Finding a Place to Call Home

What are the key issues and challenges relating to immigration in Australia?

Where do immigrants come from, where do they settle, and what types of jobs do they do? How do migrants affect the wages? To what extent do we see skills mismatch among migrants entering our workforce? Does discrimination and bias remain an issue in our society? Are we doing enough to support the forced immigrants to Australia?

This seventh report in BCEC’s Focus on the States Series seeks to provide insights into these questions and many more. We explore the profile and evolution of immigration in Australia over recent years, and undertake a comprehensive assessment of the contributions immigrants make to Australia’s social and economic development.

The report provides new evidence to better inform the debates on the labour market impact of immigrants and highlights the positive impact of immigrants on Australian economy.

It also explores the extent of acceptance of multiculturalism in Australia and provides an assessment of immigrants’ health and wellbeing.

There is a special focus on humanitarian migrants in the report through an analysis of a new longitudinal dataset of humanitarian migrants to Australia.

Immigration is a defining feature of Australia’s economic and social life and will shape the nature of tomorrow’s Australia.