Australia's three decades of uninterrupted prosperity are coming to an abrupt end as the coronavirus pandemic crashes one of its most lucrative sources of income — immigration.
The country has been successful in managing the outbreak and reopening its 2 trillion Australian dollar ($1.33 trillion) economy, thanks in part to an early closure of its borders.
But the policy has led to a halt in mass immigration — a key source of consumer demand, labor and growth — in an economy which is facing its first recession since the early 1990s.
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