Welfare Recipient Patterns Among Migrants
Effects of time spent in Australia on welfare recipient levels
Table 4 provides a further breakdown of the information shown in Table 3 by incorporating the time-of-arrival factor. In setting the table up this way the objective was to examine the difference time of arrival made to the need for welfare assistance after controlling for English proficiency and age.
We cannot be precise about the migrants' age at the time-of-arrival because of the way the age and year-of-arrival are specified. Nevertheless, by comparing the welfare rates for particular age groups across the three time-of-arrival categories it is possible to estimate the significance of age at time-of-arrival on the propensity to need welfare assistance.
We might expect that the situation of people with poor English on arrival would improve with increased familiarity with Australian conditions, experience in the local labour market and time to learn English. It is more an open question whether such improvement would occur if a migrant arrived in Australia at an older age. Persons arriving in the over 40 age range may have difficulty getting the labour market experience needed to improve their situation.
Table 4 gives qualified support for these expectations. Welfare-recipient rates are higher for recent arrivals (those arriving between 1991 and 1996) in most age groups and EP categories than earlier arrivals in the same age and EP categories.
Thus, for most EP categories and age groups, extra time in Australia is associated with reduced need for welfare assistance. The only groups which do not fit this generalisation are men aged up to 30-34 and women aged up to 35-39 amongst EP categories 1 and 2.
These latter groups apparently possess the skills and English language capacity which enable them to prosper immediately in Australia without welfare assistance. Indeed, their welfare rates tend to be lower than those for their Australia-born counterparts.
A more sophisticated way of making this comparison is to compare those who were in a particular age group at time of arrival and who have resided in Australia for less than five years with those who were in the same age group at time of arrival but who have an additional five years residence in Australia.
The shaded rows in Table 4 illustrate the point. It shows that, for men aged 35-39 in 1996 who arrived 1991-1996, 21.6 per cent were in receipt of a welfare benefit. If we assume that these people have the same characteristics of those aged 40-44 in 1996 who had been in Australia an extra five years, we can compare the effect of the extra time on their need for welfare.
Of these longer term residents shown in the shaded portion of the 40-44 panel, only 10.2 per cent were in receipt of a welfare benefit. This pattern is shown for all EP groups for men and is thus contrary to the findings of Borjas [4] in America. Borjas followed a panel of migrants after arrival in the US and showed that their receipt of welfare benefits actually increased with time spent in America.
However, the pattern is reversed for women. There is a slight tendency for women to need more welfare assistance with time spent in Australia, especially for women in the older age groups. Some of the factors shaping this finding are explored below.
[4] George J. Borjas, 1999, Heaven's Door, Princeton University Press, p. 108