infrastructure for the growing population. Popular spots for sea changers include Geelong, Busselton, Wollongong, Cairns and the Gold Coast. Not everyone enjoys their new rural life, and some return to the city due to missing family, friends, cultural activities, or professional and health services.
Fly-in fly-out workers Mining jobs have increased in the Pilbara, northern Western Australia. However, local towns lack the infrastructure to support a large population, and rent can be as high as $3000 per week. To attract workers, companies use a fly-in fly-out (FIFO) workforce. FIFO workers commute from places like
FIGURE3 Geelong, Victoria, is a popular location for sea changers.
Perth or even Bali, rather than living locally. This has the potential to make local residents feel uneasy, partially because FIFO workers don’t invest their wages in the local economy, changing the town’s nature without becoming part of the community. Seasonal agricultural workers Many rural jobs, like picking and pruning grapes and fruit trees, are seasonal and need a large workforce for only a few months each year. Many rural children move to cities for education, jobs or a more exciting life, leaving a shortage of agricultural workers. Backpackers and people from Asia and the Pacific Islands on short-term work visas often fill these seasonal jobs. Towns like Robinvale in northern Victoria now have Asian grocery stores, an Asian bakery, and shops selling Tongan goods to cater to these workers. Robinvale is home to people from many countries, including Italy, Tonga, Vietnam, Malaysia, New Zealand, China and Greece. 15.4.2 What makes people move within China?
In Australia, internal migration is mostly driven by factors such as work, sea change or tree change, lifestyle or income. We will now compare this with China, where internal migration is primarily shaped by domestic economic growth, urbanisation and government policies aimed at balancing regional development. China has been experiencing a changing population distribution . In
FIGURE4 A dramatic rural–urban migration shift has been occurring in China.
2012, the country’s urban population became larger than that of rural areas for the first time in its history, as rural people moved to towns and cities to seek better living standards. China has since become the world’s largest urban nation. Chinese labourers from the provinces have been moving to coastal cities in search of job opportunities, following reforms in 1978 that opened up China to foreign investment. Until then, rural–urban migration was strictly forbidden in China. Since then, more than 150 million rural residents and workers have migrated from the inner provinces to cities, mainly on the east coast. About half of rural migrants moved across provinces. This is the largest migration wave in human history (see FIGURE5 ).
436 Jacaranda Humanities Alive 8 Victorian Curriculum Third Edition
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