Increased Australia immigration has driven Australia's population growth rate to 1.53%, the highest level in 18 years. Australia's population stood at 21,097,100 people as at September 2007.

Australia's net migration for the year to September 2007 was 179,100, the largest in Australia's history.

Australia also had 264,300 births - the highest number since records began 26 years ago. Natural increase (births less deaths) was 131,900 - the second largest increase in 13 years.

Over the past year population growth was fastest in Western Australia (2.35 per cent), followed by Queensland (2.21 per cent), Northern Territory (2.18 per cent), ACT (1.54 per cent), Victoria (1.52 per cent), NSW (1.04 per cent population growth) and South Australia (1.02 per cent) and Tasmania (0.81 per cent).

Australia has successfully filled over half of the country’s full-time jobs created over the last 12 months, thanks to immigration.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics has revealed that employers had run out of qualified local professionals to fill the 240,000 job void, but Australian immigration has proved to be paramount in addressing the country’s large-scale vacancies. At present, immigration has helped to reduce Australia’s job deficit by 53.9 per cent, or in real terms, 129,700 jobs have been filled by migrants with Australia skilled visas.

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Migration boosts Australia’s ‘brain gain’

Australian skilled migration amongst gap students is booming, according to government findings. It is expected that, by the end of fiscal 2007, some 145,000 grants for Australian sponsored visas are expected to be processed – an increase of 10,000 on the previous year.

Residents aged between 18 and 30 from 19 different countries have been attracted to the prospect of an Australian Working Holiday Visa, with the country staking a clear-cut claim as one of the most popular gap-year destinations alongside New Zealand and Fiji.

Tom Griffiths, founder of Gapyear.com, said "We're seeing some really good activity in the Australian market at the moment. The Australian Working Holiday Visa was extended to two years about two years ago, and the message has got through…they had good numbers last year. It was stagnant and falling slowly for about three years and suddenly it's just gone up.”

He added that STA travel has reported record numbers of long haul round-the-world tickets for last year and “Australia is the number on destination”.

An astonishing number of New Zealanders, the highest in 20 years, made the move across the Tasman in 2007 to live and work in Australia, taking advantage of the country’s booming economy.

Indeed, although migration to New Zealand from destinations including the UK is at a virtual all-time high, the rate at which locals are relocating to Australia resulted in New Zealand’s population increasing by just 20 people in the month of December 2007.

No one can question the attractiveness of New Zealand, as the 82,000 people who migrated there in 2007 would testify, however, at the same time, some 77,000 born and bread Kiwis left the country in the same year, meaning little was actually achieved in terms of boosting the under-staffed workforce.

Statistics New Zealand released the following statement:

“In December 2007, there was a net outflow of 2,500 Permanent Long Term (PLT) migrants to Australia, up from the outflow of 1,700 in December 2006.

“So, in the year to December, Permanent Long Term migration into the country more than halved to reach 5,500, down from 14,600 in the year to December 2006.

“In the year ended December 2007, there were 82,600 PLT arrivals, down 200 (less than 1%) from the December 2006 year.

“Over the same period, there were 77,100 PLT departures, up 9,000 (13%). As a result, net PLT migration was 5,500 in the December 2007 year, down from 14,600 in the December 2006 year.

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Kiwis flock to Australia to begin new lives

A total of 6,000 Australian skilled visas have been released by the federal government in an effort to attract a greater number of migrants to the country. The visas are up for grabs until June 2008 and will take the national quota of Australia visa applications up to 108,500.

The decision to increase the number of visas available to new migrants was made by Immigration Minister Chris Evans just four days after Australia’s levels of unemployment reached a 33-year low, falling to 4.1 per cent.

As companies become more and more desperate, the Australian government has acknowledged the urgency to recruit as many migrants with Australian skilled visas as possible.

Senator Evans stated: "Employer-sponsored visas are the highest priority because they put a migrant worker directly into a skilled job”.

The Immigration minister has devised a package whereby Australia will be in a position to attract greater number of skilled workers on both a temporary and permanent basis. He claims that the package has the potential to recruit thousands of skilled professionals to the country in the short term, and in the long term, would help address inflationary issues.

