Over the weekend, thousands of people demonstrated across the country, participating in protests that organisers said were a call for an end to so-called "mass migration" in Australia.
Protesters blamed migrants for a range of issues — including Australia's housing crisis, rising cost of living, and job insecurity, among others.
But experts say these claims don't stack up, and that a paradox exists in the anti-immigration ideas put forward at the rallies: the people protesters want fewer of are propping up the country's economy, workforce, and future.
Jane McAdam, scientia professor at the Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law, said migrants are being scapegoated.
"Unfortunately, there's a lot of misunderstanding and misinformation out there about the links between migration, housing shortages, cost of living pressures, and infrastructure," she told SBS News.
"That has been exploited by certain elements of the community, particularly on the far right."
Associate professor Anna Boucher, a global migration expert at the University of Sydney, said the idea that curbing migration would fix these issues is misdirected.
"Australia wouldn't function without migration," she said. "Fifty per cent of the Australian population are either of migrant background or have one parent who was, so we're actually talking about most of Australia.
"International student migration comprises a big component of our gross domestic product. Migrants provide the necessary labour into skill shortage areas that we can't meet through domestic supply, and immigration is a central component of Australia's multicultural identity."
Are migrants to blame for the housing crisis?
A lack of supply is frequently cited as a key reason for rent and house price pressures. Researchers and economists argue that migration is not solely to blame for the issue, and some say that curbing it would not make renting or buying drastically cheaper.
In 2024, after then-Opposition leader Peter Dutton announced the Coalition's plan to reduce the permanent migration program, experts at the Grattan Institute wrote that cutting migration might ease housing costs slightly. But, they said, fewer skilled workers and lower tax revenue could leave Australia poorer overall.
They have also written that migration could help fix the housing crisis if the federal government improved pathways for skilled tradespeople, with very few recent migrants working in construction, according to their analysis.
The federal government's State of the Housing System report, released in May, noted that a surge in net overseas migration after Australia reopened its borders following the height of the COVID-19 pandemic was still adding to housing demand. But, it said, structural constraints such as land availability and complex planning approval systems were the principal barriers to more supply. Labour supply was another, with the report saying that the migration system was not supplying sufficient workers with the right skills.
"Governments should address the continued shortfall in construction sector workers by boosting skills training and through skilled migration programs," one of the report's recommendations says.
Matt Grudnoff from the Australia Institute says migration isn't driving the housing shortage, pointing to pre and post-pandemic migration levels. Source: SBS News
"It doesn't mean that there might not be an issue with housing, but that needs to be addressed separately. And I think that maybe the answer is more densification," Boucher said.
"Maybe it is speeding up the rate of construction. Maybe it is different methods of urban planning. We have a very low-density city for its population size in Sydney, for instance, if you compare it with comparable cities overseas. But that's a product of our poor planning, not of migrants."
Australia Institute senior economist Matt Grudnoff said migration isn't driving the housing crisis.
He says that while migration rebounded after COVID-19 border closures, population growth appeared to have since fallen back to pre-pandemic levels.
And contrary to claims that population is outstripping housing supply, Grudnoff says the opposite is true.
"Over the last 10 years, the population has grown by 16 per cent … But the number of homes has increased by 19 per cent," he said. "The number of homes is growing faster than the population."
Instead, he pointed to tax laws that favour investors and a lack of social housing as key drivers of affordability issues.
"In the sixties, seventies and eighties, the government was heavily involved in supplying public housing and now they've largely vacated that," he said. "They're not building nearly as much housing, and so consequently, there is a lot less of that housing available, and this is adding to the affordability crisis."
The State of the Housing System report found social housing stock as a share of total dwellings had fallen from about 6 per cent in 1991 to about 4 per cent in 2021. It recommended governments should commit to a long-term 10 per cent target.
Indian diaspora a 'national asset'
This week, the Coalition was forced into damage control after senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price claimed the anti-immigration protests were fuelled by concerns about Labor's migration policies, pointing to the Indian diaspora.
On Wednesday, she suggested Labor was "allowing those in that would support their policies", singling out the Indian community.
Soon after the interview, Price walked back her remarks. But on Thursday, the senator appeared to double down on her previous comments, saying she didn't believe she had anything to apologise for.
Opposition leader Sussan Ley was quick to stress the Coalition's support for Indian Australians, and said Australia's migration policy remained non-discriminatory.
Multicultural Affairs Minister Anne Aly said she had spoken to members of the Indian diaspora, who said they "did not feel safe" after Sunday's rallies, and that "comments by some political leaders have exacerbated their fear and shattered their sense of security".
Shail Wadhwa from the Council of Indian Australians says Price's comments fuel division and leave many in the community feeling "unfairly targeted".
"We strongly reject any narrative that unfairly targets the Indian Australian community or misrepresents their contribution to Australian society," Wadhwa told SBS News.
"This statement by Senator Price is not helping and is actually making the community more divided."
"She should be apologising to the community."
He said Price was "ill-informed" and pointed to a 2022 federal government report that labelled Australia's Indian diaspora a "national asset".
That report found Australia's Indian-born population is, on average, younger, more highly educated, and earns more than the national average, making it the country's second-largest tax-paying diaspora.
"Not only that, the Indian diaspora has been migrating to Australia based on their merit. A majority of them came to Australia for skills shortages, based on a skill set they have," Wadhwa said. "They're contributing to the community."
People born in India now make up the second-largest group of overseas-born Australians, according to 2024 data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).
The largest group remains those born in England.
What the numbers show
Migrants make up 26.3 per cent of Australia's workforce, according to ABS data.
They are among the most skilled of any OECD country: nearly six in ten migrants hold a university degree or higher, compared to around four in ten native-born Australians, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Migrants are particularly crucial in key industries such as hospitality, health care, manufacturing and professional services.
According to 2021-2022 ABS jobs data, 15 per cent of migrants work in health care and social assistance. More than 40 per cent of registered nurses, aged carers and disability workers were born overseas, according to the 2021 Census.
Migrants in Australia are particularly crucial in key industries such as hospitality, health care, manufacturing and professional services. Source: SBS News
Part of the solution
Experts argue migrants aren't just contributing to the economy — they are essential to Australia's future.
Boucher said an ageing population means migrant workers will be needed even more. "We won't meet the needs of our ageing population exclusively through our domestic labour market," she said.
Grudnoff added that Australia relies on its skilled migrants to fill crucial gaps in the jobs market.
"They add a lot to Australia's economy," he said. "Australia's migration system is very skills-focused, so it tends to target migrants with skills that we have a shortage of."
"What they actually do is they enable us to continue to have access to goods and services that might otherwise be difficult to produce in Australia or would become far more expensive."
McAdam said migration should be seen as a key part of solving — not causing — national challenges.
"We really need to take a good, hard look at the evidence when it comes to looking at what is driving those pressures and looking at how the government at all levels needs to be addressing things like the housing crisis without wrongly demonising migrants in the process," she said.
"Australia is a country full of migrants and it's migration that has made us. Multiculturalism has made us such a flourishing, diverse, and successful society and country that we are."
— With additional reporting by Rayane Tamer and the Australian Associated Press.
Clarification: This story has been updated to include information from the Grattan Institute and the federal government's 2025 State of the Housing System report.
