Citizens quitting migrant hotspots, ABS figures show

Council areas with some of the highest rates of overseas migration are the locations where more people are leaving.

In one year a net 3424 people left the City of Monash in Melbourne’s southeastern suburbs to live in ­another part of Australia while 6734 immigrants settled in the area to live.

The council areas with some of the highest rates of overseas ­migration are the same locations where more people are leaving to live elsewhere in the country, ­according to an analysis of new population data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

For the first time in its history, the ABS has been able to break down population estimates by both net overseas and internal ­migration and natural increases, revealing a portrait of a nation where the pressures of migrant ­intakes have been linked to residents leaving.

Although the figures are correlated, the data does not reveal precisely why there appears to be a connection.

The City of Monash in Melbourne’s southeastern suburbs holds the record for the largest losses by net internal migration — ranking last in 538th place — but is fifth in the nation by the net increase in overseas migrants. In one year a net 3424 people left the council area to live in ­another part of Australia while 6734 immigrants settled in the area to live.

Similarly, Sydney’s Canterbury-Bankstown local government area is ranked second highest for internal migration losses, with 3404 fewer residents, but 6195 more newly arrived foreign ­migrants, for which it is ranked sixth in the country.

In Greater Dandenong, which neighbours the City of Monash, enough people left and were not replaced for it to be ranked 532nd in the country but 15th by overseas migrant intake.

Australian National University demographer Liz Allen said the likely explanation for the contrasting flows involved infrastructure and housing, rather than “cultural factors”.

“If you look at the figures, where there are high populations of migrants they tend to set up and establish themselves close to family and networks they might have in the country,” she said.

“If there are people concerned about population growth in the cities then they should take heart because this release is an opportunity to provide an evidence base about what areas need attention in terms of infrastructure.

“Population policy is about striking the right balance between people and resources.”

The broader population snapshot showed Melbourne is the fastest growing city and will, on current trends, overtake Sydney as the largest in the country in eight years.

Mining towns are suffering large population declines while satellite cities around Sydney and particularly Melbourne are growing at the fastest rates in the country.

 

Dr Allen told The Australian that population increases were “a slow-moving thing and not an overnight quick and fast ­response”.

“We’ve known, for example, for the past 10 years what the federal government’s migration intake figures are and where people are likely to move when they get here,” she said.

“To say all of a sudden, to point the finger at migrants and say that they are the problem is wrong ­because it’s not them. It’s politicians, and they should be held to account for infrastructure ­decisions.”

Some of the key regions featured in the in-and-out statistics also have high crime rates, potentially as a result of clustering in communities of newly arrived ­migrants.

In the year for the ABS data ­estimates, the crime rate in the City of Monash was 4708 per 100,000 of population.

In Canterbury-Bankstown the crime rate was roughly on par or better than the rest of the state, ­although community perceptions of safety differ. Greater Dandenong, however, has the third-highest crime rate in metropolitan Melbourne.

Immigration has again been raised as a political conversation with former prime minister Tony Abbott recommending the capped migration program be temporarily reduced while infrastructure is finalised and not just planned.

Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton discussed lowering the cap by 20,000 in a proposal which was nixed by Malcolm Turnbull and Scott Morrison.

Dr Allen said people would no doubt see “alarming” headline figures in the population data.

“They will see Sydney growing by more than 100,000 people for the first time in history and some people will be alarmed by that,” she said. “But it’s not size that matters, it’s what you do with those people and how they are accommodated. Hopefully this data ­release can actually help frame and inform a national population conversation.”