Average-income Australians are more likely to support big cuts to immigration as surging population growth causes a housing crisis, according to new data.
Migration Watch Australia commissioned a survey which showed 76 per cent of respondents wanted a cap on the number of international students.
In 2023, 733,370 international students arrived in Australia.
That number continues to grow with 428,790 international visa-holding students arriving in the first six months of 2024.
International students make up the bulk of long-term arrivals, classed as foreigners coming to Australia for at least 12 months, as the country finds itself in the midst of a rental crisis.
Data from the Compass survey of 1,015 respondents, commissioned by Migration Watch Australia, showed those with average incomes of $100,000 were most likely to favour strict limits on international student arrivals.
Among them were young men between the ages of 25 and 34 who earned between $90,000 and $130,000 with a college degree.
But women between the ages of 35 and 44 with graduate degrees and earning between $130,000 and $230,000 opposed limiting the number of international students.
Migration Watch Australia has commissioned a survey showing that 76 per cent of respondents want a cap on the number of international students (pictured, University of New South Wales)
The same was true for men who voted Labour in the same age group but with equally high incomes.
Women who earn more than $230,000 a year (among the top 2.3 percent of earners) also opposed limits on the number of international students.
Nine out of ten respondents agreed that solving the housing crisis was more important than educating foreign students.
But graduates and high-income earners were among the few groups that disagreed on that question.
Three-quarters of respondents also wanted vocational education programs to be removed from international student visas.
Migration Watch Australia founder Jordan Knight said the high number of international students was worsening Australia’s rental crisis.
“This is happening at a time when Australians are becoming homeless, wages are stagnant, rentals are impossible to find and roads are packed,” he said.
“The big universities are wrong. This is not about populism or emotionalism.
“Calls for strict limits are logical. The Labour government has hired a record number of people since taking office, and small adjustments will not solve the problem. It is time for strict limits.”
Migration Watch Australia founder Jordan Knight said high numbers of international students were worsening Australia’s rental crisis
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s government announced plans to reduce international student numbers in the May budget.
The Group of Eight, which represents Australia’s most prestigious universities in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth, has been lobbying the government against its proposals to cut international student numbers.
Education was Australia’s fourth-largest export in 2023, after iron ore, coal and natural gas, making it the best-selling service sector to overseas customers.
Go8 chief executive Vicki Thomson argued that capping international student numbers would undermine a $48 billion export industry.
“Imposing caps on international student enrolments will have long-lasting and damaging consequences for our economy, our ability to attract the highest quality students, our skilled workforce and Australia’s international reputation,” he said in July.
The federal government announced plans to reduce international student numbers in the May budget (file image of UNSW students)
Education Minister Jason Clare this month ruled out capping international student numbers at 40 percent of all enrolments.
But Australia is in the midst of a rental crisis, with capital cities seeing a very tight rental vacancy rate in July of just 1.3 per cent, SQM Research data showed.
Australia’s population growth of 2.5 per cent by 2023 was the fastest since the early 1950s, when a record 547,300 migrants arrived, including departures.
The economy has also been in per capita recession since the middle of last year, with output per Australian declining.
“Australians are seeing their living standards plummet under the weight of an immigration-driven population explosion, and they know the government is not doing enough,” Knight said. “They want tougher measures.”
