There Goes the Neighborhood? People’s Attitudes and the Effects of Immigration to Australia

32 Pages Posted: 8 Aug 2011

See all articles by Mathias Sinning

Mathias Sinning

Australian National University (ANU) - Crawford School of Public Policy

Matthias Vorell

Rhine-Westphalia Institute for Economic Research (RWI-Essen)

Abstract

This paper compares the effects of immigration flows on economic outcomes and crime levels to the public opinion about these effects using individual and regional data for Australia. We employ an instrumental variables strategy to account for non-random location choices of immigrants and find that immigration has no adverse effects on regional unemployment rates, median incomes, or crime levels. This result is in line with the economic effects that people typically expect but does not confirm the public opinion about the contribution of immigration to higher crime levels, suggesting that Australians overestimate the effect of immigration on crime.

Keywords: effects of immigration, attitudes towards immigrants, international migration

JEL Classification: F22, J61

Suggested Citation

Sinning, Mathias and Vorell, Matthias, There Goes the Neighborhood? People’s Attitudes and the Effects of Immigration to Australia. IZA Discussion Paper No. 5883, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1906186 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1906186

Mathias Sinning (Contact Author)

Australian National University (ANU) - Crawford School of Public Policy ( email )

ANU College of Asia and the Pacific
J.G. Crawford Building, #132, Lennox Crossing
Canberra, Australian Capital Territory 0200
Australia

HOME PAGE: http://www.mathiassinning.com

Matthias Vorell

Rhine-Westphalia Institute for Economic Research (RWI-Essen) ( email )

Hohenzollernstr. 1-3
Essen, 45128
Germany

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