Low income earners' considerations in migrating from non-metropolitan NSW into metropolitan Sydney

Summary

Within Australia, approximately 50,000 income-support recipients move annually from non-metropolitan areas to metropolitan cities. The main reasons for moving vary depending on the category of income-support received (eg for the unemployed, job opportunities were by far the most important relocation factor with 60% indicating so). Housing cost was not a very important consideration in the decision to move to Sydney or Adelaide, although it had an impact on movers post-relocation, especially Single Parents – least so on Aged Pensioners. Not surprisingly, approximately 50% of all respondents paid more for their housing after moving into the metropolitan areas and as a result were generally dissatisfied with the affordability of housing after moving, and only a quarter of respondents owned their home, a reduction on when they were in the country. 59% of all movers indicated they were better off in the city than they were in non-metropolitan NSW or SA, with single parents most positive and the disabled least.


Project Number: 70175
Research Theme: Demographics_and_Modelling
Project Leader: Marshall, Nancy
Funding Year: 2002
Research Centre: UNSW-UWS

Research and Policy Bulletin

Research & Policy Bulletin

Issue 053: Why low-income households move: the search for affordable housing and employment

A geographic mismatch between where housing is affordable and where jobs are available is a key driver of moves of welfare recipients between metropolitan and non-metropolitan areas.

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87 KB PDF Document

Description

This study aimed to identify the motivations of, and tradeoffs made by, low-income welfare recipients who choose to relocate from rural and regional areas to metropolitan cities. Specifically, the project sought to determine what the locational choice factors are for low-income households, including the importance of housing considerations vis-a-vis other factors and whether the net welfare of movers is perceived to have improved after a move into a metropolitan area. Beyond the obvious employment factors that entice people into the city, what other factors are at play and to what extent does housing location and cost factors play when people, especially low-income earners decide to move into a metro area? Most internal migration studies had addressed metropolitan to non-metropolitan flows. As a result, we knew very little about migration flows in the other direction.

Policy issues related to housing, employment and the provision of human services arise from flows of over 53,000 income support recipients moving from non-metro to metro areas per year in Australia. The Census and other secondary sources of information such as the Department of Family and Community Services (FaCS) Longitudinal Data Set can shed some light on these issues, however, direct questioning of those relocating is required to get accurate information on decision factors and their levels of welfare before and after their move.

The low-income movers in this study are Centrelink income support recipients including the unemployed, youth unemployed, aged, disabled and sole parents. This research aimed to study NSW and Sydney as an archetype, which would allow for a detailed study of origin and destination of the movers and a comprehensive understanding of the complexities of migration patterns. The researchers hypothesised that the locational factors considered and the nature of adjustment required by movers may be influenced by the type of rural, coastal or regional city the movers originate from and where in the metro region e.g. inner or outer area, they move to. Also, the survey sampling techniques present the opportunity to specifically look at Indigenous people and if, and how, their locational choice factors and perceived net benefit after a move to metropolitan Sydney are unique.

 

More Information

Download now Research and Policy Bulletin: Issue 053: Why low-income households move: the search for affordable housing and employment
87 KB PDF Document

Download now Final Report: No. 064: Migration of income-support recipients from non-metropolitan NSW and SA into Sydney and Adelaide
3.92 MB PDF Document

Download now Positioning Paper: No. 055: Migration of income-support recipients from non-metropolitan NSW and SA into Sydney and Adelaide
609 KB PDF Document

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