Professor Alan Gamlen, director of the Migration Hub at The Australian National University, outlines what Australians should know about migration ahead of May's federal election. Courtesy: 360Info.org
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00:00The most important thing people need to understand about migration coming up to this election
00:04is that migration is a pattern and not a crisis.
00:08Migration has always happened and it always will.
00:11And from that perspective, being pro-migration or anti-migration makes about as much sense
00:17as being pro or anti the weather.
00:20It happens, we've got to deal with it.
00:22Most people in the world don't actually move internationally.
00:25There's a myth that migration is out of control and at historically unprecedented levels.
00:31But in reality, less than 4% of human beings live outside their origin country.
00:35And that percentage has been pretty stable since the 1960s.
00:39It's essential to realize that normal migration isn't a fixed measure.
00:44It's a political judgment.
00:46Different countries have different expectations at different points in time.
00:49In Cuba, for example, just 0.03% of the population were born overseas.
00:56But in the United Arab Emirates, more than 88% of the population are foreign born.
01:02In Australia, about 30% of residents were born overseas at the moment.
01:06This is the second highest proportion in the OECD, but it hasn't always been that way.
01:12In 1891, about a third of Australian settlers were foreign born.
01:16By 1947, after the Great Depression and two world wars, that number had fallen below 10%.
01:22So an important question that voters need to ask in this election is how much migration
01:27do they want?
01:28At the moment, many people think they want less migration, which is fine.
01:32Except that the reason they often give is that they think there's a lot more migration
01:37than there actually is.