Skilled migration to Australia
14 September 2015 by News Desk
Skilled workers represent 60% of all permanent residency visas granted to migrants in Australia.
From 2000 to 2013 approximately 1.8 million migrants entered Australia under the Australian Government Migration Programme, with 1.2 million (65%) in the Skilled stream and 631,500 (34%) in the Family stream, according to latest figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
In 2010, 168,623 migrants entered Australia under the Migration Programme, (107,868 Skilled stream, 60,254 Family stream) with the majority of these from United Kingdom, China and India.
The Australian Government’s skilled migration programmes target high quality migrants who use their skills and attributes to contribute directly to Australia’s economic, demographic and social well-being. The Skilled stream allows for the entry of employer sponsored workers as well as those who qualify independently.
Skilled migrants are generally well educated and have relatively high levels of English proficiency, even when emigrating from countries where English is a second language. Proficiency in English can also be a criterion for applying for a visa and an important pre-requisite to gaining employment in the labour market.
In 2010, there were 503,533 Skilled migrant taxpayers. They reported receiving $27.5 billion of income from all sources. In addition, Skilled primary applicants reported $21.3 billion in income.
Almost two-thirds of all migrants with Employee income were from the Skilled visa stream. They recorded Employee income of $25.5 billion and had an average income of $44,287.
Skilled secondary applicants had the third highest proportion of Investment income (28%) and received 16% of Employee income.
Skilled stream professionals are more likely to partner with another professional. Results indicated that in terms of skilled migration ‘this means that we are often getting two skilled migrants for the price of one, i.e. the partner [secondary applicant] has similar levels of skills as the primary applicant’.
