Australian Visas

The 2006-07 Migration Programme composition will strengthen Australia’s economy and
maintain a cohesive community.

For the Australian visa programme year 2006-07 there was a total of 148,200
permanent visas granted.

There is great belief within the Howard Government that people wishing to live in
Australia should bring skills into the workplace that will benefit and grow the Australian
economy, as well as a commitment to integrate within the community.

Of the total migration programme, 66% of the total visas granted were to permanent
skilled workers. This percentage was equal to almost 98,000 and with an average age
of entrant being 31 years.

Accountancy (10,700) was the top occupation for skilled entrants , followed by IT
professionals (4,044) and registered nurses (2,088). Other top skilled professions
included mechanical engineers, civil engineers, marketing specialists and upper
management.

Out of these figures the top five countries of origin for entrants from the skilled stream
were: United Kingdom (24,800), India (15,865), People’s Republic of China (14,688),
Republic of South Africa (4,293) and Malaysia (3,838). The reality is that Australia face a shortage of workers and is constantly facing stiff opposition for those who are skilled. The main competition coming from places such as Europe, USA, Canada and New Zealand.

Some of the response to the challenges that lie ahead is in attracting to Australia
young, skilled professionals to who will contribute to a cohesive society. The 2006-07 family stream is contributing more and more to helping achieve this goal.

For example, more than 39,000 (80%) of the family stream were spouses, fiancés or
interdependent. The global economy and more affordability of travel overseas now
enables more young Australians to go overseas to study and work. This tends to occur
more during their 20s and early 30s which is also when they tend to start a relationship. The programme shows a growing demand for those people who want to bring their spouses back to Australia and start a family and live here. In total there were 50,079 family stream visas granted for the 2006-07 year, which represents 33 per cent of the total migration programme.

This year the average age of family stream entrants (total) is 32 years.
Out of these the top five countries of origin for family stream entrants were: United
Kingdom (6,540), People’s Republic of China (6,037), India (3,634), Philippines (3,098)
and Vietnam (3,040).

In addition a total of more than 13,000 visas were granted through the refugee and
humanitarian programme.

More than 16% of refugee visas were granted in the Women at Risk category, well
ahead of the 10.5 per cent target set by the Australian Government.
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