Inner city and southeast suburbs the hot spots for migrants flocking to Melbourne
High migrant concentrations are continuing to form in a handful of Melbourne’s suburb. Here’s which suburbs were hot spots for migrant settlement in 2019.
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Melbourne’s inner city and some southeastern suburbs were the migrant settlement hot spots last year, says a new report.
And while certain areas had high migrant intakes they also experienced an exodus of residents to other localities.
The City of Melbourne, which includes the CBD, Docklands and Southbank, had net overseas migration of 8597 in 2018-19 - the highest of any municipality, said the ABS report Regional Population Growth Australia.
Most of the inner city surge is due to foreign students and other temporary visa arrivals. Monash, which includes Glen Waverley and Clayton, had 6168 net overseas arrivals, but also recorded 3900 people leaving the area.
Brimbank, which has St Albans and Sunshine, had 3168 migrant arrivals, but 3884 residents leaving.
The corresponding figures for Greater Dandenong, which includes Dandenong and Springvale, were 3915 arrivals and 3162 leaving.
Australian Population Research Institute director Dr Bob Birrell said high migrant concentrations were continuing to form in such places.
“Most people leaving are likely to be longstanding Australian-born residents,” he said.
“Migrants have little choice but to go to those areas if they want cheaper house and land.”
Dr Birrell said there was a continuing pattern of migrant settlement which increased ethnic differentiation across the city.
“Areas like Wyndham (in the city’s outer west) showed striking numbers, with overseas migration adding 4689 people and a net 6392 coming in from other municipalities,” he said.
Dr Birrell said it was astounding that in 2018-19, Melbourne had higher net overseas migration than Sydney - a first in modern times.
“We are the champions, for good or ill,” he said.
Among other areas with high immigration were Whitehorse, which includes Box Hill and Blackburn, with 4264 net arrivals and 2305 leaving.
Casey, on the southeast city fringe, had 3840 migrant arrivals as well as 5766 people from other areas coming in.
Casey is the state’s biggest municipality, adding 13,429 people in 2018-19 to reach 353,872 as of June 30, 2019.
Wyndham is next, with 270,487 residents, up 15,120, while Hume had 233,471, adding 9048 over the year.
Victoria’s population as of mid-2019 was 6.59 million, up 134,020 over the year.
This included net overseas migration of 84,479 and 12,198 net arrivals from other states.