In any country or community in the world, the three main factors that determine the size of their population are birth, death and immigration.
For Australia, a country with a long history of immigrants, the last time it was able to maintain population stability simply through the birth of a newborn was in 1976. Even the controversial baby boomers of 2002 are not included.
At the same time, life expectancy is on the rise in Australians, with 80.5 years for men and 84.6 years for women. What`s more, there is no policy in the world that can stop people from death.
This also makes immigration the most viable entry point for controlling Australia`s population.
But disputes also persist.
1. Parliament, who runs Uber in Tazhou, plans to emigrate: "I have nothing left."
Apple Wang (from China) is a professionally trained accountant. After completing her studies in Melbourne, she moved to Hobart, the capital of Tasmania, Australia`s southernmost city.
Hobart / Source: Tourism Australia
Ms. Wang is one of the international immigrants who emigrate to Australia on skilled visas in remote areas.
However, the reality of life after emigration to this Australian tourist destination is not as romantic and beautiful as she once imagined:
After nine months of hard work or not finding a job at Hobart, Ms. Wang finally accepted being a Uber driver.
She was a little helpless about her meagre income. "I can drive an Uber, to make about A $15 an hour, which can be used to buy something to eat."
Sitting in the car, she was dressed in a pale pink traditional cheongsam, with meticulous makeup and a shy smile on her face-which seemed to be "out of place" with the image of her Uber driver.
Ms. Wang / Source: Carrington Clarke, who is involved in the Australian remote Migration Program
"but to be honest, I have nothing left," she said.
In fact, Ms. Wang spent a lot of money on the visa. In addition to paying visa fees for Australia`s government, she also paid high fees to immigration agencies, totaling thousands of Australian dollars.
"this is a state-nominated visa. Therefore, as part of my visa obligations, I must stay here for at least two years."
At first, Ms. Wang`s immigration agency advised her to move to Tasmania as part of the region`s skilled migration program.
Source: ozcruising
But she, who came to Tasmania, was "disappointed" by the situation in front of her:
Not only did she find it hard to find the right job, but she was surprised that the cost of living in the capital city of Tabat was so expensive. Not only is it difficult to find a place to live in a shortage of local housing, but the cost of living in Hobart is even higher than in Melbourne.
"in Melbourne, you can find very cheap food. But here, you can`t find a A $10 meal to eat, and there is no such thing at all."
"in Melbourne, you can easily buy A $10, and there may be five to 10 meal options-that`s the difference in big cities because there`s more competition."
After half-year Uber opened by Hobart, Ms. Wang finally managed to find a job in Adelaide.
As a result, she had to pack and travel from Hobart to another capital city classified as a remote area.
Source: Adelaide Tourism
I just don`t know what it will look like waiting for her immigration life in South Australia.
In fact, Ms. Wang is even lucky.
After all, compared with her, there are still many Chinese students studying in Sydney and Melbourne for several years. After handing in the essay, they found that their application for a visa was blocked, but IELTS could not score evenly. Then he turned to Tasmania-and ended up bumping into a wall and returning home.
2. Australia`s plan to reduce migration in remote areas in the context of immigration
In the past decade, 1 per cent of Australia`s population has come from immigrants, while only 0.7 per cent have come from Australian-born newborns.
As births keep pace with death, population growth is actually driven by immigrants. That`s why Australia had a population of more than 25 million in 2018, a few years earlier than previously predicted.
In recent years, however, Australia`s government`s attitude towards immigration has begun to be somewhat subtle.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who has just been re-elected, has a lot of "mess" to deal with / source: ALEX ELLINGHAUSEN.
In February 2018, Morrison, then Australia`s finance minister, earnestly persuaded Albert, the former prime minister who was determined to cut 80,000 immigrants at the time:
"if you cut 80, 000 immigrants, this will hit the budget, which could cost 40 to 5 billion Australian dollars in the next four years."
At that time, the internal affairs minister Dutton suggested that Australia must reduce the admission of immigrants, "we think it is in our national interest."
Peter Dutton / Source: Matt Roberts
In March, Morrison announced that the annual net immigration quota for 2019-2020 would be cut from 190000 to 160000.
This is a tradeoff political decision. Australia`s government has struck a balance between a "significant increase in immigration" and a "significant reduction in immigration", taking into account multiple reasons such as society, environment and economic.
At the same time, Morrison also announced a new immigration program, which includes 23000 new visa quotas for skilled migrants willing to travel to remote areas, up from 8534 last year.
The plan will be officially implemented in November 2019.
And if these technical visa holders live in remote areas for at least three years, they will be eligible for permanent residence-which is the ultimate expectation of most people holding temporary visas in Australia.
In addition, government has introduced new scholarships to attract Australian and international students to study in remote areas, and to give students studying at universities in remote areas an additional year of post-graduation work visas.
(regional area) in remote areas is not always like the "desolate" / Hobart City Council in the stereotype of Chinese.
