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Australian Federal Government to cut migration intake

The Federal coalition government has announced it will be reducing Australia’s migration intake from 190,000 places annually to 160,000 places annually. The cuts will take place in the financial year starting 1 July 2019.

The Department of Home Affairs migration planning levels can be broken down into the following four streams:
1. Skilled migration There will be 108,682 places for skilled migration, with an emphasis in the new financial year on meeting the skills shortages and population needs of regional Australia.
2. Family migration This stream is predominantly made up of partner visas. Partner visa number intakes will not change from 47,732 places.
3. Child migration At least 3,350 places will be available and this is predominately for children of Australian permanent residents born out of Australia.
4. Special eligibility pathways This is the smallest stream at 236 places and includes previous Australian permanent residents who are reapplying for residency after a significant time away from Australia.
Source: Department of Home Affairs, Migration program planning levels, 20 March 2019 https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/…/migration-program-plannin…