Intake of skilled migration putting pressure on Australian families, says Melbourne MP

HIGH immigration intakes are fanning negative feelings about asylum seekers and damaging national unity, a Labor MP says.

It came as new data reveal that Australia has one of the highest immigration rates in the world.

Outspoken Melbourne MP Kelvin Thomson said the tolerance of Australians had been stretched to breaking point by the quadrupling of skilled migration over the past 15 years.

''(This) has generated competition for jobs and housing and put pressure on family living standards,'' Mr Thomson said.

''As a consequence the debate about asylum seekers is very divisive. It is doing nothing for our sense of national unity and respect for each other.''

Mr Thomson wants net annual migration slashed by 100,000 to 74,000, which he says would still mean one of the biggest per capita immigration programs in the world.

From 2005-10, Australia's net migration was 11.1 people per 1000 population, compared with only 6.6 for Canada, which is a similar high migration country.

The UK and the US each had a rate of 3.3, while New Zealand had 3.1 and South Africa 2.9.

Only Singapore, with a rate of 30.9, was higher than Australia, according to a Australian Bureau of Statistics report.

Australia's net annual migrant intake was 234,000 over the five-year period, but is expected to fall to 174,000 during 2010-15.

This will mean a migration rate of 7.7 people per 1000 population, compared with 6.6 for Singapore, 5.6 for Canada, 3.1 for the US and 7.9 for Hong Kong.

Mr Thomson said cutting skilled migration would boost public support for a bigger refugee program because Australians were instinctively generous and good-hearted.

But Committee for Melbourne CEO Andrew MacLeod said cutting skilled arrivals would put local jobs and economic growth at risk.

''Rather than going on such flights of fancy, we should be putting pressure on our politicians to invest in the infrastructure needed for a growing population,'' he said.

Mr MacLeod said a spike in migration in 2008 had been a concern, but population growth had fallen and was now in line with a 50-year trend needed for economic prosperity.

Source:http://www.heraldsun.com.au