A new paradigm of international migration between the European Union and Australia: patterns and implications

Abstract

International migration between the European Union (EU) and Australia has a long history. However, the pattern of this migrational flow has undergone some profound changes in the last decade. This paper provides an Australian-end perspective on these changes using the 2001 Census of Population and Housing, arrival/departure information and survey results to establish the nature and scale of these changes. Australia is recognised, along with Canada, the United States and New Zealand, as a ‘traditional country of immigration’ and the EU has been one of the largest single suppliers of settlers to Australia with 12 percent of Australians at the 2001 Census being born in the EU and a similar number being Australian-born with a EU-born parent. However, with the massive global shifts occurring in international migration, the migration relationship has become much more complex. On the one hand, Australia has entered a new paradigm of international migration in which non-permanent settlement movements have assumed central significance. The EU has been a major source of such people moving to Australia. There has long been a substantial counter flow of people moving from Australia to the EU among which former settlers have dominated. In recent years the numbers of Australian born moving on a permanent or long-term basis to the EU has increased substantially. It is argued that the bulk of research knowledge in Australia is based on the settlement paradigm which is now only a minor part of migration between Australia and Europe. There is a need to reorient research activity in Australia to encompass the new forms of movement. In addition to identifying the scale of the new forms of international migration influencing movements between the EU and Australia, trends in that movement and the composition of flows are explored. This paper traces a number of the policy implications which arise. Show more