This paper assesses the extent to which migrants in the family, humanitarian and skill categories depend on social welfare payments soon after their arrival. The data were derived from the Bureau of Immigration, Multicultural and Population Research's Longitudinal Survey of Immigrants to Australia.

The extent to which immigrants receive support through social security programs has been the subject of much research. A claim often heard is that some immigrants arrive in Australia and almost immediately become utilisers of the social security system. This, it is argued, is inappropriate especially if immigrants are being selected to come to Australia because of their skills. It is also inappropriate, it is argued, for those immigrants arriving in family categories where part of the selection criteria is that the sponsor support the new immigrant, at least for specified periods after arrival.

Recently, discussion about the issue of receipt of unemployment and other social security benefits by newly arrived immi- grants has increased in response to the intention of the Coalition Government to introduce a two year waiting period' before being eligible for social security benefits. Since January 1, 1993, it has been the case that newly arrived immigrants have been subject to a 6 month (26 weeks) waiting period for Job Search Allowance and Sickness Allowance. The rationale for the waiting period, announced as part of the 1992-93 Budget, was that newly arrived migrants can be expected to make provision for their own needs for a reasonable period after arrival in Australia, before calling on taxpayer support'. However, it is important to note that some immigrants are exempt from this waiting period. These include refugee and humanitarian entrants, and partners of Australian residents with more than 26 weeks of permanent residence in Australia. As well, some immigrants not covered by these exemptions but who claim financial hardship are eligible for Special Benefit.

Immigrants who arrive in Australia on or after April 1 1996 have been informed that the Government's election policy states that it will introduce a two year waiting period before they can receive most social security payments. In addition, eligibility for Special Benefit has been tightened further so that the applicant has to demonstrate an unforseen change in circumstances which has then led to financial hardship. These new arrangements, of course, are contingent on the new legislation being passed.

As social security eligibility is closely dependent on visa entry category, data on social security usage by visa category are essential background to examining policy outcomes and therefore the need or other- wise for policy refinement. Until recently, data at this level of detail were not available. However, the recent release of data from the first wave of the Longitudinal Survey of Immigrants to Australia (LSIA) enables analysis of social security usage for recently arrived immigrants in a range of visa categories and by a range of demographic characteristics.

The LSIA is a large national survey which interviews Principal Applicants (PAs) and their families shortly after arrival (3-7 months), then reinterviews them one and a further two years later. The first wave interviewed approximately 5,190 PAs who arrived in Australia between September 1993 and August 1995. The survey is designed to reflect the composition of new arrivals primarily in terms of their visa category, region of birth and area of intended residence.

UTILISATION RATES

[Table 1] provides an overview of social security benefits received since arrival by recently arrived immigrants (but only the Principal Applicants) in the different visa categories. Income support assistance includes Job Search, Newstart, Sole Parent Pension and Special benefit; other forms of assistance include things like family payments and health care cards. (Note that the numbers do not add to 100 per cent because the Basic Family Payment and the Additional Family Payment can be received simultaneously.) These data indicate that just over two fifths of all recently arrived immigrants received some form of social security benefit, with clearly the largest share (20 per cent) accounted for by the Job Search allowance. The second largest category is Special Benefit, followed by 4 per cent receiving the Newstart allowance. This last result is a little surprising, as Newstart is targeted at those unemployed for twelve months or more. One explanation might be that both the LSIA respondent and the interviewer confused Newstart with Job Search, so that some Job Search recipients are incorrectly classified as receiving Newstart.

[Table 1]

Examination of the data by visa cate- gory shows that, consistent with exemption regulations, the majority of new arrivals in the humanitarian group were on some form of social security, with nearly 70 per cent of this group in receipt of the Job Search allowance. Conversely, and as expected, virtually no new immigrants entering Australia in the Business Skills and Employer Nomination Scheme categories were on social security. Nearly 30 per cent of Preferential Family new arrivals had received some form of social security, with Job Search accounting for the major share. Most of the arrivals in this category were spouses so that it is likely that many of their partners in Australia would have been here for at least the six months qualifying period. As well, from September 1994, the Job Search Allowance for a couple pre- viously paid to the husband was split across husband and wife, and the wife had to qualify in her own right. This change during the period in which the first wave of the LSIA was conducted is likely to have increased the number of recent arrivals in the Preferential Family category receiving Job Search.

