Emigrating to Australia under review for Budget release

Although emigrating to Australia has become a highly popular option for people escaping the financial crunch, the Immigration Minister Chris Evans has already had to cut his record migration program this year so that fewer people are emigrating to Australia than last year.

While emigrating to Australia has been progressively expanding to reach record numbers, the Australian Government has had to readjust its skilled migration policy so that the programme can better reflect the needs of the Australian economy.

This readjustment included January's release of the new Critical Skills List (CSL), the introduction of a new order for priority processing, and a 14 per cent reduction in the quota for skilled migrants emigrating to Australia. The Government's focus was to create a more targeted approach to its skilled migration programme, so that it reflects the Australian economy's demand for labour and does not add pressure to the job market during the economic slowdown.

"If there is a drop in demand for skills and labour in the economy, you would expect that you would run a smaller migration program," Senator Evans told a Senate estimates hearing late last year.

The demand for emigrating to Australia has not relented during the economic downturn, despite the Government not indicating whether the 2009-10 Budget would include a reduced Australian skilled migration programme.

However, according to ABC News, Senator Evans did state that the skilled migration programme would continue on its path of steady growth once the Australian economy shows signs of positive growth and extra stability.

"We're going to need migrants to keep the workforce numbers up in coming years," he said.

The 2009-10 Budget will be released in just over one month, on 12 May 2009, which will contain the next year's annual Australian skilled migration quota.

The Australian Visa Bureau is an independent consulting company specialising in helping people with emigrating to Australia.