'Deborah Cobb-Clark and Siew-Ean Khoo are leading experts in immigration research. Here they have assembled a set of important studies that show how selective immigration policy affects subsequent outcomes for immigrants. The chapters exploit a uniqu

Poverty, famines, wars, and ethnic conflicts lead to large movements of refugees. The papers in this book provide an analysis of the economics of immigration. Junankar discusses why people migrate, the likely destinations for migrants, and their employment in the destination countries. He studies the benefits to the migrant families in terms of higher wages and living standards, and also studies how immigrants fare in the Australian labour markets in terms of finding good jobs, and whether there is discrimination against them. Economics of Immigration analyses the macroeconomic impacts of immigration on the Australian economy and discusses why some groups favour immigration while other groups are against it. Junankar argues immigration has been beneficial for employment and growth; not only adding to labour supply but also to labour demand, hence leading to favourable outcomes. This collection of essays shows how immigration has helped the economic development of Australia, while also highlighting that the historical reasons for immigration lie in the colonisation of many countries in Asia and Africa.

Many governments seek to attract skilled migrants into the top occupational groups and now have significant groups of overseas-born professionals in their workforces. Such groups are expected to contribute significantly to the economic and social development of their new countries. There has been sustained debate between those taking the view that skilled migrants are integrated without much difficulty and those concerned that a mismatch between aspirational government policies and actual organisational practice generates discontent and frustration among skilled immigrants. If the latter is correct, it seems likely that host societies will not benefit from the injection of human capital in terms of creativity and innovation. In Skilled Migration, Expectation and Reality the authors report the findings of their research into the acculturation and integration issues confronting professional Chinese immigrants in the Australian labour market. Australia serves as a good example of the phenomenon under examination, being a country where Chinese are one of the largest non-English speaking ethnic groups and where they are strongly concentrated in the top occupational groups. The authors’ rigorous quantitative and qualitative study is one of the first systematic examinations of acculturation to focus specifically on the workplace. It reveals fascinating insights regarding the strategies that professional immigrants are compelled to adopt because they are unable to find appropriate channels through which to integrate and assimilate into the host society.

Presents a summary discussion of an extensive analysis of the labour market status of migrants and the factors which influence that status. Provides information on migration category at the disaggregated level in the ABS Characteristics of Migrants Survey conducted in March 1984 and March 1987. Covers trends from 1946 to 1988.