In fact, Australia`s immigration program is actively encouraging immigrants to remote areas of Australia in the form of visas. Many of them will "lock in" immigrants to live and work in a given area for many years.
"this visa clearly applies to jobs in these areas," minister David Coleman (David Coleman) said. "so you can`t work anywhere else."
David Coleman / Source: SBS
"to be honest, they are unlikely to get this rights, and if they do so, they will not be able to get permanent residence."
The specific definition of "remote area" here varies from country to country.
According to the official website of the Migration Board, the subdivisions in remote areas of Australia are as follows:
Source: Australian Finance and Economics News collated according to the official website of the Immigration Service
For example, in New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland, areas outside major cities are called "remote areas." But in Tasmania, the entire state is classified as a remote migrant, so most international migrants, like Ms. Wang, who mentioned earlier, choose to move to their capital city of Hobart.
In the past year to June 2018, a total of 2580 international migrants emigrated to Tajikistan, an increase of 10.2 percent over the previous year. Of these, 5.4% hold temporary skilled immigration visas, while 9.7% hold permanent skilled immigration visas.
In fact, Hobart`s population has grown 1.6% in the past year, which has also led to a series of problems.
3. "the wrong thing is the job market system, not the immigration policy."
Lisa Dani, a demographer at the University of Tasmania, says Australia`s government`s plan to encourage migrants from remote areas is flawed.
She said Habat was going through a housing crisis, with the country`s lowest vacancy rate (0.5 percent) causing rents to soar.
"for Tazhou, we are at a critical stage of housing stress."
As a result of immigration-led population growth, Dr. Dani points out, "people in southern Tazhou not only can`t find a house to rent, they can`t even afford house within the distance between their work and school commuting."
In her view, although the federal and state government wants the program to push immigrants to underpopulated areas to address labour shortages and help stimulate economic growth, the plan has not worked.
"you can`t push immigrants with skills and education into an area where there are no jobs," she added. "A place where they can`t support themselves."
At present, the unemployment rate in Tazhou is 6.7 percent, well above the national average of 5.2 percent, indicating that it is also difficult for locals to find a job, let alone emigrate.
``Large numbers of immigrants have increased the supply of labor in our country, `` she stressed. ``Australia`s ecomic is not doing well-I mean that labour and job seekers are oversupposed. ``
"higher levels of population growth and migration can lead to low salary growth and higher unemployment, especially temporary visa immigrants. And these costs are not necessarily measured and understood one by one."
"after all, at any time, we have 1.2 million temporary visas in Australia, all of which have work rights."
Dick Smith, a representative of the (Sustainable Australia Party) of the Australian Sustainable Development Party, says it is unrealistic to move people to remote areas with high unemployment.
Dick Smith / Source: AAP
Smith, a businessman, told the Daily Mail that "this plan will not succeed."
You must be joking that they are assigned to rural towns-places where there is no employment, and in the end they can only receive unemployment benefits.
He added that most Australian locals do not move to remote areas because there are basically no jobs there, and there will be fewer and fewer, because even farmers are automating in a variety of ways.
"they are picking fruit automatically, weeding automatically and fertilizing automatically."
Michael Bailey, chief executive of (Tasmania Chamber Of Commerce And Industry) at the Tasmanian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, admitted that because of the nature of the Tasmanian job market, it is often difficult for people who move to the state to find jobs in their own areas.
Michael Bailey / Source: Mercury
The main reason is that most of the new jobs have been "digested internally" for a long time, and immigrants naturally cannot find a job.
"in my opinion, this is a failure of the internal process in Tasmania."
"sometimes it`s a difficult market to enter unless you know the right people. Most of our jobs don`t have advertising at all, because they tend to move across communities."
"as a community, we need to work harder to break down the barriers that clearly exist in front of skilled job seekers, whether they are immigrants or locals."
In fact, Australia`s government is also "worried about improving supply and demand in remote labor markets."
David Coleman, the immigration minister, said in February that the federal government was discussing a designated regional immigration agreement with a number of areas that needed more labour. (Designated Area Migration Agreements, for short, DAMA).
Federal government has signed a revised DAMA agreement with the Northern Territory, providing visa holders with a "fast track" for permanent residence. The agreement was subsequently announced in the (Great South Coast) area of Victoria`s Greater South Coast.
In addition, the Orana area of New South Wales and the Keynes area of Queensland are also in the process of discussion.
However, are these skilled immigrants from "remote areas" who have been painstakingly touted by the Australian government willing to stay where they are when they arrive at the end of three years one day?
END
As the old saying goes, good birds choose wood and perch.
To be honest, for many Chinese floating in Australia, the goal in Australia is nothing more than two words.
Although this thin visa, get it only means that you and tens of millions of Australians are standing closer to the starting line, it only means that you and tens of millions of Australians stand closer to the starting line.
But no matter where you go, I hope you can figure out how to live and what kind of life you want to live every time you go to a place.
This place of mind is my hometown.
