South Australia need more immigrants

[Guest The Pom Queen]

A LOW birthrate and a looming shortage of young adults is prompting new calls for South Australia’s population and economy to be “turbocharged” with immigrants.

The proportion of the state’s population aged up to 19 years fell from 24.4 per cent to 23.5 per cent between 2011 and 2016, according to Census results released this week. Nationally, about 24.8 per cent of Australians are children or teenagers.

The proportion of the SA population aged between 20 and 34-year-olds grew slightly from 19.2 per cent to 19.4 per cent.

Crossbench Senator Nick Xenophon said special immigration programs were needed for SA and Tasmania, which are lagging behind the rest of the country in population growth.

“We need to turbocharge South Australia’s population. We need to bring people into the state who will create employment and economic activity,’’ Senator Xenophon said.

We need to aim for at least an extra 10,000 international students — we need to aim for Adelaide to be the education city for Australia and for the region.’’

Senator Xenophon said making it easier for would-be entrepreneurs to migrate to the state from overseas would help create new businesses and jobs.

Adelaide migration agent Mark Glazbrook said Australia had a “one-size, fits all” immigration system which overlooked the needs of smaller states, including SA.

Mr Glazbrook said allowing more immigrants to fill employment vacancies in regional parts of SA would stimulate the economy and create more jobs for locals.

“The migration program is really based on big-city migration and controlling the flow of people into Sydney, Melbourne, Queensland and Western Australia,’’ he said.

Mr Glazbrook said population growth in SA would slide even lower unless immigration rules were changed.

“As a result of the current migration program, population growth in South Australia has fallen from 16,500 five years ago, down to about 9400 per year,’’ he said.

 

“The recent changes to the 457 visa program and permanent employer-sponsored program will probably see growth fall to about 5000 per year.’’

SA families with offspring have an average of 1.8 children.

Babies and children aged up to four years make up 6.6 per cent of the national population but just six per cent of SA’s population.

There are about 393,000 children and teenagers in SA. The number of 15 to 19 years old fell by 2000 between 2011 and 2016. There were about 326,000 SA residents aged between 20 and 34.

[Smiths]

Croweaters escape at the earliest opportunity,

[SteveandKirsty]

We have permanent residency for South Australia, yet at present are still based in the UK with no immediate plans to move simply because we are gauging the situation from afar, looking at the job situation online and so on.  It is a "Catch 22" situation.  We have looked at this for years, planned it, gone through with it - as far as we are aware with the State Sponsorship from SA we cannot locate in another State for at least two years (?) but ultimately no further forward to making a real decision.

We will have to make a visit to validate our visas, obviously.  All we read and hear is "don't come to Adelaide/SA there are no jobs"

I have often said to myself that South Australia's greatest strength is also its greatest weakness. Lack of people.  But Xenophon is correct - people create wealth, jobs and so on. England (rather than the UK as a whole) is testimony to that. 

Tough one!

 

 

[silencio]

First of all, South Australia needs new roads. They are shocking...and also not good enough in comparison to the 'big players' Victoria + NSW. Once an appropriate infrastructure is created - especially to transport goods/import/export - jobs follow as a flow-on-effect.

Migrants alone don't bring jobs as we have limited resources like water, electricity, roads. These issues needs an urgent overhaul - overdue!

[silencio]

Depends on what kind of job you are looking for. There are still job opportunities and new people find jobs depending on the industry.

[SteveandKirsty]

Agree with all that too.

Whilst there is little comparison between England and South Australia, the utter disaster of what is the infrastructure in the country, where unlimited migration has taken its toll is seen every day, in every way.

You still highlight my "catch 22" situation though !

I cannot see that we will make the move if I am really honest. A lot of time, effort and money wasted.

[Sandgroper]

On 7/4/2017 at 18:38, SteveandKirsty said:

We have permanent residency for South Australia, yet at present are still based in the UK with no immediate plans to move simply because we are gauging the situation from afar, looking at the job situation online and so on.  It is a "Catch 22" situation.  We have looked at this for years, planned it, gone through with it - as far as we are aware with the State Sponsorship from SA we cannot locate in another State for at least two years (?) but ultimately no further forward to making a real decision.

