Australia will tighten visa rules for international students and low-skilled workers that could halve its migrant intake over the next two years as the government looks to overhaul what it said was a “broken” migration system.
Under the new policies, international students would need to secure higher ratings on English tests and there would be more scrutiny on a student’s second visa application that would prolong their stay.
“Our strategy will bring migration numbers back to normal,” Clare O’Neil, the home affairs minister, said during a media briefing on Monday.
“But it’s not just about numbers. It’s not just about this moment and the experience of migration our country is having at this time. This is about Australia’s future.”
Anthony Albanese, the Australian prime minister, said at the weekend that Australia’s migration numbers needed to be wound back to a “sustainable level,” adding that “the system is broken”.
Net migration driven by international students
Ms O’Neil said the centre-Left Labor government’s targeted reforms were already putting downward pressure on net overseas migration and will further contribute to an expected decline in migrant numbers.
The decision comes after net immigration was expected to have peaked at a record 510,000 in 2022-23. Official data showed it was forecast to fall to about a quarter of a million in 2024-25 and 2025-26, roughly in line with pre-Covid levels.
Ms O’Neil said the increase in net overseas migration in 2022-23 was mostly driven by international students.
Australia boosted its annual migration numbers last year to help businesses recruit staff to fill shortages after the Covid-19 pandemic brought strict border controls, and kept foreign students and workers out for nearly two years.
But the sudden influx of foreign workers and students has exacerbated pressure on an already tight rental market, with homelessness on the rise in the country.
Rental prices in some areas of Sydney and Melbourne have risen about 25 per cent in the last year.
A survey done for the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper on Monday said 62 per cent of Australian voters said the country’s migration intake was too high.
Long reliant on immigration to supply what is now one of the tightest labour markets in the world, Australia’s government has pushed to speed up the entry of highly skilled workers and smooth their path to permanent residency.
A new specialist visa for highly skilled workers will be set up with the processing time set at one week, helping businesses recruit top migrants amid tough competition with other developed economies.
Foreign workers ‘special sauce’
Ms O’Neil stressed that immigration was essential to Australia’s prosperity, describing foreign workers as the “special sauce” that had made Australia great.
“Virtually everything that we have done as a country that’s truly mattered has involved asking the best and brightest from around the world to come and try to help us,” she said.
But nodding to growing public unease, she also vowed to “build a better-planned system around essential things like housing”.
The move to reform the immigration system comes as Australia’s opposition conservative party is enjoying rising support in the polls ahead of elections expected by 2025.
Conservative leader Peter Dutton has accused the government of having a “big migration programme”.
“Our cities are full, the roads are congested, the infrastructure can’t keep up”, he said earlier this month while suggesting immigrant numbers should be cut.