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Title

Attitudes to immigration and population growth in Australia 1954 to 2010: an overview

Author(s)

Betts, Katharine

Abstract

Australia has a long series of polls on attitudes to the number of migrants coming to the country but, because of general ignorance about demography, these cannot be used as reliable indicators of attitudes to population growth. However recent, very rapid, growth has sparked a new and wide-ranging debate about population growth, and the role that immigration plays in forcing the pace. In future voters should be able to draw more accurate conclusions about this role. There is now a groundswell of community concern; for example, in April 2010, 87 per cent wanted Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane to either stay the same size of have a smaller population. While some commentators see the pro-stability position as racist, or as the product of political manipulation, the evidence shows that it is based on concern about local training and the stress that growth imposes on both the man-made and natural environment.

Publication type

Journal article

Source

People and Place, Vol. 18, no. 3 (2010), pp. 32-51

Publication year

2010

FOR Code(s)

1205 Urban and Regional Planning;  1603 Demography

Keyword(s)

Attitudes;  Australia;  Demography;  Immigration;  Population growth;  Public opinion

Publisher

Monash Centre for Population and Urban Research

ISSN

1039-4788

Publisher URL

http://arrow.monash.edu.au/hdl/1959.1/482193

Copyright

Copyright © Monash University and the author 2010. Paper reproduced here with the kind permission of the publisher.

Full text

Peer reviewed