ਅਠਾਰਵੀਂ ਸਦੀ ਵਿੱਚ ਅੰਗਰੇਜ਼ਾਂ ਦੇ ਆਸਟ੍ਰੇਲੀਆ ਵਿੱਚ ਵੱਸਣ ਤੋਂ ਬਾਅਦ, ਆਸਟ੍ਰੇਲੀਆ ਦੀ ਅਬਾਦੀ ਚੌਵੀ ਮਿਲੀਅਨ ਤੱਕ ਪੋਹੋੰਚ ਚੁੱਕੀ ਹੈ।
In Australia, around 200,000 migrants receive permanent visas each year out of which almost half are those who had already been living in Australia on some sort of temporary visa.
This means that Australia welcomed around 120,000 new migrants to its shores in 2016. These are Australia’s newest settlers.
According to the Department of Social Services Settlement Database, these newly arrived migrants are from 219 different countries around the world. The department collects its data based on the ‘country of birth’ records of all permanent settlers. A small number of settlers are from birthplaces that are no longer recognized as part of the international community, for example, the USSR. There are also 1532 people that stated Australia as their birth place. These are the ones that left earlier without claiming citizenship, only to return in 2016.
But the country that tops the list of the most popular countries of birth is India with 22,500 new settlers taken in this year. It is closely followed by China with 18,300, Iraq 8100, Syria 7600 and the Philippines with 6100.
Australia’s permanent migrant intake can be broken down in to three categories: Humanitarian, family and skilled.
People who receive humanitarian visa are the ones that are assessed by the government as needing humanitarian assistance, without having any durable solution available to them.
The second way to attain permanent residence or citizenship of Australia is through family. Family can include partners, parents or children.
The third category, skilled, draws willing workers from around the world to Australia based on their professional skills and the need of such skills in Australia.
This year, Australia took in 22,800 permanent settlers through humanitarian visa, which was boosted by one-off intake of 12,000 Syrian and Iraqi refugees that was announced by the former Prime Minister Tony Abbott in 2015. 37,500 arrived on family visas and 60,000 were skilled workers.
Almost half of the newly arrived settlers move to either New South Wales (34,800) or Victoria (28,000). This includes more than two-thirds of all humanitarian migrants. 10,000 moved to Queensland, 8,600 to Western Australia, 6,700 went to South Australia and only 1,100 moved to Tasmania across the Bass Strait.
Western Sydney and city centres are said to welcome the highest concentrations of settlers.
17 council areas received more than one new arrival per 100 residents, nine in NSW. Melbourne and Hume in Victoria, Strathfield, Parramatta and Holroyd in Sydney and Adelaide were areas, alongside Fairfield, to receive more than 1.5 arrivals per 100 residents.
The place that new migrants chose to go to also depends on the type of visa they come on. For example, arrivals on family and skilled visas are tied to the places of their personal and professional links. For those arriving on skilled visa, the largest four employment centres are Brisbane, Melbourne, Parramatta and Sydney. Strathfield in NSW and Adelaide also recorded high ‘skilled migrant per resident’ ratios.
Suburbs like Dandenong in Victoria, Auburn, Hurstville and Burwood in NSW and Canning in WA attracted most migrants on family visas.
Humanitarian entrants are settled in areas based on government policy.
Source: SBS News