Around 40 per cent of new arrivals in both the Concessional Family and In- dependent categories had received some form of social security. In both cases Special Benefit, where financial hardship is a condition for receipt, accounted for the largest proportion. The recent tightening of the financial hardship criterion will make it more difficult for new arrivals in these groups to be awarded Special Benefit. Over 10 per cent of recently arrived immigrants in the Concessional Family and Independent categories had received Job Search. A part explanation of this perceived outcome is that the Principal Applicant has incorrectly nominated Job Search as his/her form of income support, when actually receiving Special Benefit under Job Search conditions.

Because of the dominance in number terms of new immigrants who had received the Job Search allowance, and the relatively small total numbers in the other categories, further discussion in this article is focused around this allowance.

AMOUNTS RECEIVED

The bulk of Job Search recipients (about four fifths) received between $200 and $400 per fortnight, with the average amount received being about $310. While it appears that about 10 per cent received between $500 and $600, this is likely to be the result of incorrectly quoting the amount received as a couple.

DURATION OF RECEIPT

At the time of interview, Job Search recipients had, on average, received the benefit for 13 weeks approximately 3 months. Just over half of recent arrivals who had ever received Job Search had received it for between 10 and 19 weeks.

[Table 2]

RECEIPT OF JOB SEARCH BY SELECTED CHARACTERISTICS

As discussed earlier, a much higher pro- portion of new immigrants in the Humani- tarian category had received Job Search, compared with those in other visa categories. However, there was also some variation within visa categories, particularly in relation to gender, country of birth, and to a lesser extent, age and English language proficiency. Table 3 sets out the proportion of PAs who had ever received Job Search by visa category and by these selected characteristics. In every visa category, a higher proportion of males than females had received Job Search. Part of this difference can be explained by the fact that some wives whose husbands had alternative sources of income would not be eligible under the means test. There was also some minor variation by age, with those aged 25-34 years the least likely to have ever received Job Search.

[Table 3]

There were considerable differences in the distribution by region of birth of new arrivals who had received Job Search. In particular, the proportion of PAs born in the Middle East and North Africa who had received Job Search was consistently higher than average across all visa categories. In contrast, a very low proportion of PAs born in Northern America and Northeast Asia had received Job Search since their arrival in Australia. This could be explained by a number of factors. About a third of immigrants from the Middle East and North Africa come to Australia under the Humanitarian program, so are not only eligible for Job Search on arrival, but are also much less likely to find employment in the first six months after arrival. Very few come to Australia as part of the skilled migration program. In contrast, those who migrate from Northern America and Northeast Asia tend come as skilled migrants, or as spouses, and thus tend to be able to find employment more easily.

Receipt of Job Search also varied according to English language proficiency, with receipt among those whose first language was English or who spoke English very well being very low.

SUMMARY

The data available from the first wave of the LSIA enable a preliminary examination of social security usage among recently arrived immigrants, and the extent to which the exemptions are adhered to. The results in general accord with expectations.

There is no waiting period for refugees and humanitarian immigrants, as well as partners of Australian residents who have been permanent residents for more than 26 weeks. Nearly half of recipients of Job Search were in the Humanitarian stream and were therefore eligible for the payment. The bulk of the remainder of recipients had arrived under the Preferential visa category. It is probable that most of these were eligible for Job Search because they had partners who were permanent residents in Australia. Indeed, 97 per cent of those in the Preferential Family category who received Job Search did not migrate to Australia with their spouse, even though 91 per cent were married. Despite the numbers being small, some new arrivals in the points tested Concessional Family and Independent categories had received Job Search. This occurrence requires further investigation.

Acknowledgment

The authors would like to thank their BIMPR colleagues David Ward and Malcolm Gall, Fiona Smart (DSS) and Liz Truman (DIMA) for various levels of assistance in understanding and interpreting the data.

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