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AUSTRALIA IS STILL A TOP CHOICE AUSTRALIA has retained its reputation as a destination of choice for migrants, with settler arrival numbers continuing to rise.More than 131,000 people made Australia their new home during 2005-2006, up about 8000 on the previous year, Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs Amanda Vanstone has said. "That's 8000 extra people who chose to make Australia their home, people who not only brought with them aspirations for a wonderful new life but also brought the experience and skills to help build Australia's future," Senator Vanstone said. "The great thing about our migration programme is that new arrivals have settled all over the country, in cities and in regional areas, meaning the wealth of their knowledge and experience is being spread throughout the community." A snapshot of the new arrivals highlights the non-discriminatory approach that the Australian Government has taken to immigration, with people from more than 200 countries represented in the settler arrivals statistics. The largest number of settlers came from the United Kingdom with 23,290, up by about 5000 on the previous year. Other European countries contributed about 7000 migrants, while the number of new arrivals from Sudan fell almost 2000 from the previous year to 3783. Iraqi arrival numbers were up almost 500 to 2425, while more than 52,000 people from 34 Asian countries made Australia their new home during 2005-2006. Senator Vanstone said the majority of new arrivals entered Australia through the family and skill streams of the migration programme. "Our migration target for 2006-2007 is about 140,000, including 97,500 in the skill stream and that number does not include the 13,000 refugee and humanitarian entrants who will begin new lives in Australia through our humanitarian programme." |
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