RICARDO'S BUSINESS || Migration rises > Where's the deodorant?

12 January 2012 | 16:11 - By Ricardo Goncalves

Good thing Teresa Gambaro, the Coalition citizenship spokeswoman backed down from her comments yesterday.

Remember, she called for migrants to receive hygiene lessons, including the use of deodorant, before being forced to apologise.

Well, if her plan went ahead, then she, and the coalition would be very busy right now because new official statistics show migration levels are at a 17 month high.

In the year to November, there were almost a quarter of a million long-term arrivals Australia, and of those nearly 140,000 stayed in the country as permanent residents, that's a 16 month high.

In November alone, close to 13,000 permanently settled here, a 27 month high.

While it's easy to assume migrants come from non-English speaking backgrounds, that couldn't be further from the truth.

CommSec notes, that in 2011, most migrants came from New Zealand, with just over 28,000 settling here. Those leaving the UK came in at number 3, and the United States at number 11.

Close to 16,000 migrants came from China at number two, 11,000 from India at number 4 and 6,000 from the Philippines, ranked  5.

It's good news for the economy because while Australia has one of the healthiest unemployment rates in the world, the skills shortage still prevails to some degree, especially in the resources sector.

More workers in the country in the form of migrants, may balance the labour market and in the long term keep wage inflation down.

And nothing stinks about that.

 

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Comments (1)

18 Jan 2012 10:19 AEST

john

From: canberra

migration vs assimilation vs religion

most migrants who have european background are able to assimilate to aussie culture but those coming from asia and china usually end up create their own groups and based on my experience, those people have problems to speak any english even after living in australia for more than decade!!! as i have noticed you guys from sbs like promote -muslim communities- but you should realize that most of immigrants who sbs represents are NOT muslim, so try to change your attitude in this case as well!!!

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About this Blog

SBS Presenter Ricardo Goncalves with the latest in finance.

Ricardo Goncalves Ricardo Goncalves is a Presenter / Reporter for SBS World News Australia

 
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