Migrants aren’t to blame for expensive houses or stress on infrastructure: in fact they’re making more contribution to our shared assets than Australians.

Many Australians believe that migrants are responsible for pushing up house prices and that they are putting undue stress on our public infrastructure.

The ABC’s Tom Crowley brings data to bear in dispelling those beliefs, with charts showing the effect of migration on Australia’s housing story.

On housing, he points to research showing migrants have indeed contributed to rising house prices, but only by a small amount. Over the 10 years between 2006 and 2016 nominal house prices were rising at 6 per cent a year, but only 1 per cent of that 6 per cent was attributable to migration. He also points out that migrants not only buy houses; some, attracted by our preference for skilled migrants, build houses.

As for demand for schools, health care and infrastructure – services that are generally funded through public expenditure – Crowley draws on Treasury modelling demonstrating that migrants contribute to public revenue.

That modelling shows that over their lifetime Australians on average enjoy $620,000 of benefits drawn from the public purse, while they contribute only $535,000 as taxes – a shortfall of $85,000.

Migrants, however, are net contributors to public revenue. The graph below, a reconstruction of a similar graph in Crowley’s post, shows that employer-sponsored migrants make a significant contribution to public revenue (taxes of $1 million, withdrawals of $0.5 million) and that their partners make a small net contribution.

Do those people demonstrating against migration realise that they are demonstrating in support of higher taxes?

Republished from Ian McAuley.com - Bear weekly roundup, 15 November, 2025

The views expressed in this article may or may not reflect those of Pearls and Irritations.