Temporary migration has jumped sharply over the past year — largely driven by foreign students — leading to a record intake. This was previously described as a post-COVID 19 influx of returning foreign students, but the ABC understands the government believes this is more than a one-off surge.
As part of the new migration strategy — which has already been signed off by cabinet and follows months of consultation with the higher education sector, business groups and other stakeholders — steps will be taken to cut the intake of foreign students entering low-quality courses.
The ABC understands the government will not cap the number of foreign students allowed in but will crack down on low-quality training providers and limit opportunities for student visas to be used as a backdoor for low-skilled workers to stay in Australia.
The new strategy will also involve new efforts to retain the best-performing students in Australia and new pathways to attract more high-skilled permanent migrants.
“People are coming here, enrolling in courses that don’t really add substantially to either their skills base or to the national interest here,” Mr Albanese said.
Coverage from SBS has a bit more background on the “why” for those interested.
Edit: ABC has some followup coverage of its own, mostly on the “what”.
Fairfax coverage of this also includes a poll of some sort indicating voter preferences.
https://archive.is/pieMq
Interesting that coalition voters want less immigration. Do they not realise their hero John Howard was the one who cranked immigration numbers to record levels? He realised he could screw unions, lower wages and raise real estate prices in one go.
Since then we have had unsustainable levels of immigration from both major parties until covid hit. But Labor has certainly made up for that this year.