Tweak to Australia`s immigration policy sees less overseas Asians

Source: Radio NZ, 15/04/2018

New Zealanders in Australia are now getting visas previously granted
to mostly overseas-based Asians.
Peter Dutton has slowed Australia`s immigration intake by allowing
New Zealanders already living in Australia to take visas that
previously went to overseas migrants. Photo: AFP
Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton is cutting the number of Asian
immigrants allowed into Australia, to allow more New Zealanders to
stay.
Traditionally, 44,000 places in Australia`s skilled independent visa
programme have gone to applicants who are mostly Asian and living
overseas.
But now as many as 10,000 New Zealanders who are already living and
working in Australia will be part of this annual allocation.
The change is a result of a decision by the government to merge a new
Kiwi visa with the existing skilled independent program, without
increasing the number of visas in the scheme.
The Department of Home Affairs said the new policy was directly aimed
at New Zealand citizens who have been living in Australia for at
least five years and are making an economic contribution to Australia.
Fewer overseas visa arrivals
The Department of Home Affairs confirmed to the ABC that New
Zealanders receiving the new visa are already counted as residents,
reducing the number of people coming to Australia as a result of the
programme.
The new visa was announced in 2016 as an acknowledgement of `the
special relationship between the two nations`, according to a
statement from the Prime Minister.
`The pathway is directly aimed at New Zealand citizens who have been
living in Australia for at least five years and have made, and
continue to make, a demonstrated economic contribution to Australia,`
a spokesperson for the department said.
The move will help slow the growth of migration by thousands each
year - without changing the government`s formal permanent intake.
Australia`s headline migration figure is currently calculated by the
Australian Bureau of Statistics as 250,000 and growing at 15 percent
in the year to September.
Mr Dutton told journalists that Cabinet had discussed reducing
migration, although the Prime Minister declared there had been no
formal submission for a cut to Australia`s permanent migration
programme.
Treasurer Scott Morrison has previously said a cut to migration would
hurt the economy.
From Asian migrants to the neighbourhood Kiwi
The tweak has also changed Australia`s migration mix.
It has substituted the mostly skilled Asian workers living overseas
with Kiwis already working in Australia.
The skilled independent visa - traditionally assessed on points based
on a worker`s experience - counts for approximately one quarter of
Australia`s permanent visa programme: a ceiling of 44,000 individuals
each year.
Alongside the employer-sponsored programme, it is Australia`s main
source of skilled migrant workers.
Last year, three out of five successful applicants in the program
were granted visas while living overseas.
In the first eight months of the scheme`s operation, 9000 New
Zealanders had applied for the new visa, according to the department.
Wayne Parcell, immigration partner at EY, said Australia could expect
around 10,000 Kiwi applications this year and noted that these visas
were not restricted to specific occupations.
`The criteria for the new visa would seem to have more to do with the
context of the Australia-New Zealand relationship than a
predetermined impact on the skill segment of the migration programme.`
Points-based component shrinks
This influx of New Zealanders has coincided with a shrinking of the
old points-based component.
There were 13,200 invitations to apply for one of these visas issued
in 2017-18 by the end of February, down by almost 10,000 across the
same period in the previous year.
The department spokesperson said invitation numbers `may vary
depending on the number of applications currently being processed by
the department`.
Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton said this week that he had
been `very careful in working through the numbers`.
`The idea of the migration programme in our country, as it was in the
Howard government, as it was in the Abbott government, as it now is
in the Turnbull government is to make sure we`re bringing the right
people in,` he said.
`People who want to work, not be leading a life on welfare, people
who want to integrate into our Australian society, people who want to
abide by our values and our laws.`
New visa proves popular
Between 60,000 and 80,000 Kiwis are eligible for the new visa,
according to different estimates.
The visa requires an applicant to live in Australia for five years
and maintain an income over $53,900.
At the end of February 1512 of the new visas had already been granted
and around 7500 were still being processed.
Applications only opened in July, and the process typically takes at
least three months.
The new permanent visa gives Kiwis access to more welfare services
and, unlike the standard visa available to New Zealand visitors,
provides a pathway to citizenship.