The number of migrants choosing to settle in non-metropolitan areas of Australia is now 14%, a big increase from the 9% registered in the mid-1990s.
Professor Graeme Hugo, from the University of Adelaide, talked about the figures released by the Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) at a population summit in Sydney last week and pointed out that Australia is showing the same shift already experienced in countries such as the US and Canada.
A high percentage of skilled migrants — along with all other migrants, including asylum seekers — are now choosing to settle in less populous areas.
‘‘One of the things that disappoints me with the population debate is people take one or the other of the extreme positions of uninhibited growth or zero growth. Both of those paths would be quite disastrous for Australia,” says the academic.
‘‘The reality is that it’s not the number that’s important; it’s … where those people are going to be. There is a tendency to think that somehow we have to stick to the current pattern of settlement. I think we do need to look at the business case of saying, ‘Are there ways in which new growth should be directed to certain areas?’’’
