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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
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SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE: INQUIRY INTO NEW MIGRANTS

Ms BEDFORD (Florey) (11:11): I move:

That the 34th report of the committee, entitled 'Inquiry into New Migrants' be noted.

Ms BEDFORD: I am talking to the final report of the Social Development Committee on the 'Inquiry into New Migrants'. The terms of reference for the inquiry were advertised on 28 January last year. In addition, the committee wrote directly to a number of individuals and organisations with expertise and interest in the subject matter inviting them to provide a submission. Fifteen written submissions were received and 51 witnesses gave evidence to the committee. This figure including representatives of a total of 21 organisations.

The committee would like to thank all those people who assisted with the inquiry. The committee commenced hearing public evidence in February 2012 and concluded hearings in February 2013. In conducting the inquiry, the committee sought to provide a snapshot of the number of new migrants who have arrived in South Australia since the year 2000 and to report on how they have settled into their new culture. The committee was aware of the importance of understanding the complexities of contemporary migration and was interested to understand the social, cultural and economic impact of new migrants in South Australia.

The committee would like to note the timing of the release of data from the most recent census collection in 2011. The first release of data occurred more than halfway into the inquiry's deliberations, therefore much of the evidence the committee heard concerned information and analysis from the 2006 census collection. Additional statistical information was obtained where appropriate to adequately report on the terms of reference.

Before going further, I would like to take the opportunity to thank the former presiding members of the Social Development Committee, the Hon. John Gazzola and the Hon. Carmel Zollo, who provided valuable input into the 'Inquiry into New Migrants'. Also from the other place, I would like to thank the current presiding member, the Hon. Russell Wortley, the Hon. Kelly Vincent, the Hon. Jing Lee and the Hon. Dennis Hood, and from this chamber I would like to thank Mr Alan Sibbons, Mr David Pisoni and the Hon. Dr Bob Such. Inquiries such as this would not be possible without the valuable contribution of the many individuals and organisations who gave up their time to come forward and give information. We thank all those who presented evidence for this inquiry, either in writing or by appearing before the committee.

It is interesting to note that South Australia has often been the first state to implement innovative approaches and practices to assist new migrants. In 1965 South Australia was the first state in Australia to prohibit discrimination on the grounds of race. In 1975 the ethnic affairs branch, now known as the South Australian Multicultural and Ethnic Affairs Commission, was established in the Department of the Premier and Cabinet. South Australia was the first state to have an ethnic community radio station. South Australia was also one of the first Australian states to establish a government translation service ensuring that information and services are provided in languages other than English. This is an important service, particularly in critical settings such as courts and hospitals.

The committee heard that the overall management of the Australia migration program is the responsibility of the Australian government, which sets the number of migrant places each year. In this current year, there are 190,000 places, which is 5,000 more than last year. Whilst it is possible to manage the number of visas issued each year, the number of people who actually settle here is not so easily managed. This is because people change or delay their plans. They might decide to settle somewhere else or they may decide not to migrate at all. Some people settle here and then decide to return home or move somewhere else. New Zealand citizens move freely in and out of Australia.

The committee heard evidence that the vision for new migrants in South Australia is for them to be part of a productive, vibrant, culturally diverse state where skills, creativity and a sense of community are highly valued. The committee heard that migration has played a crucial role in the history and development of South Australia. Since 1945, more than seven million people have migrated here. Today, approximately a quarter of the Australian population was born overseas and almost half of the population is a migrant or the child of a migrant.

Statistics from the most recent census in 2011 indicate that approximately 350,000 South Australians were born overseas. They came from approximately 200 countries, which makes South Australia a culturally diverse community. The committee was told that in the last 10 years more than 100,000 new migrants have settled in South Australia. Over the same period of time, the number of permanent migrant additions has risen by an increase of more than 200 per cent.

The makeup of the migrant population in South Australia is similar to the national average. The 10 main source countries of new migrants between the years 2006 and 2010 were India, England, China, the Philippines, Malaysia, South Africa, New Zealand, Afghanistan, Korea and Vietnam. The committee noted that the United Kingdom and China accounted for 45 per cent of all new migrants who have settled here in the past few years.

The committee was provided figures that showed South Australia's new migrants are mostly young and in the prime working age range of 25 to 44 years. The largest age cohort is the 25 to 34 year group. In 2009-10, there were a little over 5,000 new migrants in South Australia in this age range. Two years later, in 2011-12, the number had dropped slightly, or by a total of 84 people. Overseas students are not included in these figures.

