Cath Scarth, CEO of AMES Australia

Among the plethora of false claims uttered by former US President Donald Trump during his recent debate with Vice President Kamela Harris were two that have resonance in Australia.

Trump claimed there are millions of migrants pouring into the US from foreign jails and insane asylums and that they are stealing jobs from hardworking Americans.

These are claims that will not be unfamiliar to Australians.

But the truth of these matters, both here and in US, is the opposite.

Statistically, migrants are less likely to commit crimes than locally born residents and migrants create jobs rather than steal them.

Trump cited the town of Springfield, Ohio, which he said was being overrun with migrants who were, he bizarrely claimed, eating the locals’ pets.

Springfield is typical of the so-called ‘rustbelt’ mid-western American towns and cities. The car industry was once the heartbeat of the city, but as the industry shrank, so did the population of the town.

In 2020, something unexpected happened when thousands of Haitian migrants, fleeing violence, economic ruin and poverty in their homeland, started to arrive in Springfield.

Attracting the Haitians were the jobs on offer in local factories and the service industries.

The CEO of a local metal plant, Jamie McGregor, told National Public Radio (NPR) that in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, migrants were vital in his plant being able to keep up with demand for its products as the US economy roared back into life.

Mr McGregor said his company was profoundly affected by labour shortages, and 30 new Haitian migrant workers were key to filling the gaps.

Local economics professor Denise Williams told NPR the influx of migrants was good for Springfield’s local economy creating the critical mass of population needed for economic growth and increased productivity.

Migrants have had similar positive impacts in Australia.

In the town of Nhill, in western Victoria, the local poultry processing plant was struggling to fill vacancies.

Like many other regional towns, Nhill faced a declining working-age population, the resultant loss of services and amenities and the flow-on implications for the economic and social prosperity of the town.

A program to resettle refugees in regional Australia saw several hundred Karen refugees from Melbourne, who were keen to take up regional jobs, recruited by the plant.

A decade later, an economic impact study found more than $100 million and 156 jobs had been added to the local economy.

The presence of the Karen at Nhill has had a sustained positive impact on employment with the increased population generating more jobs in service industries. The majority of the Karen in Nhill were settled in family groups, adding a total of 71 children to an ageing population, the study found.

There have been similar successful settlement stories across the country in towns and cities like Toowoomba, Katanning, Bendigo, Wagga, Pyramid Hill, Mildura, Armidale and others.

Research by the federal government’s Centre for Population and the OECD found that migrants and refugees are more entrepreneurial than locally born people and are more like to create businesses or innovations that employ people.

The research also found migrants boost the labour productivity of Australian‑born workers.

On average, a region with a ten per cent larger migrant share has a 1.3 per cent larger regional wage difference, which indicates a positive link between migration and labour productivity.

Migration also boosts the employment of the Australian‑born population and does not affect its wages.

A one percent rise in the annual migrant inflow leads to a 0.53 per cent increase in the employment of the Australian‑born population. Australian‑born people of all skill levels, ages or genders benefit from this positive effect, the research said.

Australia has the highest proportion of migrants in the OECD, except for tiny Luxemburg. We are also a successful multicultural nation with high levels of acceptance of cultural diversity.

From the Afghan cameleers of the 1880s to the factory workers of the 1950s and 60s, migrants have been at the heart of Australia’s economic success.

The idea that migrants will take people’s jobs is farcical. New arrivals and their families add to the demand for labour and goods and services; and they add to the available supply of workers, especially skilled ones.

We should be careful about descending into problematic and damaging narratives like the one Donald Trump pursued in the debate.

Divisive rhetoric around migration levels when linked to push-button issues such as jobs and crime is damaging to migrant communities; and it erodes our hard-won high levels of social cohesion.