Immigrants saved Australia from Financial Crisis

An article by George Megalogenis provides a thought-provoking explanation for why Australia survived the Global Financial Crisis. In America, England, Spain, and so many other developed countries, it was the crash in house prices that triggered the collapse of the banks. But, as GM says, in his final two years as Prime Minister, John Howard initiated a flood of mainly Asian immigrants, such that Australia had the world's fastest population growth rate when the financial crisis hit in 2008.
"Take Howard's immigrants out of the equation and a recession would have been more likely. One of the things that set our economy apart from those of the United States and the United Kingdom was the behaviour of the property market. While their house prices collapsed - creating a vicious cycle of mortgage stress, reduced spending, and job losses - large scale immigration kept our house prices rising because supply was lagging demand. Ordinarily shortages would be read as a case of market failure, and they are. But they also played a valuable role in maintaining the confidence of Australian households to keep consuming while the rest of the developed world turned turtle."