A new study into the perceptions of immigrants and immigration policy preferences led by The Australian National University (ANU) has found that Australians want less migration but also hold “large and often contradictory misperceptions”. At the same time, support for international students remains steady.
The results of the survey of 5,282 respondents have been released in a Development Policy Centre Discussion Paper, Narratives, information and immigration policy preferences.
The conflicting misperceptions included:
- Underestimating the proportion of immigrants arriving in Australia on temporary visas while believing there were twice as many full-time student immigrants than actually recorded.
- Underestimation of the scale of the recent post-pandemic immigration boom and overestimated arrivals and net overseas migration over the last decade or so.
- Perceived immigrants in Australia to be earning more than they do, but also more likely to be unemployed and lower-skilled than they are.
- Overestimate the proportion of immigrants from all regions except Europe and Asia, including believing that there are 2–3 times more immigrants from the Middle East and the Pacific Islands region than is the case.
The consequence of these misperceptions is a preference for lower levels of immigration, with two exceptions: the first, a preference for more high-skilled migrants, and the second was ‘no change’ to migrants from the Pacific Islands region.
On international students, “most respondents do not support a reduction in international student visa numbers. On this issue, the most frequently expressed response was for numbers to stay the same,” said study lead author, Alyssa Leng, ANU Development Policy Centre.
The study also found that exposure to ‘positive’ narratives about the contributions that migrants can make to boosting Australia’s housing supply can influence support for more migration.
“Our experiment found that support for increased immigration rose between four to seven per cent when respondents were shown narratives on how immigrants can help improve housing affordability in Australia,” said Leng.
The study also found that exposure to a negative immigration narrative reduces public support for increasing or maintaining current migration levels.
“The different effects we observe from different types of narratives highlight the importance of standards of impartiality in media reporting, as emotive narratives can significantly shift views and thus political and policy outcomes,” said study co-author, Ryan Edwards, Deputy Director, ANU Development Policy Centre.
In the context of current debate about the social licence of the international education sector in Australia, the conclusion of the study is salient:
Policymakers wishing to lead the public and maintain support for a robust immigration program should actively highlight how immigrants can contribute to key domestic issues and how immigration can benefit the incumbent population more broadly.
The full study can be found here.
Leng, A. Edwards, R. B. Wood, T. 2025.Narratives, information and immigration policy preferences, Development Policy Centre Discussion Paper 112, Crawford School of Public Policy, The Australian National University, Canberra.
