According to monthly visa data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), a record net 502,000 visa holders (excluding tourists) arrived in Australia in the year to July, with student visas accounting for 297,000 of these arrivals:
The Department of Home Affairs has released data on temporary visas, which shows that a record 2,554,201 temporary visas were on issue in July 2023:
This means that around one in 10 people in Australia currently are a temporary migrant.
The explosion in temporary visa holders has been led by international student numbers.
The next chart shows that there were a record 654,870 temporary student visas on issue in Australia in July 2023, up around 300,000 from a year earlier and around 100,000 higher than the pre-pandemic peak:
Moreover, the number of temporary graduate visas on issue ballooned to a record 197,000 in July, up around 100,000 year-on-year:
This means that there were around 852,000 people in Australia on a student or graduate visa in July 2023, meaning that around one in 30 people in Australia were on either one of these visas.
Indian students, who make up 16% of those studying onshore, increased by 29%, while Nepalese students, who make up 9% of the total, increased by 21%.
There was also a significant increase in student numbers from Colombia and the Philippines, which increased by 147% and 100%, respectively, albeit from a lower basis.
Although Chinese students continue to make up the largest cohort of overseas students in Australia, accounting for 21% of the total, their numbers declined by 2% in the first six months of this year compared to the same period last year.
The numbers are so ridiculous that even immigration influencer Abul Rizvi says the “government needs a plan to manage this”:
International Education Association of Australia CEO Phil Honeywood was more blunt warning the sector should “take a reality check” on the strong growth numbers.
“History shows that whenever we have a massive influx of international students we invariably get community pushback and a risk to quality outcomes”, he said.
This record inundation of international students has been engineered by the Albanese Government, which has implemented a range of immigration policies designed to ramp numbers, including:
- Extending post-study graduate visas by two years, in turn making student visas more attractive.
- Committing $42 million and 600 staff to clear the so-called “one million visa backlog” and rubber stamping as many visa applications as possible.
- Raising the permanent non-humanitarian migrant intake by 30,000 to 190,000, thereby increasing the chances of temporary migrants gaining permanent residency.
- Approving 66,000 “pandemic event visas” and waiting too long to close the rort down.
- Prioritising offshore visa applicants over onshore.
- Removing a requirement that international students acknowledge that they are not applying for a student visa to migrate to Australia.
- Signing migration agreements allowing Indian students and workers to live in Australia long-term.
The results are plain to see with Australia suffering the worst rental crisis in modern history, widespread infrastructure crush-loading, and a per capita recession.
Thanks Albo. Great to see Labor taking care of the working class (not!),
