing prices?

There is some debate about how much of an impact immigration has on house prices.

Obviously 140,000 people entering the country will increase the demand for housing, however it is the extent to which this increase in demand is responsible for rising house prices that is not clear.

Whilst one housing affordability study conducted in 2002 found that “There is little doubt that a reduction in the national immigration intake would improve housing affordability in Sydney.”[2], other studies have not been so conclusive, and point to factors such as people moving to ‘higher quality and better located dwellings’ as being a more important factor in the rise of house prices.[10]

With this in mind it could be argued that ‘white flight’ has also played a part in house price increases, as people move to ‘better located dwellings’. However further research into this area would be required to substantiate this.

Due to the difficulty in measuring all the factors that affect house prices, it is not immediately clear how much of a role immigration plays.

Don’t we need immigrants to prevent the ageing of the population?

The combination of low fertility rates and longer life expectancy means that Australia’s population is ageing. It is often argued that we need immigrants in order to prevent the aging of the Australian population.

The problem with this argument is that it fails to take into account the fact that immigrants also age, and as a group have birth rates similar to existing Australian residents once they arrive.

Only at ridiculously high levels could immigration halt aging of the population.[3]

Population aging can be reduced with lower levels of immigration than we currently have, but a more important factor on the ageing of the population is the fertility rate.[4]

The Australian Bureau of Statistics recently reported that Australia’s fertility rate had hit a 10 year high. [5] This may be partially explained by government policies aimed at making child rearing more financially attractive.

Low levels of immigration, along with policies aimed at making child rearing more financially rewarding for working families, are the best policies to reduce population ageing. As former Prime Minister Paul Keating said in his maiden speech to parliament “…the best migrant is the infant Australian.”[6]

Multiculturalism

Doesn’t globalisation mean that we have to be multicultural to compete?

No. Japan is a more homogeneous country than Australia for example, and also has a higher per capita income. Multiculturalism isn’t a prerequisite for economic success.

Wasn’t Australia built on Multiculturalism?

No. 92% of Australia’s population is Caucasian, which is a higher percentage rate than many European countries including the UK, The Netherlands, France and Germany, as well as the United States.[14]

The word ‘multiculturalism’ only started to be used in Australia in the 1970′s. Multiculturalism is a relatively recent phenomenon, and certainly did not exist for most of the 40,000-50,000 years of human settlement of Australia.

It follows that Australia was not built on such a wide reaching multicultural ideal. The “White Australia Policy” was only phased out a mere 30 years ago. It has only been since then that Australia has seen such an influx of diverse cultures to our society.

Is there ‘white flight’ in Australia?

Yes. ‘White flight’ in Australia is a phenomenon whereby Australian born (and predominately white) populations move from troubled suburbs to more stable suburbs.

In Sydney this manifests itself in a movement of young families and retired people from suburbs such as Fairfield, Auburn and Canterbury to areas such as Penrith, the Blue Mountains and the Hawkesbury.[1]

Whilst ‘white flight’ was once confined to the United States, it is now occurring in many parts of the world, notably in the UK (where over the past 10 years a net 606,000 people have left London as 726,000 immigrants arrived [11]), and is now occurring in Australia.

The phenomenon of ‘white flight’ is another side effect of multiculturalism, and results in the further stratification of communities along ethnic lines, leading to serious implications for social cohesion in our society.

Immigration policy should be drafted with these considerations in mind.