News, Facts and Figures

News
Australia's 2002-2003 Migration Program will be the largest in over a decade. The Planning Levels are shown below.

Australia is facing a growing shortage of nurses. Among the measures being taken to alleviate the shortage include (1) a ministerial direction to give priority processing to applications from nurses, (2) modifying requirements to allow all students and their dependents to apply onshore for long stay temporary residence if they have recognised nursing qualifications, and (3) streamlining the processing of visa applications from nurses.

Facts
Australia has a very substantial capacity to identify whether people have travelled in and out
of Australia and whether they have returned.

The government has worked extensively with employers, unions and the community to bring
into place processes that diminish the ability of unlawful non-citizens to work in Australia.

On 1 November 2002, the government introduced increased monitoring of temporary business
sponsors in Australia, and 100 per cent of business sponsors are now subject to monitoring
activity. This assists the government to check that employers are fulfilling their obligations to
employees.

Figures
The 2001 Census revealed that about 22 per cent of the estimated resident population were
born overseas. Of these, around 33 per cent were born in North-West Europe (mainly the
United Kingdom and Ireland), 18.9 per cent in the Southern and Eastern Europe and 12.1 per
cent in South-East Asia. The largest countries of birth were the United Kingdom (around
25 per cent of the overseas born), New Zealand (around 9 per cent) and Italy (around 5
per cent).

Australia's population has increased by 1.0 - 1.5% per year during the past 10 years.

In 2000, 4.9 million overseas visitors came to Australia.

In 2000-2001, 7364 business migration visas were granted.

In 2000-2001, the Working Holiday Maker program offered approximately 76,500 places to
young adults.

In 2000-2001, 1508 people were refused entry at Australia's airports.

In 2001-02, some 2,000 temporary business sponsors were the subject of monitoring and
over 1,000 on-site visits occurred.

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