Joint research by Treasury and the Department of Home Affairs has published a recent report which has busted the myth that migrants add to the responsibility of the government in terms of welfare benefits but add to the growth of Australia by contributing in monetary and economic terms.
The report was released earlier this week. The report has shown study conducted by International Monetary Fund which estimates that Australia’s migration program will add up to 1% to annual average GDP growth from 2020 to 2050. It has further clarified that the migration program of Australia is proving to be beneficial because it focuses more on the age factor of migrants to see their total prospective contribution. This has also limited the impact of the aging population of Australia on its economy.
The migration plan of Australia has always focused on incorporating people who can contribute to the society in terms of wealth generation and creation and hence age becomes a very important factor in this. Thus the migration policy has favored the working age migrants. There are some popular categories of migrants such as skilled migrants, family reunion, skilled 457 temporary migrants and humanitarian migrants. These categories have contributed to the overall growth of Australia. The projected contribution for 2014-15 comes around a net fiscal benefit of $9.7bn over 50 years. For the same cohort, the fiscal impact of the permanent program and temporary 457 programs would be $12.4bn, and for the humanitarian program would cost $2.7bn.
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The latest debate on migration capping has also gained pace recently. But if the present demographics of the Australian population has to be seen then the aging population is a big alarm. The report suggests that in such a case having new and young migrants is important for Australia. If migration numbers are lowered, the workforce in Australia may shrink in absolute terms by 2020, the report suggests.
