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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
National
Patrick Commins

Australia has never driven migration into reverse by design. Would slamming the brakes on be calamitous?

A densely packed crowd covers Bondi Beach's sand near the ocean under clear skies
Excluding New Zealanders and those on visitor visas, temporary migrants as a share of Australia’s population has more than doubled over the past 15 years. Image shows Bondi Beach. Photograph: danefromspain/Getty Images/iStockphoto

Australia is flirting with the idea of something it has never done: deliberately driving net overseas migration into reverse.

In the history of our immigrant nation, extended periods of more people leaving our shores than arriving have only happened during convulsive moments: economic collapses, wars, and pandemics.

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