Immigration is Bolstering Australia's Population Growth

New population growth figures for Australia were released in late June, showing that 400,000 people more lived in Australia by the end of 2018 that a year earlier. Now a tweet by One Nation party leader Pauline Hanson caused controversy because she claimed that the majority of the population increase came from migration despite the Morrison administration saying they were trying to lower the number of immigrants.

The bigger part of Australia's population increase has in fact come from immigration since 2005. The net migration figure, which counts foreigners surpassing a stay of 12 months in the country for the first time minus foreigners terminating their long-term stays, was approximately 248,000 in 2018. In the same year, net births, births minus deaths in the country, stood at around 156,000.

Despite the fact that Australia has a high birth rate compared to other industrialized nations, immigration was still an important factor for the economy, according to ABC. An increased demand for labor meant that it has benefits for businesses and ultimately, the government, to let immigrants come to Australia. Since the net immigration counts people who have been staying more than 12 months in Australia, permanent and non-permanent migrants (like students, backpackers and temporary farm workers) are included in the numbers.