The Biggest Loser: Education and Skilled Immigration in Australia

Abstract

Recent studies indicate that skilled immigration is most likely to achieve only small net welfare gains. Nevertheless, the distributional impact of skilled immigration is potentially large, despite the lack of attention paid it. The paper argues that the recent expansion of skilled immigrants may have led to a crowding out of domestic demand for education. Consequently, the expansion of skilled immigration may have contributed to the 'big squeeze' in Australian universities, rather than easing the mismatch problems in the labour market.