New arrivals stimulated Australian economy

Australia, January 27: Increased rates of migrants and temporary workers into Australia proved to be a big boost for the country’s economy, says the new research at the Australian National University.

The high rates of new arrivals in Australia helped create an increased demand for health services, houses, cars and finance and triggered the growth rate of the economy. The research seems to suggest that the migrants’ arrival benefited the economy equivalent to the cast rebates offered by the Rudd government to the individuals. 

As per the latest statistics, the percentage of jobs held by temporary workers and migrants in Australia amounts to nearly 7.5 percent of the total employment. Thus, it becomes quite evident that the contribution by such migrant labor force to the economy of Australia is significant. 

Although, the number of visas issued to the overseas skilled migrants witnessed a decline from 133,000 to nearly 108,000 due to the new stricter rules of immigration by Australian government, however, the influx of migrants into the country continued to show a positive trend by revealing a growth of 33 percent taking the total number of migrants to 285,700. 

And among a large percentage in such flow of migrants into the country was of those coming to Australia on student visa for pursuing higher education. 

The research conducted at Australian National University by Bruce Chapman revealed that even during the worst global recession engulfing Australian economy, the inflow of migrants helped in creating more jobs as compared to the number of jobs created during a boom. 

As per the estimates by Peter McDonald, a demographer at the Australian National University, out of the total immigrants coming into Australia, the percentage of temporary migrant workforce comes to nearly 70 percent.

According to the statistics made available, there are currently 250,000 full-time foreign students and 300,000 immigrants from New Zealand among the total temporary migrant workers amounting to 830,000 in the country.  

Flexibility to the labor force is, inevitably, one of the most crucial contributions of the new migrants during the recession, argues Peter McDonald, a demographer at the Australian National University. This is because in contrast to the resident milieu or the permanent migrants, temporary workers are more flexible in changing the jobs and help to provide a buffer to absorb the frequent changes in the demand of labor.