Canada is managing migration without taking a sledgehammer approach. Here’s how Australia can, too

A Canadian citizenship ceremony in 2025.

NurPhoto/Getty Australia’s migration debate is at fever pitch, with both the government and One Nation announcing policies on the subject in the past week.

In the case of the latter, commentators have drawn parallels between Pauline Hanson’s approach and immigration policy in Canada, albeit with big caveats .

The Canadian example has been mentioned by politicians numerous times as a case study for what Australia should be doing.

Those politicians, however, would have been disappointed by the government’s migration policy, as there was little Canadian influence to be seen.

What exactly is Canada doing to manage migration, and what lessons does its experiment have for Australia? Looking in the wrong places Much of Australia’s migration policy discussion focuses on the wrong number: net overseas migration, or NOM.

It’s a useful statistic.

It measures migrant arrivals minus departures, giving us a rough measure of how migration changes the population.

But that does not make NOM a good policy target .

It combines the movements of Australians, New Zealanders, permanent migrants and many different kinds of temporary migrants.

And because it is the difference between two large flows (arrivals and departures), it can change dramatically when their timing gets out of sync.

That is exactly what happened after COVID.

Border closures suppressed both arrivals and departures.

When borders reopened, arrivals recovered first.