The committee was interested to know the types of visas granted to new migrants. In the 2010-11 year, of the 12,000 permanent migrant additions to South Australia's population:

7,116 people entered as skilled migrants;

2,581 people entered as family migrants;

while humanitarian entrants accounted for 1,386 people.

The committee heard that, since the 2006 census, more than 66,000 new migrants have settled in South Australia:

64 per cent settled under the skilled visa stream;

22 per cent entered under the family visa stream; and

14 per cent were granted a humanitarian visa.

In recent years, South Australia has attracted more skilled migrants per capita than any other Australian state or territory. In 2009, close to 30 per cent of new migrants in South Australia were skilled migrants. This compared to Western Australia at 20 per cent, Victoria at 15 per cent and New South Wales at 13 per cent.

Whilst the majority of migrants who settle here are skilled migrants, the committee was told that South Australia competes much more for skilled migrants than it ever has in the past, not only with European countries and America but also with Asia, which is fast becoming a focus of contemporary migration. In recent years, our comparative advantage in attracting migrants has been affected by the high value of the Australian dollar, the internationalisation of labour markets, globalisation, and the exchange of skilled workers between nations.

The most recent figures the committee obtained from Multicultural SA indicates a drop in skilled migrant numbers. In view of this, the committee noted the significance of the State-Specific and Regional Migration scheme in continuing to attract new migrants to settle here rather than the larger cities interstate. This scheme assists government and industry in South Australia to address local skill shortages and attract overseas business people here to establish new or joint ventures. It enables both the South Australian government and the regional employers to fill skill shortages that cannot be filled from the local labour pool. South Australia accounts for one in six of the total number of migrants who enter Australia under this scheme.

In comparison with other Australian states and territories, South Australia has a large number of humanitarian settlers. Between the 2006 and 2011 censuses, 14 per cent of all new migrants who settled in South Australia came here as humanitarian entrants, which compares with 8 per cent at the national level, and 2,250 people settled here from Afghanistan, which represented 18 per cent of the national total of humanitarian entrants and was close to the number of Afghani people who settled in New South Wales over this same period. The committee heard that almost 2,000 humanitarian entrants arrived in South Australia in 2011-12 other than people from Afghanistan. They mostly came from Bhutan, Burma, Iran, Eritrea, Ethiopia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Humanitarian entrants do not choose to leave their homeland. They do not plan their migration—instead, they are forced to flee after suffering unimaginable hardships, such as trauma, torture and leaving family and friends behind. Often, their experience is to live for many years in refugee camps before eventually being resettled here. It is the circumstances they have experienced in their homeland that have forced them to leave with very few possessions, if at all, and find a new home elsewhere. In 2011-12, almost 2,700 migrants settled here on a family visa, mostly from China, the Philippines and India.

In June 2011, there were more than 20,000 overseas students residing in South Australia. This was a little over 2,000 less than the previous year. They mostly came from China, India, Malaysia, South Korea, Vietnam and Saudi Arabia. In the first six months of 2012, the number of overseas students from Saudi Arabia increased more than 12.5 per cent.

South Australia has been a popular destination for overseas students in recent years, and they have made a significant contribution to the local economy. The committee heard they are attracted here because we have a reputation as a provider of quality education. The committee also heard that increasing competition from overseas jurisdictions, the value of the Australian dollar and the length of time it sometimes takes for visa approvals have possibly contributed to the drop in recent numbers.

In June 2011, there were 4,500 temporary visa holders in South Australia on a 457 visa. The committee was informed that South Australia does not attract significant numbers of 457 visa holders compared to the other Australian states. The committee was interested to know that a vast majority of new migrants have settled in the metropolitan area of Adelaide. The net overseas migration figures represent the net gain or loss of population through immigration to Australia and emigration from Australia. They include both permanent and temporary migrants.

All Australian states and territories experienced positive net overseas migration figures in 2010. However, in South Australia, it was the main component of population growth, accounting for 76 per cent of the population. This was ahead of New South Wales at 60 per cent, Victoria at 57 per cent and Western Australia with 53 per cent. Net interstate migration saw 3,200 people move elsewhere. In light of the national trend, although the net overseas migration numbers have slowed in recent years, it is still the most important contributor to the state's population growth. According to the Department of Immigration and Citizenship, the drop in numbers is mostly due to a lower inflow and larger outflow of overseas students.

