Immigration shake-up: Here's how changes will impact international students and skilled migrants

In a significant shake-up to fix the Australian immigration system, the Albanese Government has released a slew of reforms to protect the interests of skilled migrants, international students and families.

Key changes to the Australian migration system following the landmark review.

Key Points

• Review to focus on attracting highly-skilled workers to Australia.
• International students set to face stricter rules.
• Government to tighten access to permanent migration for parent visa holders.

Home Affairs Minister Clare O'Neil has announced changes to almost every visa category following a review that found that the country's current migration system fails to attract the most skilled people and give businesses efficient access to workers.

Among the major proposed changes, the federal government is mulling scrapping the skills list and improving the visa process, including removing the points test for skilled visas. They are also considering granting "automatic" temporary graduate visas to people who complete their studies.

How will the proposed changes impact skilled migrants?

Thousands of temporary skilled workers will be able to apply for permanent residency by year-end, Ms O'Neil announced.

Wages for temporary skilled migrants will be raised by up to $16,000 from 1 July. The proposal comes as the review found the minimum income threshold paved the way for exploitation.

The Temporary Skilled Migration Income Threshold (TSMIT), which has not been raised since it was frozen at $53,000 a decade ago, will jump to $70,000.

The reforms will also include a three-tier skilled migration system, with a fast turnaround time for highly-skilled migrants, a middle stream linked to Jobs and Skills Australia, and a final pathway for lower-paid care workers.

Source: Getty / Getty Images

In addition, the points test will also be reformed to actively recruit highly-skilled migrants, while hundreds of visa categories and subcategories will be simplified.

Ms O'Neil said the current system needs to target the skills Australia needs.

"The employer-sponsored visas are driven by short to medium-term employer interests and underpinned by unresponsive and out-of-date occupation lists that do not reflect emerging and future labour needs," she said.

Impact on international students

Ms O'Neil stated that Australia needs quality overseas students who can be facilitated with migration pathways.

The review proposes to provide "automatic" temporary graduate visas to students upon completion of studies, which would last long enough for the government to identify "high-value potential graduates who will succeed on permanent skilled visas".

"One of the reasons there is so much exploitation is because we have allowed low-wage migration programs to operate in the shadows, for example, through the exploitation of our international student visa system," Ms O'Neil said.

Speaking to SBS Punjabi, Sydney-based migration agent Rajwant Singh said that stringent English language requirements and regular quality checks over colleges have also been flagged in the report.

Rajwant Singh Source: SBS / SBS Punjabi

"The review states that there will be simpler pathways for international students with special skills and capabilities that Australia needs. The government is also planning to tighten the enrolment requirements for students to ensure that students are actually here to study," he said.

Impact on parent visa applicants

Mr Singh, who specialises in the parent and family visa category, added that the government might scrap the permanent parent visa migration in the near future.

"In considering the cost of a parent migrant within a capped migration intake, the lost contribution of the migrant they displace, likely to be a skilled migrant, should be considered," he said.

The report further states that the cost of parent visa holders significantly outweighs the visa fees.

"A parent, on average, costs $400,000 over their lifetime due to their high use of government-funded services and limited taxes paid.

"A partial remedy would be increasing the charge and tightening eligibility, and introducing a more flexible temporary parent visa where the sponsor meets the cost of health support during the period of residence," the report states.

Source: SBS

Mr Singh said the government is also considering introducing a lottery system for the parent visa category to prevent visa backlogs.

"Demand for family migration has been much greater than the places available.

"The report flags that the Government may shorten the long-term temporary stay (subclass 870) in future - the extent of stay might reduce while more affordable short-term stay visas for parents may get introduced," he said.

Ending permanent temporariness

The number of temporary migrants onshore has nearly doubled over the last 15 years.

Ms O'Neil said that Australia is home to nearly 1.8 million temporary migrants with the legal ability to participate in the country's labour market, but they often remain tangled in long pathways to permanent residence.

"Australia does not want to become a nation with 'permanently temporary' people," she said.

The final migration policy will be unveiled later this year after further consultations.