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.
James Devereux
Ferguson House