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Do Migrants Rob Jobs? Lessons of Australian History, 1861–1991

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 March 2009

David Pope  and
Glenn Withers
David Pope
Affiliation:
Division of Economics and Politics, Research School of Social Sciences, Australian National University, Canberra ACT 2600, Australia
Glenn Withers
Affiliation:
Professor of Economics at La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia, and Director of the Australian government's Economic Planning and Advisory Council, West Block, Canberra ACT 2600, Australia.
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Abstract

Historically, lands of recent settlement have had a thirst for immigrants, but one that has been procyclical (negatively related to unemployment rates). For a period in the early 1980s, Australia's major political parties supported high immigration in spite of rising unemployment. This article explores the long-run relationship between immigration and local unemployment, posing the question, “Do migrants rob jobs?” It also seeks to apply long-run historical analysis to recent economic debate: would Australia's unemployment rate have been lower in very recent times without so many immigrants?

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Economic History , Volume 53 , Issue 4 , December 1993 , pp. 719 - 742
Copyright
Copyright © The Economic History Association 1993

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