Despite the potential for government employment policies both to encourage and preclude migration among the Aboriginal workforce, little is known about the impacts of such policies. This paper seeks to construct a base line for identifying these impacts by establishing the spatial structure of labour migration among the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population. It makes use of 1986 Census data to describe the volume and pattern of net and gross flows of working-age Aborigines and Islanders through the national settlement system, distinguishing between movements in remote and closely settled parts of the country. Full determination of the links between policy and migration flows awaits comparison with 1991 Census results. © 1992 Springer Science+Business Media.

[No Keywords available]

Family Planning Programs residential mobility health care planning Australia economics population social policy demography Population Dynamics Ethnic Groups Migration, Internal ethnic group Developed Countries policy indigenous population Settlement And Resettlement Oceania labor migration Population Control Pacific islands Article program evaluation migration Health Planning health care quality developed country population and population related phenomena Demographic Factors Emigration and Immigration Economic Factors Transients and Migrants Population Characteristics public policy family planning Macroeconomic Factors employment Migration Policy Population Policy Demographic Effectiveness Family Planning Program Evaluation