New Australia immigration rules will not affect immigration to Queensland
by Mary Jones - June 1, 2010
Australia, 1st June: Queensland is a hotspot for business migrants, students and New Zealanders and new strict Australian immigration policies will not have any effect on the number of people wanting to immigrate to Queensland, states a recent report.
The report maintains that nearly 70 percent of the overseas immigrants coming to Queensland admit of not being affected by the latest changes in the immigration policies of Australia. A majority of such immigrants in Queensland are from New Zealand, those applying for Australian business visas and Australian student visas.
A clear warning has been sent by the new report that if Australian immigration department introduces any steps in the near future for reducing immigration from any of the above stated sources, then the economy of Queensland will have to face severe consequences.
The report admitted that it will be quite difficult to put a curb on the current rate of immigration into Queensland in the period of next five years no matter whatever changes are made in the policies of the federal government.
Free travel agreement between New Zealand and Australia has enabled Kiwis becoming the biggest group of new immigrants in the population of Queensland.
New Zealand accounts for nearly 40 percent of the total new immigrants in Queensland. A giant proportion of overseas immigration is not controlled and is quite similar to immigration between different states.
Over the past five years, number of New Zealanders immigrating to Queensland has almost doubled. The year 2007-08 saw about 16,500 New Zealanders settling in Queensland. It has become a favorite hub of international students as an increase of 25 percent was witnessed in the total international student enrolments between in a period of six months from January till June 2009 with a total of 72,000 foreign students opting to study in Queensland.
Professor Peter McDonald, a foremost population expert of Australia who chaired an inquiry on the report said that the international migration to this Australian state is likely to increase even further by the imminent resources boom in Queensland.
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