We will have to make a visit to validate our visas, obviously.  All we read and hear is "don't come to Adelaide/SA there are no jobs"

I have often said to myself that South Australia's greatest strength is also its greatest weakness. Lack of people.  But Xenophon is correct - people create wealth, jobs and so on. England (rather than the UK as a whole) is testimony to that. 

Tough one!

 

 

Lots of people locate to a state other than the one they are sponsored for...............lots!

[Smiths]

On 04/07/2017 at 21:09, SteveandKirsty said:

Agree with all that too.

Whilst there is little comparison between England and South Australia, the utter disaster of what is the infrastructure in the country, where unlimited migration has taken its toll is seen every day, in every way.

You still highlight my "catch 22" situation though !

I cannot see that we will make the move if I am really honest. A lot of time, effort and money wasted.

An excuse for those not really committed.  Seen it so many times over the years 

[silencio]

I think State Sponsorship is 'only' morally binding...if that hasn't changed in the meantime. And I have also heard and seen of many people who moved interstate. Actually, many young South Australians move to Victoria/Melbourne, sometime 80 % of a year (this is an estimate only as I don't have statistics to prove it).

On the flipside - the positive side - only very few migrants make the move to Adelaide and even fewer to regional South Australia. Besides Tasmania we're the least populated state with the least increase in population. Adelaide is a very easy city in terms moving along, not so much traffic congestion and so on.

Though it's a city of 'who you know not what you know' there are still opportunities in the job market as you would compete with less people though Aussie employers prefer 'local' experience ( local job experience was not necessary for my other half who secured work within 3 weeks of arrival but that was more than 5 1/2 years ago).

If I were you I would give it a go and if you don't like it move interstate.

[starlight7]

From outside it looks pretty idyllic round Adelaide and South Australia but I must admit that most of the people I have met from there seem to want to leave or has left.  They say it is boring ( again, looks ok to me!) Possibly the small population does make it less likely to meet new people, I don't know. 

[silencio]

I

10 minutes ago, starlight7 said:

From outside it looks pretty idyllic round Adelaide and South Australia but I must admit that most of the people I have met from there seem to want to leave or has left.  They say it is boring ( again, looks ok to me!) Possibly the small population does make it less likely to meet new people, I don't know. 

I heard the same said from people in Perth/Western Australia due to it's isolated geographical location!

Adelaide has still over 1,3 million inhabitants. It depends on how outgoing somebody is to meet new people in the end. Hobbies, club membership, the workplace, other parents are ways to engage with new people/finding friends. There are always other migrants to look for new contacts as well.

I believe even in Sydney or Melbourne it can be hard to meet new people with the wrong mindset or in the wrong (seclusive) suburb! It really is all about interests and finding people with the same preferences.

Edited July 9, 2017 by silencio

[SteveandKirsty]

21 hours ago, silencio said:

I

I heard the same said from people in Perth/Western Australia due to it's isolated geographical location!

Adelaide has still over 1,3 million inhabitants. It depends on how outgoing somebody is to meet new people in the end. Hobbies, club membership, the workplace, other parents are ways to engage with new people/finding friends. There are always other migrants to look for new contacts as well.

I believe even in Sydney or Melbourne it can be hard to meet new people with the wrong mindset or in the wrong (seclusive) suburb! It really is all about interests and finding people with the same preferences.

Indeed life is what you make it!

[SteveandKirsty]

On ‎06‎/‎07‎/‎2017 at 12:30, silencio said:

 

If I were you I would give it a go and if you don't like it move interstate.

That is the most likely scenario at this stage.  Kirsty's work is in a much more specialist field where there are genuine shortages in South Australia, and the country as a whole (yet could only get state sponsorship for SA) so she probably would find a job easier than I.  Kirsty does have plenty of genuine contacts in Victoria, NSW and ACT (not that I would to live in the latter, really)  The local experience is a thing, yes.  I applied for a job a couple of months ago in Adelaide that I had hoped I would at least get an interview for, but didn't and I was thinking that it was simply down to the fact that I wasn't local and they were overlooking many things on many levels.  It's a competitive world, whatever, wherever and we will press on with the plan.