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Do Migrants Rob Jobs? Lessons of Australian History, 1861–1991

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 March 2009

David Pope
Affiliation:
Division of Economics and Politics, Research School of Social Sciences, Australian National University, Canberra ACT 2600, Australia
Glenn Withers
Affiliation:
Professor of Economics at La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia, and Director of the Australian government's Economic Planning and Advisory Council, West Block, Canberra ACT 2600, Australia.

Abstract

Historically, lands of recent settlement have had a thirst for immigrants, but one that has been procyclical (negatively related to unemployment rates). For a period in the early 1980s, Australia's major political parties supported high immigration in spite of rising unemployment. This article explores the long-run relationship between immigration and local unemployment, posing the question, “Do migrants rob jobs?” It also seeks to apply long-run historical analysis to recent economic debate: would Australia's unemployment rate have been lower in very recent times without so many immigrants?

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © The Economic History Association 1993

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