00:01These locals moved to Melton to find an affordable house.
00:08They came and built a community.
00:11This event is marking the Muslim Festival of Eid.
00:16We invite people from different cultures, different ethnicities
00:21and we wanted them to know us and we want to know them.
00:25Sanya moved to Australia about four years ago
00:28and loves her multicultural neighbourhood in Melbourne's West.
00:33There's a reason her family chose to settle in this part of Australia.
00:38There were good schools here, property was affordable.
00:41That was the main thing.
00:43This area is one of the fastest growing in the country.
00:48I'm meeting the local labour-aligned mayor
00:51who says the road and rail system can't keep pace with the population.
00:56We've got a lot of new migrant groups
00:58that are coming into the city of Melton
01:00and they want connection to their community
01:02and they come out here for family.
01:04But we've got the issues around infrastructure,
01:06public transport not keeping up.
01:08The vast majority of permanent migrants
01:10who've come to Australia since 2000
01:12have moved to the capital cities.
01:14New arrivals figures from the last financial year
01:17show about 33% moved to Melbourne, about 32% to Sydney,
01:2214% to Perth and about 12% to Brisbane.
01:26The rest were split up amongst the other capitals
01:28and a small portion to regional areas.
01:31Let's be clear, housing is unaffordable in Australia
01:34but that is not the result of what we've been seeing
01:37in the migration numbers.
01:38A number of Australians wrote to ABC Your Say
01:41and said they thought immigration in Australia was too high.
01:45New data from ABC Vote Compass found 49% of the 330,000 respondents
01:52wanted somewhat or many fewer immigrants in Australia,
01:57about 30% wanted the same levels as now
02:00and just 16% wanted more.
02:02Now that's a shift from the 2022 Vote Compass results
02:06where about 49% wanted more.
02:09Meanwhile, a Lowy Institute poll conducted last year
02:14found about 48% of Australians thought immigration in Australia
02:18was too high and that it only shifted 1% from the same poll in 2019.
02:24Net overseas migration after plummeting during the pandemic
02:29surged really high for a couple of years after borders reopened.
02:34However, now we're seeing net overseas migration plummet again.
02:38Fairfield in Sydney's west has a long history of welcoming migrants
02:44and still sees one of the city's highest rates of new arrivals.
02:48But the independent mayor here says they can't cope anymore.
02:51We just feel that sometimes the government uses the western suburbs
02:56to populate this country but not necessarily puts back the infrastructure
03:01that is needed to maintain all of our quality of life.
03:04Fairfield's full.
03:06Frank Carbone says the solution is sustainable migration.
03:10But what do the experts think?
03:12Rather than the idea that certain areas face too much of the load of migration,
03:18it's more a failure of effective city planning.
03:20There's no magic number for the level of migrants in a society.
03:25It's really shaped by the norms and expectations of that society.
03:30Communities across the country feeling the pinch.
03:34Thanks for shifting.
03:35leftover
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