Australians have a nuanced view of migration, according to a new study – The Guardian reported. The majority would like lower levels of migration but they support more skilled migration and oppose decreasing international students numbers.
In the impending federal election, immigration is predicted to be a major battlefield. In an effort to address the housing crunch, Peter Dutton promised last year to reduce the number of permanent migrants. This fiscal year, the Labor government also intends to reduce net migration in Australia.
However, a poll conducted by researchers from the Australian National University revealed that many Australians had false, and occasionally conflicting, beliefs about migrants and migration levels. The researchers discovered that even while most people believe that migration is excessive, many people have second thoughts after learning more.
According to Alyssa Leng, one of the study’s researchers, “people were 4.5 percent more likely to support more migration overall when they were told a positive narrative about how migrants can help solve the housing crisis. On the other hand, she said that “representing a negative narrative reduced the likelihood of people wanting immigration levels to either stay the same or increase, by about 6 percent.” Just over half of respondents to the ANU study, which included a sample of over 5,000 people, believe that migration levels are excessive. Additionally, respondents tended to believe that the majority of Australians desired less migration than they do.
Rising housing costs are one of the many issues that have been frequently attributed to high migration rates. It’s not that easy, though; despite a surge in migration during the COVID-19 pandemic, border closures have caused net migration to fall below pre-pandemic levels.
A larger percentage of respondents preferred the number of overseas students to remain the same or perhaps rise, even though the majority said that migration levels were excessive. For both temporary and permanent migration, over 40 percent of respondents held the same opinion.
False beliefs about international students
There is “a large misperception” about the percentage of pupils who are migrants in Australia. “Over the past ten years or so, people believed that about 38 percent of working-age migrants in Australia were full-time students,” she added. However, the true percentage was about 20 percent according to the 2016 census.
“There are actually fewer international students than people believe.”
Over a ten-year period, respondents overestimated migration statistics while underestimating the number of new migrants. Regions of origin showed some of the biggest disparities, with predictions for European migrants being lower than reality and projections for migrants from the Middle East and Pacific being several times higher.
To investigate the potential impact of new information, the study divided individuals into groups.
One group was told a “positive” narrative, Leng said, “saying that basically if we have more foreign tradies that will help us boost housing supply”. The “negative treatment group” was given a story that said greater immigration correlates with higher housing prices in Australia. A third group was given a “balanced narrative,” which stated that although there is international demand for housing in Australia, it only makes up a small percentage of total home purchases.