Migration Watch Australia data: Average-income Aussies struggling with the cost of living call for immigration cut – but the rich have a very different view

New data shows middle-income Australians are more likely to support big cuts to immigration as rapid population growth creates a housing crisis.

Migration Watch Australia conducted a survey which found that 76 percent of respondents want a cap on the number of international students.

In 2023, 733,370 international students came to Australia.

That number continues to grow: in the first six months of 2024, 428,790 international students will arrive with a visa.

International students make up the largest part of long-term entrants. These are foreigners who come to Australia for at least 12 months. Australia is currently facing a rental crisis.

Compass Polling data from 1,015 respondents, commissioned by Migration Watch Australia, shows that those with an average income of $100,000 are more likely to support hard limits on international student arrivals.

These were young men, ages 25 to 34, who earned $90,000 to $130,000 with a bachelor’s degree.

However, women between the ages of 35 and 44 with a postgraduate degree and an income of $130,000 to $230,000 opposed limiting the number of international students.

The same applied to men in the same age category who voted for the Labour Party and had a comparably high income.

Women earning more than $230,000 a year and in the top 2.3 percent of income earners also opposed limiting the number of international students.

Nine out of ten respondents agreed that solving the housing crisis is more important than educating foreign students.

But postgraduate students and high-income earners were among the few groups who disagreed with this question.

Three-quarters of respondents also wanted vocational education programs removed from international student visas.

According to Jordan Knight, founder of Migration Watch Australia, the high number of international students is exacerbating Australia’s rental crisis.

“This is happening at a time when Australians are becoming homeless, wages are flat, rental properties are impossible to find and roads are congested,” he said.

‘The big universities are wrong. This is not populist or emotional.

‘Calls for hard limits are common sense. The Labour government has brought in record numbers of people since taking office, and small changes will not solve this. It is time for hard limits.’

Jordan Knight, founder of Migration Watch Australia, said the high number of international students was exacerbating Australia’s rental crisis

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s government announced plans in the May budget to drastically reduce the number of international students.

The Group of Eight, which represents Australia’s most prestigious universities in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth, is lobbying the government against its proposals to reduce the number of international students.

Education was Australia’s fourth-largest export in 2023, after iron ore, coal and natural gas, making it the largest service sector sold to overseas customers.

Vicki Thomson, chief executive of Go8, said capping the number of international students would jeopardise a $48 billion export industry.

“Imposing a cap on international student enrolments will have long-lasting, damaging consequences for our economy, our ability to attract the highest quality students, our skilled workforce and Australia’s international reputation,” she said in July.

The federal government announced plans in the May budget to drastically reduce the number of international students (stock photo of UNSW students)

Education Minister Jason Clare this month ruled out setting a 40 percent cap for international students of all enrolments.

But Australia is facing a rental crisis, with vacancy rates in capital cities hitting an extremely low 1.3 percent in July, data from SQM Research shows.

Australia’s population growth was 2.5 percent in 2023, the fastest growth since the early 1950s. A whopping 547,300 migrants arrived in the country, including those leaving.

Since the middle of last year, the economy has also been in a per capita recession, causing output per Australian to decline.

“Australians are seeing their living standards collapse under the weight of an immigration-fueled population explosion, and they know the government isn’t doing enough,” Knight said. “They want tougher action.”