WHATSAPPAustralia immigration levels soared to a new record high in 2018, with 832,560 people migrating to the country permanently or on a long-term basis in 2018. It means a 7.1 increase in the Australia immigration level compared to 2017. The net annual immigration rate of Australia for 2018 is 291250, the highest in four-and-a-half years.
Data shows that a vast majority of the newcomers to the country have settled in already overcrowded Sydney and Melbourne. The latest data was released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics three months after a former Australia immigration minister promised to bring down the immigration rate.
While Australia’s net annual immigration rate was around 70000 in the last decade of the 20th century, it soared above 100,000 in 2002 and crossed the 200,000 mark in 2012. In August 2018, Australia’s population surpassed 25 million. The permanent immigration intake of 832,560 in 2018 has broken the previous record of 539,000 intakes in the 2016-17 financial years.
Australia Immigration Minister David Coleman has already announced the new population policy of the country. As per the new policy, Australian visas for immigrants to the regional areas of the country will be processed on a fast-track basis. After residing in regions for a specified number of years, the immigrants will be able to obtain Australia PR visa. The Australia government has already allocated a fund of $19 million for processing the Regional Australia Visas for immigrant workers.
The pace of Australia’s population growth rate is 1.6 per cent, the highest in the developed world. The rate is more than double that of the United States or the UK. Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, however, has said that population growth has played a key role in the economic success of the country, including the fact that the country has not witnessed a recession since 1991.
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