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Research Note no.54 2003-04
Leaving Australia: a new paradigm of international migration
Professor Graeme Hugo, Consultant
IRS Contact Adrienne Millbank
Social Policy Section
24 May 2004
Introduction
The number of people leaving Australia has increased
significantly in recent years. In 200203 a record number of 50 463 people
left with the intention of staying away permanently. Long-term departures
(people intending to leave for 12 months or longer) have also reached
unprecedented levels: 171 466 in 200102. Australia is commonly categorised
as a country of immigration, but it has also become a country of significant
emigration.
This Research Note looks at the nature and implications
of these out-movements in a time of worldwide increased mobility and
a new paradigm of international migration.
Who is leaving for where?
Settler loss has been a constant feature of post-war
migration to Australia, with over 20 per cent of settlers eventually leaving,
mostly returning to their home countries. Fluctuations in numbers have
related to earlier levels of immigration. There has, however, been a quantum
change in the level and nature of out-movement: over the last five
years the number of people born in Australia who left permanently doubled.
In 200102 for the first time Australian-born permanent departures outnumbered
former settlers leaving the nation. In 200203 the number of Australian-born
permanent departures reached a record level of 25 578, which was twice
the average for the 1990s (12 145) and almost three times the average
of the 1980s (8875).
Figure 1. Permanent departures of Australia-born and
overseas-born persons from Australia, 195960 to 2002-03
Source: DIMIA, Australian Immigration: Consolidated
Statistics and Immigration Update, various issues; DIMIA unpublished
data.
Figure 2. Australian resident long-term departures
from Australia, 195960 to 200203
Source: DIMIA, Australian Immigration: Consolidated
Statistics and Immigration Update, various issues; DIMIA unpublished
data.
Note: The scales of these graphs are different
A similar pattern has emerged with long-term departures.
Between 199899 and 200102 there was an increase in the number of long-term
departures from Australia from 140 281 to 171 446 (22.2 per cent). (A
small decline in 200203 reflects the SARS epidemic and global security
concerns.) The estimated size of the Australian diaspora is around 900
000 persons. Besides being relatively large (over 4 per cent of the population),
it is also highly selective. Departing residents tend to be younger and
more educated than the general population. Major destinations are the
developed economies of the United Kingdom, the European Union and North
America. An increasing percentage of the outflow is to Asian countries
where rapidly developing economies have experienced skills shortages.
Brain drain, gain or circulation?
Record levels of departures have renewed concerns about brain drain.
However, it is unrealistic to expect that Australia can remain isolated
from the new hyper-mobility of highly skilled people that is associated
with globalisation. Indeed, migration to Australia is already dominated
by temporary movements.(1) Having a culture and long tradition
of managed migration arguably gives Australia an advantage in the new
age of migration. Australia experiences a brain gain in that it records
substantial net migration gains in all high-skill and high-qualification
occupational categories.(2) In addition, there are advantages
for Australia in the new out-movements:
- most Australians working overseas remit substantial sums of foreign
exchange
- the skills and experience of Australian workers are being extended
- the linkages that are being established with overseas companies and
markets are embedding Australias economy internationally
- export opportunities are created for Australian companies through
expatriates familiar with Australian-based suppliers.
In any event, most of the movement is not permanent; many
expatriates eventually return to Australia. That said, concerns remain
that Australia is losing its brightest and best, especially its top
scientists, innovators and business people. The Senate Legal and Constitutional
References Committee is currently conducting an inquiry into Australian
expatriates. The terms of reference cover: the extent of the diaspora;
factors driving Australians to live overseas; costs, benefits and opportunities;
needs and concerns of overseas Australians; policies and programs in other
countries; and ways expatriates can be better used to promote Australias
economic, social and cultural interests.
An international migration policy?
Recent research suggests that Australia would benefit
from developing a diaspora policy aimed at maximising benefits from the
new brain circulation of Australians going overseas and other skilled
people coming in. A recent Committee for Economic Development of Australia
report argues that Australia needs an international migration policy
that embraces emigration and circulation as well as immigration.(3)
Such a policy would encompass:
- recruitment: Australia needs to build on its
record of recruiting highly skilled persons. However, there should be
a public debate about the effect of this on less developed nations.
Policies need to be considered that maximise the development benefits
on their home countries of immigrants to Australia
- retention: Australia must ensure that there
are opportunities for the brightest and the best so they do not have
to leave the country permanently to achieve their potential
- return: Australia must recognise that there
is much to gain from young Australians working in other countries. If
a substantial number can return with enhanced talents the country will
gain a double dividend
- re-engagement: Many Australians living overseas
on a permanent or long-term basis still feel a strong sense of being
Australian. On a cultural level, it is important to include these expatriates
in the mainstream of Australian life. On an economic level, there are
many ways in which the expertise, experience and contacts of the diaspora
can be harnessed to benefit Australia in a rapidly globalising economy.
Table 1. National diasporas in relation to resident
national populations
| United
States: |
7 million 2.5 per cent
of national population |
| Australia: |
900 000 4.3 per cent
of national population |
| New Zealand: |
850 000 21.9 per cent
of national population |
| Philippines: |
7.6 million 9.4 per cent of national population |
Source: US Census Bureau, Team 7 Final Report and
Conference on an Enumeration of Americans Overseas in the 2010 Census,
2002; Southern Cross, Estimates of Australian citizens living overseas
as at 31 December 2001, 2002; R. Bedford, Reflections on the
spatial odysseys of New Zealanders, 2001; Commission of Filipinos
Overseas, Personal communication, 4 February 2004.
- This Research Note is one of a series of extracts derived from
A new paradigm of international migration: implications for migration
policy and planning for Australia, Research Paper,
no. 10, Parliamentary Library, Canberra 200304.
- Graeme Hugo, Temporary Migration: a new paradigm of international
migration, Research Note,
no. 46, Parliamentary Library, 200304.
- B.Birrell, I. R. Dobson, V. Rapson and T. F. Smith, Skilled
Labour: Gains and Losses, DIMIA, Canberra, 2001.
- G. J. Hugo, D. Rudd and K. Harris, Australias diaspora: its
size, nature and policy implications, CEDA Information Paper,
no. 80, CEDA, Melbourne, 2003.
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