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Immigration

This Month

A crowd gathers at Sydney Harbour.

Ageing Australia to lean on millions more migrants: Treasury

The population is forecast to hit 31 million in a decade, as younger migrants pay for the increasing number of older people in aged care and the health system.

  • John Kehoe
University of Sydney Vice Chancellor Mark Scott and Education Minister Jason Clare.

Backdoor overseas student caps will ‘damage Australia’s reputation’

Under Labor’s new plan, visa applications for overseas students would be put on a go-slow once their intended university hits 80 per cent of its proposed cap.

  • Updated
  • Ronald Mizen
Muhammad Ahsan Siddiqi’s qualifications as a civil engineer are recognised in Australia, but employers want local experience.

‘Give us a chance’: More visas not enough to fix skills crisis

According to a recently launched coalition of business groups, unions and community organisations, more than 620,000 permanent migrants work below their skill levels and qualifications.

  • Ronald Mizen
Backpackers and New Zealanders are keeping net migration figures high.

Influx of Kiwis, backpackers adds to migration woes

Large numbers of New Zealanders escaping a sluggish economy and backpackers arriving en masse are keeping numbers far higher than government forecasts.

  • Julie Hare
The government is struggling to contain net migration numbers.

Migration target not a chance, as students keep coming

A raft of government reforms to slow the rate of net migration have been slow to take hold as more students arrive and fewer leave.

  • Julie Hare
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Opposition leader Peter Dutton has said the Coalition will go harder on cutting migration than Labor but has walked away from a previous commitment.

Dutton walks back migration target until after election

Peter Dutton has stepped away from a previous commitment to cut net migration to 160,000.

  • Julie Hare

So, you want to retire to Tuscany?

The idea of moving to Italy is alluring for retirees – la dolce vita, the food, the wine, the beauty, the prices. Just check these practicalities first.

  • Sian Powell
Construction workers, including for the housing sector, will be added to the new list.

Tradies to join yoga instructors on core migration skills list

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said the federal government was moving to address critical shortages, including in new home construction.

  • Tom McIlroy and Michael Read

November

Duncan Maskell, outgoing vice chancellor of Melbourne University.

‘I’m not going to say no to a nice salary’: outgoing Melbourne Uni boss

Duncan Maskell rejects criticism of million-dollar pay packets for vice chancellors, hits back at claims there are too many overseas students, and insists a university education should be free.

  • Julie Hare
Britain is rolling out a universal visa scheme in early January - and Australians could be caught unawares.

Want to visit the UK? It’s about to get a lot more painful

From January 8, any Australian visiting the UK will need a visa – even for a short holiday or an airport transit.

  • Hans van Leeuwen
Universities are collateral damage as social and political attitudes to migration wane.

They came in their millions, now voters are fed up

Half of all Australians say migration is too high and politicians are hearing that message loud and clear.

  • Julie Hare

Student bed developers look beyond Sydney, Melbourne as market matures

Demand remains strong in the two largest cities, but the purpose-built accommodation sector is looking more widely for cheaper sites.

  • Michael Bleby
The government can cap international student visas without new legislation.

Labor could use legal loophole to cap student numbers

The federal government’s bid to limit the foreign intake failed. But it already has legislation that allows it to do exactly that.

  • Julie Hare
Potential Chinese students predict more policy chaos in the aftermath of caps being dumped.

Chinese social media users slam foreign student chaos

Students and university leaders are digesting what the blocking of student caps legislation mean for them.

  • Julie Hare
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton and Immigration Minister Tony Burke.

Foreign students row is political kryptonite

The government accuses Peter Dutton of hypocrisy for rejecting its foreign student caps, but the Opposition Leader is not about to do Labor any favours this close to an election.

  • Jennifer Hewett
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Peter Dutton says the government and the universities are contributing to an “onshore disaster”.

Dutton vows ‘deeper cuts’ to student enrolments, migration numbers

The opposition leader says Labor’s management of migration has been an “onshore disaster”, but he has declined to detail the Coalition’s policy.

  • Tom McIlroy and Julie Hare
Mr Trump’s hardline immigration stance is a central plank of his campaign. This would include resuming construction of his flagship wall on the US-Mexico border and launching the biggest deportation effort in US history.

Trump to use military for ‘largest mass deportation’ in US history

The president-elect confirmed his intention to use the US military to carry out what he has vowed will be the largest mass deportation in US history.

  • Charlie Savage and Michael Gold

Foreign student cap plan’s collapse is a sign of the times

Migration is gaining momentum as a policy area voters want the government to deal with. And politicians are tapping into the zeitgeist.

  • Julie Hare
A bid to cap international student places has been blocked after the Greens and Coalition banded together.

Unis, colleges brace for chaos after foreign student cap plan blocked

The $51 billion international education sector is bracing for a new wave of student visa rejections after the government’s signature migration plan was killed off.

  • Updated
  • Julie Hare
Governments have muddled through by offering huge numbers of temporary work visas to foreign arrivals.

Politicians don’t want migrants but they do need workers

Neither major party has managed immigration well. That has not stopped Peter Dutton from making an election issue out of it.

  • Laura Tingle

Original URL: https://www.afr.com/topic/immigration-5yj