Migration research out of step

Professor Stephen Castles , Research Chair in Sociology at the University of Sydney, has revealed that research on migration and diversity has experienced a significant drop, despite the expanding and diversifying migration to Australia since the 1990s.

Professor Castles presented the information in a talk delivered at Rethinking Australian research on migration and diversity, a workshop funded by the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia co-convened by Professor Graeme Hugo (Adelaide University) and Associate Professor Ellie Vasta (Macquarie University). The event is also reported in the latest issue of Dialogue, the journal of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia.

"In the period since the mid-1990s, global and Australian international migrations have been massive, expanded and transformed, but there has been a substantial reduction in research in Australia dealing with migration and diversity," Professor Castles said.

"In a vacuum of evidence, it is possible for misinformation, self interest and bigotry to thrive. There is a clear need for the research community to provide more and more relevant evidence to inform the welcome public discourse in this area."

At the same time that research into migration and settlement has fallen, there is a host of new issues that need to be understood, Professor Castles said:

"We need more detailed understanding of migration and settlement processes in new contexts of transnationalism, new birthplace groups, increasing diversity, the global debate on security, new forms of transnational relations, changing attitudes of Australian non-migrants to particular new migrant groups and so on.

"Migration and diversity can be advantageous economically, politically and socially to nation-states, but for such advantages to be realised there must be the policies and institutions in place to facilitate the advantages and minimise or avoid any negative dimensions of migration and diversity."

According to Professor Castles, Australia has a larger proportion of its population who are international migrants or the children of migrants than all of the world’s medium and large nations.

"In the 1980s and early 1990s Australia led the world not only in migration and settlement research but also in the way in which that research linked to immigration and settlement policy and practice. Much of the Australian immigration and policy practice was evidence driven."

Media enquiries: Katie Szittner, 9351 2261, katie.szittner [a] sydney.edu (p) au