Record immigration figure is smashed as one group of overseas visitors floods into Australia

A record number of work visas have been issued to holidaymakers, with the number exceeding 200,000 for the first time.

The huge influx poses a political challenge for the Albanian government, which has pledged to reduce high levels of migration due to the housing shortage. She has also raised concerns that the influx is boosting consumer demand and keeping prices high.

The charge is led by a wave of British backpackers to Australia, who have almost doubled in number in the past three years as they take advantage of relaxed rules introduced by the former Morrison government.

These changes increased the maximum age of visa holders from 30 to 35, allowed three-year stays and no longer required 88 days of regional work, meaning foreign visitors could stay in the cities if they wished.

This has resulted in 47,000 British working travelers calling Australia home in November, compared to 31,000 in December last year and 21,000 the year before.

The Home Office reported in June that applications for third-year visas had increased by 300 percent.

Australia also received record numbers of working holidaymakers in November from France, 23,700, and Ireland, 21,800.

There were also 14,800 from Japan, 13,400 from Taiwan, 13,200 from Italy and 12,700 from South Korea.

The thousands of revelers, many of them working on visas, who flocked to Sydney’s eastern beaches to party on Christmas Day provided striking visual evidence of the influx.

Former immigration official Abul Rizvi said the changes introduced by Scott Morrison had “stepped the accelerator” on work visas, but the strong labor market and other deals had also helped open the floodgates.

“Over the past decade we have signed a large number of new agreements for working holidaymakers with many countries,” he said. Nine newspapers.

“What it has essentially done is structurally increase the level of net migration in a normal labor market.”

Immigration has become a politically sensitive issue as Australia continues to face a housing crisis, with continued high numbers of international students also putting pressure on rental prices in Australia’s major cities.

Labor had targeted a net overseas migration inflow of 395,000 last financial year, up from a record 528,000 previously.

However, Rizvi, a former deputy immigration secretary, estimated that 450,000 to 475,000 people were likely to have moved to Australia between 2023 and 2024.

“Especially people from Europe and China and from South East Asia, where the labor market has weakened faster than in Australia,” he said.

“What we had was a higher than expected return of Australian citizens, and we also had a higher than expected net arrival of Kiwis.”

The Treasury Department’s Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook forecast, released this month, shows 340,000 migrants will arrive in Australia between 2024 and 2025.

That is significantly higher than the forecast of 260,000 for this financial year in the May budget.

AMP chief economist Shane Oliver said higher-than-expected immigration for 2024-2025 meant Australia would struggle to house its growing population, despite the Albanian government’s pledge to build 1.2 million homes in five years.

“With housing completions remaining well below the government’s target of 240,000 per year, this means no progress has been made in reducing the housing shortage this year,” he said.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers blamed higher-than-expected immigration on too few people leaving Australia permanently.

“It’s peaked, it’s coming down, it’s going down more slowly than was projected in the budget, really for one big reason, and that’s because there have been fewer departures,” he said.

“The Treasury has done more or less well when it comes to arrivals, but departures are slower.

‘People stick around longer and that means that the number decreases more slowly and you see that updated.’