Australia’s State-Specific and Regional Migration Scheme: An Assessment of its Impacts in South Australia

In post-demographic transition societies, the impacts of low fertility and aging are most strongly felt in peripheral areas where they are exacerbated by youth outmigration. International migration is increasingly seen to have the potential to offset these demographic constraints on economic development. In Australia, immigration policy has been strongly focused on selecting who can be accepted as settlers. However, there are now a range of visa categories which also influence where they settle and channels a fifth of settler arrivals into lagging peripheral parts of the nation. This paper shows how these have been used by the State of South Australia to more than treble its immigrant intake as part of its economic development strategy. The impact of the State-Specific Regional Migration (SSRM) Scheme in South Australia is assessed and the initial experience of settlers examined. It is argued that international migration can play a supportive role in the development of peripheral regions in OECD countries, but there are a number of preconditions which need to be met for them to be effective.