Migration, labour demand, housing markets and the drought in regional Australia

This report explore the interactions between local labour demand and short-term and long-term mobility or, more correctly, migration. Given that the definition of drought is contested, sensitivity analysis was conducted using independent regional data. Census data for Statistical Local Areas (SLAs) throughout Australia were used to capture mobility between 2001 and 2006. The major social and economic costs and benefits of migration identified in recent censuses are used to explain the changing patterns of mobility within and between rural and metropolitan areas. These results are interpreted by reference to the standard human capital model of migration.