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Australia offer greater number of skilled visas for migrants

Australia’s Department of Immigration and Citizenship has released figures showing that Britain has provided the highest number of successful Australian visa applications to Western Australia for a second year running.

Of the 11,910 people who entered WA on Australia skilled visas between 1 January and 4 December, over a third were from the UK, with 4,274 new British migrants accounting for 37 per cent of the state’s migrant intake for 2007.

However, despite remaining Western Australia’s highest migrant group over the course of the year, the number of British migrants relocating to the state was down 34 per cent from 2006, when 6,675 new migrants arrived from the UK.

South Africa was the second largest country of origin for WA migrants, followed by Malaysia, Singapore and India.

Australia is currently experiencing its lowest rate of unemployment for 33 years. Demand for scientists and engineers entering the country on Australian skilled visas has never been greater.

The country’s recent booms in the mining, electrical and mechanical sectors are the primary reason for the demand for foreign-trained professionals, and salaries are looking very attractive at present. Research has also shown that migrants with degrees in Chemistry are likewise in hot demand for Australian migration.

The recruitment of skilled workers from abroad is clearly the only way the Australia’s various booming industries will fulfil their potential, and specialists predict the current employment crisis to continue for as long as the next 20 years if aggressive measures to attract professionals from overseas are not taken.

Employment consultant Kelly services has revealed that the most sought after professionals for Australian visa applications at present are mechanical, civil and structural engineers with industrial experience. Those with 3D experience are in even greater demand.

Environmental scientists and geologists are also needed in Australia, particularly as the government is currently taking action to combat climate and water issues.

Science and engineering-related industries are also showing a greater lenience toward older professionals, i.e. those over 45, who are valued for their wealth of skills and experience. 

The trend of seeking foreign skilled professionals for employment positions has extended to the world of medicine, with an increasing number of hospitals feeling the need to recruit doctors for Australian immigration.

Areas such at Tottenham in Victoria have failed to find suitable doctors to fill the void that currently exists, and the only alternative is to recruit professionals from abroad.

George Cowan, the general manager of the Lachlan Shire council, said: “It doesn't matter where you recruit from, the doctors have got to go through a pretty extensive process with immigration and also with medical boards here to get approval to practise and that takes quite a long time.” 

Doctors are among the professions on the Migration Occupation in Demand List, meaning that their Australian visa applications are likely to be fast-tracked in order to allow them to commence work in the country as quickly as possible.

The Australian restaurant industry is the latest to experience the difficulties of the country’s major skills shortage with a severe lack of chefs in cities such as Adelaide and Perth. With up to 3,000 jobs unfilled qualified chefs will find it very enticing to emigrate to Australia under the Australian skilled migration program.

Restaurant and Catering South Australia chief executive officer Sally Neville stated: “We are probably about 250 chefs short at any given time in SA and probably the same number in front of house staff.”

In Perth, where the shortage of qualified chefs is at an almost critical level, chefs and cooks are being brought in from Bali to combat the problem. Australian Hotels Association general manager Ian Horne predicts that South Australia is headed the same way and stated his belief that major Australian immigration incentives are needed if the situation is to be addressed.

“A lot of poaching goes on” he commented. “It tends to be about better conditions or better money”.

Take our Australian immigration points test and fill out our Australian immigration assessment to find out if you qualify for an Australian skilled visa.

The Australian Catholic Bishops Conference (ACBC) has called for the recently-introduced Australian Citizenship Test to be removed as a means of judging potential migrants’ suitability for Australian immigration. Instead, they would like to see a series of what they call “compulsory formation settings”, where Australian attitudes and valued can be promoted.

Immigration Minister Chris Evans has already promised a review of the test, which one in every ten applicants failed in 2007.

ACBC Immigration and Refugee delegate Bishop Joseph Grech stated: “Our feeling all along was that this wasn't going to do much for people to understand our Australian values. It's ok to know things about Australia and every Australian should know these things. But the citizenship test is about character, values and attitudes, and therefore the test to us doesn't address those issues.”

“And also it puts to a great disadvantage our elderly people and those who come from places where English isn't one of the major languages.

“If we had applied that criteria to many of our migrants who came after the Second World War, we would have prevented many of those people from settling in Australia.”