Welfare Recipient Patterns Among Migrants
Welfare recipient rate findings - Statistical overview
Table 1 shows the ratio of DSS welfare benefit and pension recipients to the relevant base population for all Australia-born and overseas-born persons by broad age group (15-24, 25-44, 45-64 and 65+). Table 2 indicates the same ratios for the States.
Table 1 - Australian-born and overseas-born welfare recipient rates by age group and time of arrival for overseas-born persons.
The major finding is that, overall, the overseas born have slightly lower welfare-recipient rates than do the Australia-born for each age group. This conclusion holds for almost all age groups in each of the States as well. The only exception is for overseas-born persons aged 45-64 in Victoria and South Australia.
It should be noted that the proportion of Australia-born on the pension understates the position significantly because it does not include pensions paid by the Department of Veteran's Affairs.
The state-based data are consistent with the relative strength of the respective state economies as of 1996 (as indicated by unemployment rates). Thus we find that welfare recipient levels for both overseas-born persons and Australia-born persons aged 25-44 and 45-64 are higher in South Australia than in Western Australia and New South Wales.
Nevertheless, not too much should be made of the aggregate figures in Tables 1 and 2 because they hide wide divergences in welfare-recipient ranges by country of birth, by EP category and by period of arrival.
For example, as is shown below ( Table 9), Perth has received a larger share of EP1 migrants relative to EP3 and EP4 migrants (who, the subsequent analysis shows, are far more likely to receive welfare benefits than those from EP1 countries) than most other capital cities. Thus the state of the local economy is only one part of story.