Migration

Opposition immigration spokesman Scott Morrison has flagged reducing Australia's immigration level by 100,000 people a year to allow for sustainable population growth.

THE business sector has strongly supported the idea of a "big Australia". It believes it is regrettable that legitimate migration is being confused with the populism surrounding border protection.

Ethnic minorities will make up a fifth of Britain's population by 2051, compared with 8% in 2001, according to new projections published today by the University of Leeds. The figures, which show Britain's total population growing to 77.7 million, also indicate that the UK will become far less segregated as ethnic groups disperse throughout the country. In October, the Office for National Statistics predicted the population would exceed 70m by 2029.

IF new Prime Minister Julia Gillard really wants to slow population growth, she will need to put the brakes on the economy first.

WAYWARD migration forecasts are creating headaches for Gillard and Abbott. THE nation is carrying about 800,000 more people than it had bargained for when Labor came to power in 2007. This is the gap between the modest official population projections that were publicly available at the time of the last election and the fertility and immigration booms for which no level of government was ready. To put the undercount in perspective, for every one un-invited boatperson since the last election there have been 1200 unexpected residents.

KIWIS love the Sunshine Coast. In fact, it is New Zealand immigrants who are largely behind our population growth – and that is unlikely to change, even if the Federal Government radically restricts migration.

Population growth will slow markedly in the coming two years, helping to ease upward pressure on interest rates and rental accommodation, the forecasting group BIS Shrapnel says. This report is not publicly available, BIS Shrapnel sell it for $4,620, see: http://www.bis.com.au/reports/bia_r.html So there is no way we can see what assumptions were made and the method of their calculations.

mmigration Minister Chris Evans has slashed by half the list of 400 occupations given an easy ride into Australia in the independent skilled migration program, replacing them with 180 ''highly valued occupations''.

United Nations Population Facts Department of Economic and Social Affairs * Population Division No. 2010/2/E

AUSTRALIA'S first population minister will explore whether immigration rules can be used to dictate where new migrants live and work.