The Thistle - An E-Newsletter of Scotch College, Perth, Western Australia

BCEC - Finding a Place to Call Home: Immigration in Australia

On Friday 1 November, eight Year 12 Economics students, including myself, were accompanied by  Mrs  Ellis and  Reverend  Gary to attend the  Bankwest  Curtin Economics Centre Report on Immigration in Australia. We went to the Grand Ballroom at the Hyatt in the City for a lunch at which we, among other schools such as  Aranmore  Catholic College and Wanneroo Secondary College, heard from many professionals within their respective fields. We discussed issues surrounding the growth in the immigrant share of Australia’s population and how this impacts the Australian  labour  markets, education systems, wages and social cohesion. 

As stated by the findings of the report, “A one percentage point increase in the share of migrant workers leads to an increase of 2.4 percentage point in the real wages of native-born workers”. Statistics such as these were beneficial to our understanding of the impacts of immigration within Australia. One of the main issues we discussed was the  underutilisation  of migrants’ skills in Australia and this discussion helped in broadening our perspectives about the topic. Attending this lunch held by the  Bankwest  Curtin Economics Centre was helpful for us as Economics students as it developed our understanding of the current Australian economy and issues surrounding it. 

img_3314.jpg img_3320.jpg

James Devereux
Ferguson House