Australia's Immigration Program to Be Cut?

Australia’s Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has indicated there might be a reduction in places in the country’s skilled immigration program.

A recent reduction in jobs ads and falling numbers of full time jobs in Australia have combined with the global credit crunch to raise fears that the economy will soon not be able to cope with the current rate of migrant arrivals.

“As with all previous governments, and mine’s the same, whenever we set immigration targets we will adjust them according to the economic circumstances of the day,” he told listeners to the Fairfax Radio Network in Melbourne.

Mr Rudd said current numbers are higher than last year’s and the increase had been made on the basis of employer demands for more skilled workers, particularly in Western Australia and Queensland where mining and resources production jobs were plentiful.

There are 190,300 places in this year’s migration program, up almost 20 percent on last year’s. Places are split between 133,500 skilled migrants and 56,500 sponsored family migrants.

In a possible reference to the fact that Queensland and Western Australia are still adding jobs while employment in other states is static, or even shrinking, Mr Rudd said immigration was not one-size-fits-all across the country and the government would take advice on where skilled workers were needed.

It’s not all bad news, however. Houses in Australia are getting cheaper, the Australian dollar has taken a battering on international currency markets and Australia’s Reserve Bank has been cutting interest rates aggressively. The result is that migrants fortunate enough to be arriving to good jobs in Australia, with some capital, are currently finding Australian real estate more affordable than it has been for some time.