Population growth through immigration is a major challenge for policy-makers and institutions, particularly in late-industrial nations experiencing declining birthrates and populations. Some nations have steadfastly refused to embrace immigration as a way of resolving the problem of declining birthrate and a consequential fall in population. Others have sought, by instituting a ‘guest worker’ system, to address the economic problem associated with a declining number of people capable of working at jobs the local population is unwilling to tackle. Still others have used immigration as a means of facing the economic and demographic challenges associated with declining birthrates (see Geddes 1996). This has especially been so for Australia, where there is a strong historical link between the official encouragement of an immigration program as a part of a general economic and growth policy (Galvin & West 1988: 58–69). Economic objectives have tended to be the main drivers of immigration policy, although many nations also include social policy-oriented components such as family reunion programs or, more likely, refugee and humanitarian programs.

Whether economic or humanitarian objectives provide the impetus, debates about population policy in the host nation also seek to address the social and cultural consequences of immigration (Jenson 1998, 2002). These debates are often highly contentious and controversial.