In late 2023, the government unveiled its strategy to reform the migration system, with some changes expected to take effect this year. Here’s what you need to know.
Towards the end of 2023, the Albanese government unveiled its long-awaited strategy to reform the country’s migration system.
There are some significant changes set for the new year.
The government plans to implement many of these throughout 2024 — including stricter English language requirements for student and temporary graduate visas, as well as a new visa for those with in-demand skills.
A raft of previous announcements are also set to come into effect this year — for example, a new visa for Pacific migrants.
What is the government hoping to achieve with its migration strategy?
Net overseas migration (NOM) is the total number of people who have entered and remained in a country for at least one year, minus those who have left. NOM includes the movements in and out of Australian citizens.
Australia’s NOM peaked in 2022-23 at 510,000, according to projections also contained in the government’s mid-year budget update.
The spike was largely due to the return of international students and tourists after the easing of COVID-19 pandemic restrictions.
The government has stressed that NOM isn’t an immigration policy target, but the new strategy aims to reduce the figure from 510,000 to the near-pre-pandemic level of 375,000 in the 2023-24 financial year, and then to 250,000 in 2024-25.
Leah Perkins, an accredited immigration law specialist at Carina Ford Lawyers, said the strategy attempts to address issues with the migration system “in a long-term and meaningful way”.
She said one of the overarching issues is to reduce “permanent temporariness”, a state in which people live in Australia on temporary visas and hop from visa to visa to remain in the country.
“Broadly, this strategy is trying to decrease the amount of long-term temporary visa holders and increase pathways to permanent residency, which I think will have a positive impact on social cohesion,” she said.
“I’m hopeful the strategy will provide ultimately better-skilled migration, an increase in permanent migration over temporary migration, as well as cracking down on [the] exploitation of migrants, which has become an increasing issue, especially over COVID.”
