I keep hearing that Australia’s population is so low due to uninhibitle land. Yet they have a very generous immigration attitude and there’s no child limit that I’m aware of. How can/does geography make any difference?
In: 1468
Just a minor correction to the discussion:
Australia does not have a generous attitude to immigration.
It’s actually by comparative standards quite tough on immigration.
There is however similar to Canada(or Japan to pick a non-western country) a pretty high amount of ‘western’ migration alongside other forms of migration to Australia. That fact alongside the high volume of migration to Australia in general, is what contributes to the idea that Australia is ‘easy’ to migrate to.
TLDR:
High amounts of migration do not necessarily mean that the immigration policy itself is generous.
A generous immigration policy does not make a scorching desert into a nicer place to live.
Vast swaths of Australia are scorching desert.
Canada is Bizarro Australia (or vice versa). Majority of Canadians live close to the US border. The north is just so cold, rocky, thick bush and remote that very few people live there.
Canadian here. Just like Australia we are huge (2nd largest country) with a relatively small population (4 people per km2, Australia is 3.3 people per km2 for reference) and also has a [very generous immigration attitude](https://www.cicnews.com/2022/11/canada-immigration-levels-plan-2023-2025-1131587.html).
Having said that over 50% of Canadians live in a thin strip called the [Corridor](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quebec_City%E2%80%93Windsor_Corridor) due to our geography. 94% of all Ontarian’s (Ontario is Canada’s most populous Province) live in the Ontario portion of the Corridor alone.
In Canada we have the [Canadian Shield](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Shield) which covers over 50% of all of Canada and is a large area of exposed Precambrian igneous and high-grade metamorphic rocks. It forms the North American Laurentia, the ancient geologic core of the North American continent.
The current surface expression of the Shield is one of very thin soil lying on top of the bedrock, with many bare outcrops. This arrangement was caused by severe glaciation during the ice age, which covered the Shield and scraped the rock clean.
The lowlands of the Canadian Shield have a very dense soil that is not suitable for forestation; it also contains many muskegs (marshes and bogs). The rest of the region has coarse soil that does not retain moisture well and is frozen with permafrost throughout the year. Forests are not as dense in the north.
Because of this the Shield is no good for large human settlements as you need to blast through the rock to install supports for tall buildings, and the soil is no good for agriculture.
Then we also have the [Arctic tundra](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Arctic_tundra) to the north which is practically uninhabitable and the [North American Cordillera](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_Cordillera) (a large mountain range which includes the [Rockies](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocky_Mountains)) in the west.
[This image specifically](https://img.flytrippers.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/06012631/CanadaDenisty.png) really shows just how little human settlement there is in most of Canada.
Canada has massive amounts of land and most of it is uninhabitable by humans. On the flip side the Shield has massive forests and due to the lack of human settlement it is a massive nature reserve full of mammals such as caribou, white-tailed deer, moose, wolves, wolverines, weasels, mink, otters, grizzly bear, polar bears, beavers, and black bears.
OP, have you seen Australia? It’s fucking desert over 95% of it’s land. How do you expect people to live in hot, dry areas and survive, let alone prosper?
No different than Canada, 90% of the population is within 50 KM of the Canadian American borders.
Go North not to far and it’s dam cold for 8 months of the year.
Generous immigration attitude?
Australia shut its borders completely for two years, no work visas of any kind.
Now Australia’s economy is paying a heavy price.
Generous immigration ?
There’s an entire TV show centered on how fucking hardcore Australian customs are. You can’t just fly there and start living. You need a job offer at minimum. Hell if you go on holiday and don’t have enough money in your bank they’ll send you home immediately thinking your trying to stay there.
They don’t have a generous attitude on immigration at all, fwiw. I would say it’s one of the more difficult countries to be able to get citizenship for.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
I don’t know where you got the idea Australia has a generous immigration policy. Australia is an extremely difficult and expensive place to get a permanent visa for.
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