The finding by the Scanlon Foundation that a rising number of Australians (49%) think immigration is too high, should come as no surprise, according to Sustainable Population Australia (SPA).
The 2024 report Mapping Australia's Cohesion found that more people believed that immigration numbers are too high due to increasing pressure on economic and housing issues rather than attitudes to diversity, multiculturalism and migrants.
SPA National President says there is a growing awareness of the strong link between cost-of-living pressures - notably housing - and rapid population growth, caused largely by housing demand, as a result of record immigration numbers.
"Australians are favour lower numbers of immigrant arrivals, disassociating that from issues of diversity and multiculturalism," says Mr Strachan. "Support for the latter remains high but has slightly declined (2 - 7 percentage points in the past two years).
"Australia has seen net overseas migration (NOM) numbers of 509,800 and 491,800 respectively in the years to March 2024 and 2023.
"Most migrants head to the major cities, while existing residents are often departing to the regions, leaving nowhere that is affordable for people on low income."
Mr Strachan welcomed the report's finding that social cohesion in Australia remained reasonably high though concerned that a third (35%) of migrants from non-English-speaking backgrounds experienced discrimination on the basis of skin colour, ethnic origin or religion in the past 12 months.
"If we want to retain a cohesive society, we must ensure the size of the migrant intake does not put economic pressure on existing communities. People who are forced into economic pressure are more likely to discriminate against minority groups, particularly migrants.
"Clearly, current immigration numbers are way too high and must be reduced.
"Australia has witnessed an alarming loss of habitat for other animals resulting from the impact of human activities, be it housing, other infrastructure or agriculture.
"The COP29 climate summit in Azerbaijan this week reminds us that we must be ever mindful of the need to meet our greenhouse emission targets and set more ambitious targets for 2035.
"Australia will not meet its targets if it maintains high levels of population growth, fuelled largely by mass immigration."
