How Australians born overseas are bucking the millennial stereotype

MILLENNIALS are often depicted as avocado-bingeing travellers who don’t want to save for a house. But one forgotten factor is bucking the trend.

BEING an Aussie millennial comes with quite the stigma.

The more negative stereotypes include being social media-obsessed, poor at saving money, mooching off their parents and addicted to overpriced breakfast items.

There’s a counterarguments for these claims, but one that doesn’t get a lot of attention is the impact of immigration on the cohort of young Australians.

According to Laura Demasi, the director of social trends at Roy Morgan Research, young Australians born in Asia bear a much more “baby boomer”-esque mindset than their local-born counterparts.

The research company found that Asian-born millennials were already defying some of the major stereotypes associated with Gen Y.

Writing for Fairfax Media, Demasi notes Asian-born Australian millennials were more likely to get married. In fact, 86 per cent of millennials born in India are married — almost double the figure of those born in Australia. They’re also more likely to have children.

Spending habits differed by culture too. While countless stories have been written about China’s new generation of rich big spenders, the research found Asian-born millennials were better savers than their Australian-born counterparts. They’re also more likely to own their own home.

They differ by politics too.

Millennials are usually characterised as left-leaning, progressive and more conscious of issues like gender equality and LGBT rights.

But the results found Asian-born millennials were more likely to mirror the typical “Baby Boomer” view — and were more likely to vote for the Liberal Party.

They were three times more likely to believe that “traditional” gender roles should be upheld in the home, with 15 per cent believing women should run the home.

On LGBT rights, 77 per cent of Australian-born millennials believe gay couples should be allowed to adopt, compared with only 54 per cent of millennials born in India.

But the biggest gap was in education, with Australians born in China and India streets ahead of natives.

Demasi noted that less than half of Australians born here have a degree, compared to 82 per cent from China and 79 per cent from India.

There’s more to the young Aussie trend of travelling and investing more in their lifestyle than simply struggling to save.

Even outside of cultural differences, however, there’s more to the young Aussie trend of travelling and investing more in their lifestyle than simply struggling to save.

A number of studies have found that millennials actually save money better than previous generations did.

Recent Westpac Life data shows that the most popular goal for the bank’s 25-34 year old customers is saving for a home, with 10 times more money put away for that purpose than holidays or travel.

Kathryn Carpenter, Westpac’s Head of Savings, said the myth that millennials wasted their money on “lifestyle choices” like smashed avo on toast and travel was not represented in the research.

“Millennials are often depicted as a generation more focused on life experiences and living in the ‘now’,” she said.

“However, our research shows that many are in fact taking saving for a home deposit seriously and prioritising it above other goals including travel or lifestyle.”

Likewise, an ING survey released last month showed that more than a third of millennials are saving to buy a home in the next three years.

The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) released a report last month which found 67.5 per cent of households owned their own home, down from 71.4 per cent over the past two decades.

Over the same period, private renting has risen from 18.4 per cent to 25.3 per cent, and the proportion of households renting through state and territory housing programs has dropped from 5.5 per cent to 3.5 per cent.

Originally published as How Australians born overseas are bucking the millennial stereotype