Chapter 4 - Demographic Change and International Labour Mobility in Australasia – Issues, Policies and Implications for Cooperation

Summary

Introduction

Australia and New Zealand differ have an extended history of an immigration program managed by government and which has focused until recently on the encouragement of permanent settlement of families. While there has long been provision for workers in specialised areas to enter on a temporary basis, this situation has changed in recent years with greater provision being made for non-permanent migration of workers in the immigration programs. They are among the few countries in the region, however, that have had, and are likely to continue to have, sustained official programs of attracting migrants to settle, albeit on a planned and selective basis.

Australia and New Zealand drew the bulk of their immigrants from Europe in the three decades following World War II. Overwhelmingly the main type of international population movement was of more or less permanent migration. In the contemporary situation the drivers of international migration have changed and as a result the international population movement influencing Australia and New Zealand also have changed. Non-permanent migrants are more significant, and Asia and the Pacific have become important origins for both permanent and temporary migrants. As with other OECD countries, low fertility and ageing have begun to place pressures on the labour market and, together with buoyant economic conditions in recent years, have created shortages of skilled and unskilled labour. These shortages are likely to continue and intensify in the future and the challenge of meeting them has become an important issue. Policies of increasing labour force participation rates, extending the retirement age and bringing groups with low engagement into the labour force are being initiated but immigration will continue to play a major role in meeting these shortages.

Few countries in the world have been as influenced by migration as Australia and New Zealand. Figure 4.1 shows that both countries figure prominently in the contemporary world with the largest numbers of immigrants and with high rates of permanent migration.