This month, Westpac estimated that net overseas migration (NOM) hit a record high 400,000 in calendar year 2022, which “helps explain the significant tightening in rental markets and sharp escalation in rents”.
This extreme immigration has been driven by record arrivals of international students.
According to the latest Population Statement from the Centre for Population, “offshore student visa grants from January to October 2022 were higher than the corresponding period since the 2006 calendar year”.
“Increased access to post-study work options may contribute to stronger future demand for student visas. Unrestricted work rights for students were extended in September 2022, and are planned to end in June 2023, which may contribute to some increased demand in the short-term”, the Statement read:
A month ago, first assistant secretary of the Department of Home Affairs, Michael Willard, noted that the federal government had finalised a record 217,000 overseas applications for student visas in the second half of 2022, after the government boosted its visa-processing workforce by almost 500.
Then former department of immigration deputy secretary, Abul Rizvi, posted the below Tweet:
More than 360,000 visa applications were lodged overseas by students last year. That’s an “all-time record”, according to Rizvi, that “far exceeded” pre-pandemic levels.
Earlier this month, Rizvi posted another Tweet showing that the deluge of foreign students arriving in Australia continued in January, smashing all previous records:
That’s right, over 42,000 offshore student visa applications were received in January, up massively from the previous January record of 30,000.
The deluge is so extreme that even Rizvi – arguably Australia’s biggest mass immigration shill – is worried:
The primary driver of the surge in student visa applications, according to Rizvi above, was the federal government’s decision to grant unlimited work rights, which has turned student visas into low-skilled work visas.
The Albanese Government has also incentivised arrivals by extending post-study work rights by two years and lifting the permanent migrant intake, thus increasing the chance of gaining permanent residency.
We all know where this ends for wages. A November 2021 report by the Migrant Workers Centre, entitled “Lives in Limbo”, found 65% of workers on temporary visas suffered from wage theft. Most were also international students.
The rental market is also facing annihilation, as noted by Westpac above, as demand overruns supply.
It is a housing and inequality disaster brought about by dumb government policy that encourages quantity of immigration over quality.
