Migration Budget 2009-10

There have been a number of changes to Australia's migration program announced in this week's budget.

The key features are:

1. the number of permanent skilled visas available has been reduced to 108,100. This is the second cut in numbers announced this year is down almost 20% from the initially available number;
2. there has been an increase in the number of family (parents/partners) to 60,300; and
   
3. the english language threshold is going to increase to IELTS 6 for applicants who nominate trade occupations.

For more detail you can link to the 2009-10 skilled migration program fact sheet.

What do I make of this? Well, the decreasing numbers simply reflect local labour market conditions, but the real question is what investment has Australia made in training its own people? In my view "not much". University education is becoming more expensive and apprenticeships are rare. Until local skills are developed there will be a dependence on overseas workers to help fill the gaps. The higher english threshold will exclude applicants from many countries where English is not widely spoken. Language skills are important but it may end up limiting the diversity in the migrant intake that we have seen in recent years.