Australia’s Migration Programme for 2014-15 has 190 000 places.
This includes:
- 128 550 places for skilled migrants, including employer sponsored, general skilled and business categories
- 60 885 places for family migrants sponsored by immediate family members
- 565 places for special eligibility migrants, who include former permanent residents who maintain close business, cultural or personal ties with Australia.
For more details about the 2014-15 Migration Programme read the ministerial media release or the fact sheet about migration programme planning levels.
The purpose of migration is to build the economy, shape society, support the labour market and reunite family.
Of people migrating to Australia, 68 per cent are skilled migrants and 32 per cent are from family visa streams. This is further broken down to:
- Skill: 38 per cent employer sponsored, 34 per cent skilled independent, 22 per cent state, territory and regional nominated and 6 per cent business
- Family: 79 per cent partner, 14 per cent parent, 6 per cent child and 1 per cent other.
The migration programme size and composition is flexible and changes over time, from a smaller programme with mostly family migrants in 1993-94 to a larger programme with more skilled migrants in 2013-14. Planning levels are set by the government each year and the size and composition changes to meet the social and economic needs of Australia. Full statistics and further details are available.
See:
Migration to Australia since federation: a guide to the statistics (330KB PDF)
Fact Sheet 20 – Migration Programme planning levels
