As reported in The Australian, the number of international students approved to study in Australia has hit a ten-year high, with more than 500,000 visas issued, raising concerns that new arrivals to the nation’s campuses are exacerbating the housing crisis.
According to a study of Department of Home Affairs data, The Albanese Government issued 520,911 student visas last financial year, 115,000 more than the previous Coalition Government’s highest annual figure.
The number of international graduates allowed to stay in Australia after graduating from university also increased, from 9597 while the Coalition was in office to 51,333 last financial year.
According to the Institute of Public Affairs (IPA), international students occupied 70% of new housing units in the 2022-23 financial year.
This influx of students is, therefore, putting strain on the housing market, with IPA projecting that Australia will suffer a net housing shortage of 252,800 dwellings by 2028:
Source: Institute of Public Affairs
“Every Australian should have the opportunity to own their own home, yet the surge in demand from unplanned migration growth will make housing even less affordable for both Australians and new migrants alike”, said Daniel Wild, Deputy Executive Director of the IPA.
“What the Federal Government is now proposing is not only unsustainable, it will exacerbate the very problems facing mainstream Australians”.
“Moreover, an unsustainable jump in migration will put further pressure on critical economic and social infrastructure, such as schools, roads, and hospitals that are already buckling under pressure”, said Wild.
Opposition immigration spokesperson Dan Tehan, who was education minister during the first year of the pandemic, said the recent surge in international student numbers was “making a bad situation worse”.
“There is now a serious disconnect between the benefits of international education to Australia and the negative impacts on young Australians. With 1.5 million people coming over five years, there are too many people and not enough houses”, he said.
“Labor is allowing record numbers of people into the country through their uncapped international student visa program when they know that many applicants are not genuine students but are using this visa for work rights or as a pathway to citizenship”.
To be fair, both major parties are to blame.
The Morrison Government uncapped international student working hours, which initially drove up arrivals of non-genuine students seeking to use the student visa system as a backdoor work visa.
But then the Albanese Government extended post-study work rights, which effectively turned a student visa into a long-term residency and work visa.
The Albanese Government has doubled-down on the farce by expanding migration pathways, particularly for Indian students.
The whole ‘housing shortage’ has been engineered by the federal government’s extreme immigration program.
The shortage could be solved with the stroke of a pen by slashing immigration to long-term historical levels of around 100,000 net migrants a year.
