Australia has rolled up its sleeves to tighten grip on the immigration policy after the United Kingdom (UK), BBC news report said.
According to the news, the Australian government is making preparations to bring a complete overhaul in the immigration policy, with the aim of limiting the annual intake to 250,000 by 2025.
This decision has come a few days after the UK made public a plan to tighten the immigration policy.
With this decision, foreign students arriving in Australia to pursue their higher studies will be directly impacted. In other words, only a few and selected students will get student visas for Australia.
Among the new measures are tougher minimum English-language requirements for international students, and more scrutiny of those applying for a second visa - they must prove that any further study would advance their academic aspirations or their careers.
Unveiling a 10-year immigration strategy on Monday, Minister for Home Affairs Clare O’neil commented that the policy adopted by the previous government has left the immigration system “in tatters”.
Saying that a review earlier this year found the immigration system “badly broken, unnecessarily complex, slow and inefficient”, Minister Clare called for a complete overhaul in the system.
As many as 510,000 migrants arrived in Australia by June this year 2023, according to the official data maintained by the Immigration Department of Australia.
According to the official data, there are some 650,000 foreign students in Australia, currently, most of them on second visa.
However, this policy will ease visa pathways for migrants with "essential skills", highly-skilled tech workers and care givers, offer better prospects for permanent residency.
