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The Australian Department of the Interior has released its migration data for the year 2019/2020, detailing how many South African immigrants have arrived in the country in the last year.
The department said emigration was significantly impacted by Covid-19, which disrupted support services such as English language tests, biometrics, and health and character verification.
As a result, overall migration program accommodations were reduced by 12.3%, from 198,710 in 2018/19 to 174,170 in 2019/20.
The main countries of origin of citizenship of migrants in 2019/20 were:
- India: 25,698 places
- China: 18,587 places
- United Kingdom: 10,681 places
- Philippines: 8,965 places
- Vietnam: 5,398 places
- Nepal: 5,048 places
- New Zealand: 4,997 places
- Pakistan: 4,136 places
- South Africa: 3,743 places
- United States of America: 3,301 places
How South Africans Get to Australia
There are four streams in Australia’s migration program:
- The skills flow is designed to enhance the productive capacity of the economy and fill skills shortages in the labor market, including those in the Australia region.
- The family stream is primarily made up of membership category visas, allowing Australian citizens and permanent residents to meet family members from abroad and provide pathways to citizenship.
- The Special Eligibility stream covers visas for those in special circumstances that do not fit into the other streams. This may include permanent residents returning to the country after a period of absence.
- The flow of children is based on demand and does not have a limit.
Data from the department show that the majority of South African immigrants entered on an expert visa (3,260), and a smaller number entered on family (427) and child (56) visas.
This is a slight decrease from previous years, with 3,861 migrants reported in 2018/2019 and 4,235 migrants reported in 2017/2018.
While this decline can be partly attributed to Covid-19 and movement and travel restrictions, it is clear that Australia’s stricter visa requirements and other factors have also had an impact on potential South African migrants.
In 2010/2011, more than 8,612 South African migrants were reported as part of the program, more than double what was recorded in 2019/2020. The change has seen South Africa slide from fifth to eighth place in Australis’s ranking for migrant countries.
Read: Mauritius launches a new visa that will allow South Africans to live and work there in the long term
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