Australia taking in 10,000 immigrants a week

Australia is accepting more than 10,000 immigrants a week despite Anthony Albanese vowing to halve the number of new arrivals by next year.

More than 1,500 new arrivals are arriving each day, or 60 migrants every hour, according to new data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.   

Australia will take in more than 500,000 immigrants in 2024 alone as the population battles a worsening housing and cost-of-living crisis.  

An additional 4,200 homes are needed every week to keep up with the current level of growth, however less than 1,000 are currently being built. 

The sobering immigration figures come just weeks after the Prime Minister vowed that his government would halve immigration levels within a year. 

Sustainable Population Australia president Peter Strachan called for immigration to be cut immediately.

‘We understand calls for an end to immigration in light of the dire effect that adding a million migrants in two years had on the housing market, as well as on infrastructure and services,’ he said.

‘Over the past 20 years, immigration has been far too high, based on the false claim that we lack sufficient skilled workers. The resultant population growth has created more skills shortages than it has filled.

‘The real reasons for mass immigration are to keep wages low and house prices rising. This is not in the interests of Australians, nor the interests of migrants who are among the disadvantaged for both jobs and housing.’

Mr Strachan urged net overseas migration to be limited to just 70,000 per year.

Australia is expected to be home to 45million people in 2070 following a push to grow the population by 75 per cent in just a few generations. 

‘We can maintain the refugee intake at 20,000 and still have room for the skilled migrants employers want to sponsor, along with their family members,’ Mr Strachan said.

‘However, Australia should stop importing people on points-tested visas, who tend not to get skilled jobs. 

‘The only reason the government does this is to push immigration above the numbers employers want. This drives consumption and GDP up, but productivity and per capita GDP go down.’

With an election due within 12 months, the Treasury is now expecting the immigration intake for 2023/24 to shrink to 395,000.

‘We’re determined to do that. We inherited a system that was a mess,’ Mr Albanese told 3AW in April. 

‘And what we’ve been doing is making sure that in areas such as vocational education, for example, some people were coming here doing courses that were, frankly, Mickey Mouse courses, using that to stay here for a very long period of time.

‘What we’re doing is putting integrity and rigour back into the system. Now, students coming here is an important source of economic income.’

Mr Albanese didn’t reveal what he thought the annual immigration figure should be. 

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‘We’re not going to just pluck a figure out of the sky, but what we are projecting is that the net overseas migration is projected to come down to 250,000 in the coming financial year in 2024-25,’ he said.

Meanwhile, a new plan from Labor will force universities to build more international student accommodation amid a huge influx of students. 

Treasurer Dr Jim Chalmers announced in May that universities would need to build more housing for international students if they wanted to keep relying on their upfront fees for a lucrative revenue stream.

By the end of 2024/25, the foreign inflow was expected to halve to just 260,000 – down from 528,000 in 2022/23.

But over the five years to 2027/28, 1.38million migrants on a net basis are still expected to move to Australia.

With construction workers in short supply, it’s hoped forcing universities to build more accommodation would make it harder for the higher education sector to accept so many enrolments.

International students make up the bulk of long-term arrivals in the immigration figures, with the permanent intake of migrants capped at 190,000.

‘If universities want to take more international students, they must build more student accommodation,’ Dr Chalmers said.

‘We will limit how many international students can be enrolled by each university based on a formula, including how much housing they build.’

Almost half of Australians believe there too many migrants moving to Australia according to a poll conducted by the Lowy Institute earlier this month. 

The poll revealed 48 per cent of respondents said the total number of migrants coming to Australia each year was too high. 

This result was a slight increase from the last time the question was asked in 2019, and remains six percentage points lower than its 2018 peak. 

The number of people who believed the migration intake was ‘about right’ has also dropped from 47 per cent in 2014 to 40 per cent in 2024. 

Despite this, nine in 10 Australians still believe the nation’s culturally diverse population has been positive for Australia.