Temporary migration has jumped sharply over the past year — largely driven by foreign students — leading to a record intake. This was previously described as a post-COVID 19 influx of returning foreign students, but the ABC understands the government believes this is more than a one-off surge.
As part of the new migration strategy — which has already been signed off by cabinet and follows months of consultation with the higher education sector, business groups and other stakeholders — steps will be taken to cut the intake of foreign students entering low-quality courses.
The ABC understands the government will not cap the number of foreign students allowed in but will crack down on low-quality training providers and limit opportunities for student visas to be used as a backdoor for low-skilled workers to stay in Australia.
The new strategy will also involve new efforts to retain the best-performing students in Australia and new pathways to attract more high-skilled permanent migrants.
“People are coming here, enrolling in courses that don’t really add substantially to either their skills base or to the national interest here,” Mr Albanese said.
Coverage from SBS has a bit more background on the “why” for those interested.
Edit: ABC has some followup coverage of its own, mostly on the “what”.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
The federal government is set to unveil a major new migration strategy on Monday that aims to dramatically cut Australia’s intake.
Temporary migration has jumped sharply over the past year — largely driven by foreign students — leading to a record intake.
Rather, it is seen as part of a broader international trend, involving middle-income families in India, South-East Asia and Latin America seeking better opportunities in high-income countries including Australia, Canada, the US and UK.
As part of the new migration strategy — which has already been signed off by cabinet and follows months of consultation with the higher education sector, business groups and other stakeholders — steps will be taken to cut the intake of foreign students entering low-quality courses.
“People are coming here, enrolling in courses that don’t really add substantially to either their skills base or to the national interest here,” Mr Albanese said.
Last month, the annual Scanlon Foundation report on community attitudes found social cohesion at its lowest level since the survey began more than 15 years ago, with 33 per cent worried the migration intake is too high.
The original article contains 460 words, the summary contains 183 words. Saved 60%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
It’s funny when the two of us more-or-less agree on the summary. Nonetheless, whoever reads both often ends up just basically reading the original lol.