Highlights
- Australia records its lowest permanent migrant intake for 15 years
- Australia granted 140,366 under the permanent migration program in 2019-20
- India emerges as the top source of migrants- with 25,698 permanent residency visas
Australia granted lowest permanent visas in the last financial year - the smallest since 2004-05 when 120,060 visas were processed.
In its report, the government has indicated that COVID-19 has had a significant impact on the outcome of the 2019–20 Migration Program, “including due to disruption to supporting services such as English Language testing, biometrics and health and character checking.”
But former senior Immigration Department official Abul Rizvi said COVID-19 was not the only restrictive factor that prevented the government from reaching the ceiling.
“Visa application rates in many areas were falling before COVID particularly in the Employer-Sponsored area, a weaker economy will also push down numbers,” he said.
Partner Visa:
A total of 41,961 visas were granted in the family stream, including 37,118 Partner visas, slightly less than the the outcome in 2018-19 when 39,918 visas were delivered.
Two-thirds of permanent visas were granted to applicants onshore who transitioned from a temporary visa to permanent residency.
Mr Rizvi said the government could have delivered more visas if it concentrated on clearing the backlogs in some categories, primarily Partner visas, where more than 100,000 applicants are currently waiting for their grants.
“They could have got to the ceiling by clearing the backlog but that would have to mean predominantly clearing the Partner visa backlog. But I don’t think the government wanted to do that because it wanted to maintain the two-third skill and one-third family stream balance,” he said.
Skill stream:
Nearly 96,000 visas were granted to applicants under the skilled stream, which accounted for nearly 70 per cent of the total migration program outcome.
This also includes 4,109 visas under the highly skilled Global Talent Independent (GTI) program which was launched in November last year.
The Employer-Sponsored category had an outcome of 29,261 places against a planning level of 30,000. However, the application lodgement rate for this category witnessed a significant dip.
Applications number in this category plunged that is bad news for Australia because the Employer-Sponsored category has almost always been viewed as the one that contributes the most to the economy - Abul Rizvi
Skilled Independent category emerged as the other key area of concern as only 12,986 places were delivered as compared to 34,247 in 2018-19 and 39,137 in 2017-18.
Melbourne-based migration agent Ranbir Singh said while a dip in approvals under this category was expected, he, however, had not anticipated such a significant drop of nearly 70 per cent.
“We had already anticipated low grants for this visa but were not expecting such a huge dip. The main reason for drop can be attributed to the government’s push to regional areas. And as expected, there were 23,372 regional visas delivered, from the 25,000 places allocated,” he said.
What does this mean for the 2020-21 Migration Program?
The size and composition of the 2020-21 Migration Program will be considered in light of the rapidly evolving COVID-19 situation and will be announced as part of the Federal Government’s Budget process next month.
Mr Rizvi said if the government chose to keep its international borders closed, it is highly likely that the program would be “very small.”
If the overseas arrivals cap remains tight and the government is concerned about that then it is highly likely that we will see one a substantially smaller program.
"The government may announce or retain a ceiling that is quite high, but its planning level will fall between a 100,000 to 110,000. I think almost all of the program will be from onshore applicants,” added Mr Rizvi.
Mr Singh, meanwhile added that other than focusing on onshore applicants, the government is also likely to retain its policy to push new migrants to settle in the country’s regional areas.
The size and composition of the 2020-21 Migration Program will be considered in light of the developing COVID-19 situation. Source: SBS
“It is quite evident that the focus will remain on regional areas in the post-pandemic world. If you follow the government’s recent announcements, the push is to attract migrants to settle in regional areas, such applicants are also being given priority processing and extra points,” he added.
Click on the player above to listen to the interview in Punjabi.
People in Australia must stay at least 1.5 metres away from others. Check your state’s restrictions on gathering limits.
If you are experiencing cold or flu symptoms, stay home and arrange a test by calling your doctor or contact the Coronavirus Health Information Hotline on 1800 020 080.