The committee was interested to know about the overall social and economic impact of new migrants in South Australia. They were told that the long-term success of South Australia's migration programs can be measured by the social, economic and cultural benefits that migrants bring to the community.

The committee heard that migrants contributed to the social, economic and cultural structure of South Australia in many ways. They enrich and diversify the cultural fabric of the community. They support stronger economic growth by providing growing markets for business, investing in the South Australian economy and fostering international trade through their knowledge of overseas markets. With the arrival of business migrants, new technologies are often introduced into the economy.

Employment and skill shortages are satisfied with the arrival of skilled migrants, and they assist in alleviating the negative effects of an ageing population and the consequent decline in workforce participation. As the labour force contracts due to the ageing of the South Australian economy, the need to stimulate labour supply through migration and to support a growing number of retirees will become a more pressing need.

Migrants have an impact on the demand side of the South Australian economy through their individual spending on consumer items such as food, housing and leisure activities. They create business opportunities through investment to produce extra goods and services, and they influence the expansion of government services in areas such as health, education and welfare. Migrants also have an impact on the supply side of the economy by introducing labour, skills and capital into the state by developing new businesses and adding productive diversity through their knowledge of international business markets.

There are some views within the community that express a concern that multiculturalism has given undue emphasis to the maintenance of our cultural differences and the interests of individual groups, rather than the promotion and acceptance of the Australian way of life. They fear it provides divisions and gives migrants rights and privileges that are not available to other South Australians. Community education helps to dispel such views and reinforces that multiculturalism does not provide special privileges to certain groups. In fact, eligibility for services is based on need and subject to eligibility guidelines.

Communicating about the positive impacts of migration is critical to how migrants are received in their communities. Evidence-based information and positive examples of migrant communities and individuals in South Australia becomes increasingly important as the diversity of migrant communities increases. A society that has a diversity of skills and experiences is better placed to stimulate economic growth, and migration is a key factor in enabling this to occur.

Migration is one of the significant avenues in which the exchange of skills, culture and language can enhance the very fabric of community. Migration, though, is often highly politicised and sometimes negatively perceived, even though international migration is likely to increase in scale and complexity, due to the growing demographic disparities, new global and political dynamics, technological revolutions, and social networks with profound impacts on the socioeconomic and ethnic composition of societies.

This gives rise to new policy challenges for governments, industry and the community at large, related to the successful integration of migrants into the South Australian community. The manner in which the image of new migrants is portrayed is of fundamental importance to their level of integration and adjustment to life in South Australia. The committee heard from a local migration agent that some of the significant factors for migrants choosing to relocate here include the stability of the South Australia economy and political climate, and the affordable cost of living and relatively affordable housing prices compared with some other Australian states and territories. South Australia has a well-planned infrastructure, and the education system is highly regarded.

The inquiry revealed that people generally perceived that South Australia has a quieter lifestyle and is a good place in which to raise a family. As the costs in the bigger Australian cities rise, there are opportunities for South Australia to take advantage of the lifestyle and relatively low cost of living. Education Adelaide, in its annual report for 2011-12, commented on a study which measured food, rent, clothing, transport and utilities, and it confirmed that in terms of cost of living, Adelaide was the most cost-effective Australian city. Living costs in Adelaide are 24 per cent lower than in Sydney, 25 per cent lower than in Melbourne, 11 per cent lower than in Perth and 10 per cent lower than in Brisbane.

The committee has put forward a total of 40 recommendations that will strengthen and enhance the current server system and support our new migrants. The committee heard from government and non-government agencies, and most importantly from new migrants themselves, that the provision of services and support to help them settle into their new culture in South Australia was overwhelmingly positive. Major barriers were learning the new language and finding suitable employment. This was less so for skilled migrants and obviously more of an issue for humanitarian entrants. Overall, the committee heard evidence that South Australia is a welcoming place for new migrants.

The Hon. R.B. SUCH (Fisher) (11:26): I rise to support this report and to commend my colleagues who are on the committee. Once again, this is a standing committee, but it shows what good work committees can do in this place, whether they are standing committees or select committees. I will not go through all the issues canvassed by the committee; there is no point in doing that; members can read the report themselves.

