Australia has a lot of foreign businesses and it has a lot of immigrants. Both earn Australian dollars and huge amounts would be sent back their country of origin.
His does Australia balance its books on something like this? How do the economics of it work? Would it lower Australian inflation but shortening the money supply, and raise inflation of the destination country as it prints more money to exchange the Australian dollar?
Well, I don’t know. Let’s say a Bangladeshi guy earns $1,000 AUD and sends $500 home each week, then lives off the remainder.
He’s only contributing to the Australian economy $500 per week instead of the full $1,000 in bank-invested savings or other purchases. Meanwhile the other $500, minus an exchange rate, sits in another country’s bank or contributes to purchases there, fuelling that economy.
I mean, I’m guessing here. My economics knowledge is fairly limited.
Just a nit-pick. The immigrant in this case is probably contributing more to the economy than the $1,000 he gets paid to do it.
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That 500AUD doesn’t just sit in an account and magically contribute to anything.
Currency exchange doesn’t actually happen in a vacuum. The only reason your Bangladeshi example is able to send 500AUD to his family, is that someone who has Bangladeshi Taka wants 500AUD to buy goods or services from somewhere that accepts AUD. And there’s a very short list of countries that spend AUD.
So that 500 doesn’t disappear to never return. That 500 is sold to someone who wants to use it to purchase australian exports.
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He also contributes his labour, he is frequently underpaid because of his noncitizen status and because he is from Bangladesh he has to have his own medical insurance until he jumps visa hoops. Those visa hoops are also expensive and people from countries like England don’t have to jump some of them because they have a Medicare reciprocity agreement in place. There are other challenges too.
Make no mistake, Australia scrapes every cent it can from foreign workers and still complains about them sending their families remittance.
Plus he is contributing to the workforce without having cost a penny for his/her upbringing.
We need to consider that educating and taking care of children up to working age costs money and resources. Having trained workers join your country for free is always a boon (unless other costs add up).
Great point. Plus he has been screened to exclude people with disabilities. Only the people least likely to use future resources are allowed in at all.
If you didn’t have that guy working in Australia, your economy either would’ve shrunk by more than 1000 AUD or you would’ve imported goods or services costing a lot more than 1000 AUD. That guy’s employer pays him 1000 AUD because it is profitable compared to the alternatives.
If you had locals capable of doing the same work, that employer or the government wouldn’t have sponsored a foreign worker. They would’ve employed a local instead.