4. Benefits low-skilled Immigrants
• Low skilled immigrants can alleviate the
shortage of employees willing to fill the
positions of low cost labour intensive jobs:
they are prepared to take on these positions.
• E.G. The case of workers from the Pacific
Islands
5. Benefits to Regional Australia
• Opportunity to retain international students
and increase brain gain.
• E.G Bendigo benefited by $1 million due to
international students in the region. Could
this be increased?
6. Counter Arguments to Immigration
• Risk to Australian job opportunity
• We should skill up our own unskilled workers
• It would jeopardize a sustainable population
7. However…
• Is immigration the only factor to population
growth?
• What about: personal consumption?
• Should we look at population growth in the
global context?
8. Conclusion
• Immigration is good for the economy, it helps
to secure business, grain gain and knowledge
transfer.
• It can provide economic stimulus to regional
areas.
10. Property Development Sector in
Australia
• Immigration contributes to population growth
of Australia.
• Population growth means an increased
demand for goods and services.
• Quantifying impacts of the property
development sector on the Australian
economy.
16. Our Position
Immigration is a useful way of alleviating
the labour impacts caused by aging.
1. What constitutes a desirable level of
immigration?
2. What is the statistical impact thereof on an
aging workforce?
3. Is the worker: retiree ratio reliable in assessing
future trends?
17. Immigration and Age Structure
• Immigrants are generally younger than the average
age of the population
• Immigrants have higher fertility rates than the rest
of the population
• Canada and Europe provide examples of how
immigration has slowed the rate of population
aging
18. Major 1950 2000 2050
Area,
region
and
country
World 5.2% 6.9% 19.3%
Africa 3.2% 3.3% 6.9%
Table 1. Dynamics of Population Aging in the and the 3.7% 5.4% 16.9%
Modern World China 4.5% 6.9% 22.7%
Observed and Forecasted Percentages of the
India 3.3% 5.0% 14.8%
Elderly (65+ years) in Selected Areas, Regions,
and Countries of the World: 1950, 2000 and Japan 4.9% 17.2% 36.4%
2050 Europe 8.2% 14.7% 29.2%
Italy 8.3% 18.1% 35.9%
(United Germany 9.7% 16.4% 31.0%
Nations, Sweden 10.3% 17.4% 30.4%
2001) U.S.A. 8.3% 12.3% 21.1%
19.
20. Figure 2. Proportion of Immigrants to Native-born Canadians according to Age Group
21. Economic Benefits of Immigration
• fills a need for workers in particular sectors of
the economy
• drives population growth, and in turn promotes
the growth of the labour force that will provide
the impetus for economic growth
• Increases the worker: retiree ratio in order to
maintain social security and healthcare structures
• expands the tax base and therefore help
subsidise government programs
22. Economic Benefits of Immigration
• the labour force participation rate is higher for
immigrants (68.6%) than for the native-born in
the United States (65.8%), with the former also
having lower levels of unemployment
• in the decade leading up to 2007, unemployment
rates for people born in the US dropped from
5.4% to 4.7% as average hourly wages increased,
all as the proportion of foreign-born workers
went up
(Carpenter, 2007)
23. Economic Benefits of Immigration
• In the US, the foreign born workforce as a whole
is younger than its aging native born counterpart
– 47% of it is in the 25 – 39 age bracket,
compared to just 31% of the native born
workforce.
• foreign born individuals now account for most of
the growth of the U.S. labour force. Between
2000 and 2006, their share of total labour growth
was 54%
(Suro, 2008)
24. Economic Benefits of Immigration
• In the US, the worker: retiree ratio, which was
42:1 in 1940, decreased in the intervening six
decades to 3.3:1, and is forecast to reach 2:1 by
2050
(Goodman and Moore, 2001)
• In Australia, the worker: retiree ratio is expected
to decrease from 5:1 in 2007 to 3:1 in 2056
(ABS, 2010)
25. The counter-arguments
• a model for low immigration and high economic
growth
• the proposition that any gains from immigration
are offset by high fiscal costs
• a view that immigration has no significant impact
on an aging population
• and an argument that the social security costs
associated with the elderly are entirely
manageable due to productivity increases and
the relatively small proportion of aged people in
the overall population.
26. Low Immigration and Economic
Growth
• America’s experience with a low level of immigration
provides a useful test of how that affects the nation’s
economic performance.
• Between 1925 and 1965 immigrant admissions
averaged less than 180,000 persons per year.
• During that period, the share of women in the
workforce nearly doubled and minorities gained access
to new job opportunities.
• Over those decades, the economy not only grew
significantly, it grew more rapidly than it has since mass
immigration was again unleashed by legislation
enacted in 1965.
27. Figure 3. Rise in GDP per capita (adjusted for inflation) in the United States from 1925-
2005 (Source: FAIR, 2010)
28. Low Immigration and Economic
Growth
• From 1925-1966 GDP per capita increased by
168.4 percent. That is an average annual increase
of 4.0 percent
• In 1965 the Immigration Act was passed, resulting
in increased immigration to the United States
• During the period since then (1966-2005) the
increase in GDP per capita has been 114.2
percent. That is an annual average increase of 2.9
percent
