The effects of immigration on unemployment

Abstract

A major argument against immigration in the Australian literature has been that it reduces the rate of growth of output per head, and hence of living standards, by reducing the amount of capital that is available for the average worker to use. This argument goes back, at least, to the (Vernon) Committee of Economic Enquiry (1965), and has been used by many economists since. Even the present author, while sympathetic to immigration, recently argued that it did reduce the growth of productivity by reducing the rate of growth of capital per worker (Nevile 1989, p. 155).