The Australian government is reheating that old pro-immigration ready-meal about how shifting new immigrants from their favoured big city destinations to regional areas will relieve the strain placed by mass immigration on city infrastructure and public services, and reverse the population drain and economic decline of many non-metropolitan areas.
From Australia’s academic world (usually robotically pro-immigration), however, Victoria University’s Prof. James Giesecke and Nhi Tran (no known ‘hate-group’ associations!) confirm that sending migrants to the regions is “largely ineffective in boosting regional economies in the long run” http://theconversation.com/forcing-immigrants-to-work-in-regional-areas-will-not-boost-regional-economies-in-the-long-run-96852?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Latest%20from%20The%20Conversation%20for%20May%2023%202018%20-%20102399002&utm_content=Latest%20from%20The%20Conversation%20for%20May%2023%202018%20-%20102399002+CID_23662bf9e8eb8def6464a665b01f7941&utm_source=campaign_monitor&utm_term=Forcing%20immigrants%20to%20work%20in%20regional%20areas%20will%20not%20boost%20regional%20economies%20in%20the%20long%20run
Australia’s temporary work visa system binds immigrants to their employer and location and can thus be used to require them to work in non-urban areas. Using sophisticated economic modelling, the researchers report that, rather than the magical boost in regional economic activity that is promised, all that results in the long run is the “displacement of workers already in the [regions]” whilst also causing “wages in the region to fall”. This same “displacement effect” of the existing regional workforce is also true of Australia’s permanent skilled migration programs which can also have a regional targeting component.
Well, strike me pink, cobber, who would have thought that by increasing labour supply (often through cheap overseas labour) for the same number of jobs, the outcome would be to simply elbow aside the existing workforce and (as a sure way not to boost economic activity) suppress wages for all? Not the economic sub-literates amongst the Diversity choir, apparently, whose understanding of real world economics seems to be inversely proportional to their immigration fervour.