I think we all agree that having new people come to our state and to our country is a positive thing. I am not one who believes in the Big Australia concept, that we must get bigger just to be better. I do not agree with that; I think the focus should be quality rather than quantity. I think it is better to be of first-rate quality as a state or a nation rather than simply trying to be big. I think if you look at some of the countries of Europe you will see examples where they are small but have a very high quality of living, and act and behave as excellent citizens of the world.

My father was a migrant. He was a Barwell Boy. He came here at the age of 16. He married a local girl. He intended to only have two children, but my mother, from the Catholic tradition, favoured the more natural approach—otherwise I would not be here, because I am number four. I will not go into all the aspects of that, but I will digress a little.

My grandmother was a Catholic who had an uncle who died. When they asked the local priest up in Merbein, Mildura, for a requiem mass, he said, 'No, he's lived like a dog; he ought to be buried like one,' so she became a Methodist and the Catholic church lost her 10 children, including some of the offspring, who include Mark Ricciuto and a lot of others. So we have a Catholic side in the family and a Protestant side. Jamie Briggs is part of the Catholic side, but we still talk to him. We still talk to Caroline Schaefer as well.

That is a bit of a digression, but I think a couple of aspects come out of that. We used to have a lot of what were called farm apprenticeship schemes. The Barwell scheme, in effect, was meant to be like that. In terms of revitalising agriculture, I think we probably ought to be focusing, as part of our migration, on trying to get people involved in the agriculture industry.

As a related aspect, I am most concerned at what has been happening to country towns. You cannot obviously plonk people from overseas in a country town and say, 'There you are.' But, especially with the introduction of the NBN network, there is no reason why our country towns cannot be revitalised in terms of employing people locally. They often have infrastructure, they often have housing, and I think that, with a proper approach to that, we could be attracting people from overseas to live in some of the regional areas and towns and, whether they are involved in farming directly or in a town, I think there are some clear opportunities there.

One of the issues that concerned us on the committee was one we heard from a doctor. He was one of 30 doctors (and he claimed that there were 30 like him, but I do not know whether that was absolutely accurate) who had come from, in his case, Bangladesh, but because they had not been practising medicine in the immediate past they were not allowed to practise here. They could not update their skills or be assessed thoroughly in terms of their skills because they did not qualify under the immediate practising rule, or whatever it is.

To me it seems ludicrous that we can have people who, if they were working in Bangladesh as a doctor last week, can work here next week (or not quite here next week) but that someone who has had a break in their service for some reason or another cannot. I think that when we are short of doctors in this state, particularly in rural areas, it seems absurd to me that we have these people who have migrated here with those skills who cannot actually utilise them.

Recently, having a check-up, I went to the IMVS branch at Blackwood and the woman taking blood was a dentist from overseas. There is nothing wrong with people who take blood and samples like that, but we have someone who was a Coptic Christian from Egypt, who was a dentist but who could not be accepted here because of differences in the assessment regimes. I am the first to argue that people need to meet proper standards. We cannot have people as medicos or anything else who do not meet proper standards, but surely there must be a mechanism to enable those people to translate their skills for the benefit of themselves and the wider community. As I said at the start, I will not go into all the details.

We have had migrants coming to this country for a long time. I suppose if you go back far enough, the Aborigines were migrants 50-odd thousand years ago. That is when people did not worry about boat people. We heard from people who came here as humanitarian refugees and, sadly and ironically, people from one country in Africa, where the different groups here do not get along. You would think that when they came here they would be able to put the past behind them, but that is reflected in a lack of interaction between the two sections from that particular African country, and that is very sad. At the moment, we see a lot of debate about sending so-called asylum seekers to Papua New Guinea, and I will not go into the detail of that.

One of the ironies is that a lot of those people now are Iranians, or Persians, who are highly skilled, highly capable people who would not normally be in the category of refugee but who now are being turned away from Australia. My experience and knowledge of the people who have come from Iran is that they are fantastic people and, as I say, often highly skilled in a range of professions, and if they cannot come on the boat trade, we should be trying to recruit them anyhow.

I conclude by congratulating all the people on the committee. Everyone worked well, as they normally do, and, as I said, it shows the benefit of the committee process. I commend the Hon. Jing Lee because I think she put up the original motion to establish the inquiry.

Motion carried.

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