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THE NUMBER of Skilled migrant visas issued in a programme year reached an all time high in 2002-03, when a new record of 66,050 Skill Stream visas were issued in 2002-03. The visas form 61 per cent of the 108,070 total Migration Programme outcome.
The Family Stream also had the largest intake of migrants in six years, with 40,790 visas granted.
"The policies that this Government has put in place over the past few years have focused on skilled migration and brought about a program that is highly beneficial to Australia's economy, while still catering for family reunions," the Minister for Immigration, Mr Ruddock Philip said.
A preliminary analysis by Access Economics, using today's prices, estimates that if the Migration Programme is continued at the same settings, the cumulative benefit to the Federal Budget could be around $30 billion over 10 years.
"Research shows that changes we have made to qualifications, English language and age requirements for skilled migrants have led to a sharp increase in the labour market and settlement success levels," Mr Ruddock said.
Recent skilled migrants are earning well above the national average weekly wage only 18 months after their arrival in Australia.
The number of skilled migrants choosing to call Australia's regional areas home was also at an all-time high in 2003-03 with 7,940 visas granted under State specific and regional migration initiatives.
"A key element in the 2002-03 Migration Programme has been the streamlined processing of applications for skilled, business and parent visas through dedicated processing centres in Perth and Adelaide," Mr Ruddock said.
It is clear that without these centres, events such as SARS and the war in Iraq would have seriously hampered visa processing, leading to a smaller programme.
Skilled migration totalled 61 per cent of all migration in the 12 months to end-June, with 66,050 migrants, against 53,520 in the previous 12 month period, making 57.5 per cent of the total migration intake.
This was a massive 108,700 new people in 2002/2003, compared with 93,080 in the previous 12 months.
Total family figures were up slightly at 40,790, against 38,090, with spouse visas totalling 29,130 people, compared with 28,880 in the previous 12 months.