What is the role of net overseas migration in population growth and interstate migration patterns in the Northern Territory?

The key trend preventing the Northern Territory (NT) from achieving consistent annual population growth has been the unpredictability and very high levels of Net Interstate Migration (NIM). Natural Increase (NI) and Net Overseas Migration (NOM) both appear to have provided consistent contributions over the past twenty years. This article examines the contribution of NOM to the NT population growth in the period 1996 to 2006 to establish whether it has in fact mitigated or sustained the high interstate migration rates. Two trends suggest that NOM in the NT has contributed to high levels of population mobility. First, it has been dominated by net long-term movement of temporary migrants rather than settlers. Second, the overseas-born have higher rates of interstate migration from the NT than do the Australian-born. Unfortunately the data on the interstate mobility of overseas-born residents do not permit us to distinguish between people holding long-term and permanent visas. But we believe that some migrants from both groups have participated in this transient population system. Copyright. Monash University and the author/s