Australia’s permanent migrant intake also rose by 20,000 during the financial year, to just over 160,000, with the overwhelming majority coming from non-English speaking nations:
Overall, there were 160,000 in Australia’s permanent migrant intake in the last financial year, up 20,000 from 2019-20, the Department of Home Affairs Migration Report 2020-21 says.
China became the top country for permanent migrants in 2020-21 for the first time since at least 2015, overtaking India.
Immigration Minister Alex Hawke told The Australian that reaching the government’s permanent migration target was a strong achievement “given the difficult circumstances this year”.
“Delivering a full program of 160,052 places meant drawing on the pool of onshore applicants due to global Covid-19 restrictions,” he said. “The government’s migration target will remain at 160,000 this year, with visa categories adjusted to help the economic recovery.
The Department of Home Affairs’ Continuous Survey of Australia’s Migrants shows that family stream permanent migrants, in particular, experience higher rates of unemployment and are paid much less than the general population:
Thus, Australia’s permanent migration program has been further dumbed-down in a bid to meet the government’s nonsensical population target.
That said, this is good news for those wanting to convert spouses into permanent residents.
