New figures offer snapshot of Australian immigration

The UK was the third-largest source country for Australian-bound immigrants between 2000 and 2016, new figures show.

Data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics show that 220,666 people born in the UK moved to Oz during this time period. Only people born in India (290,801) and China (242,374) arrived to live in the country in larger numbers.

The figures show that 160,558 of the immigrants from Britain arrived as skilled migrants, while 60,108 came through the family stream.

In fact, the vast majority of all migrants who settled in Australia during this period arrived as skilled migrants, although the report stated that migrants are not replacing Australian workers, with research finding local workers were neither helped nor harmed by migration.

Business, human resources and marketing professionals was the most common job for permanent migrants who have arrived to live in the country since 2000, followed by health professionals then specialist managers.

The most common weekly income for the 2000 to 2016 cohort of permanent migrants was between AUS$650 and AUS$999 per week in 2016, but more than a quarter (27 per cent) of humanitarian migrants had weekly incomes of only AUS$300-AUS$649 per week. More than one in three (35 per cent) employed skilled migrants earned more than AUS$1,500 per week compared to 7.3 per cent for those on humanitarian visas.

Skilled migrants had the highest levels of English proficiency at 92 per cent, while those in the family and humanitarian streams, had lower rates of English proficiency at 73 per cent and 66 per cent respectively.

Article published 19th July 2018