‘Australia’s migration numbers are falling further and further’
At least this is what the Senate Estimates heard on Tuesday the 22nd of May from a Home Affairs official regarding past and future migration.
The Home Affairs official has further pointed out that the Immigration Government is far from the 190,000 annual ceiling of migration intakes that were estimated for 2017-2018. It looks like Australia will be falling about 20,000 short…a significant amount for the Australian Government to consider.
Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton has also confirmed that the numbers would be lower for this year’s ceiling as the approval process has become stricter, but the call made in 2015 to change the definition of 190,000 ‘target’ renamed to 190,000 ‘ceiling’ gives the impression of the migration numbers being more of an ‘option’ than an aim for the Immigration Government in the past few years.
Department of Home Affairs head Michael Pezzullo, blames the decreased numbers on the governments stricter checks for migrants via security databases.
“As we connect what were formerly standalone, isolated immigration integrity risk systems to intelligence databases … as you couple more databases onto your checking mechanism, you get more what are known as ‘hits’ in our trade. They have to be resolved.”
So what does this mean for migrants and Australia in the future?
Until the Government responds, we are assuming that the limitations on immigration – though unofficial – are being slowly capped again. This action will therefore require the migration budget to change since less migrants are being approved, which will in turn mean that even less migrant applications will be approved.
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