2023-24 permanent Migration Program
On 9 May 2023, the Australian Government announced that the planning level for the 2023-24 permanent Migration Program will be set at 190,000 places.
The Government has designed the 2023-24 permanent Migration Program to address persistent and emerging skills shortages and to attract people with specialist skillsets that are difficult to find or develop in Australia.
While Australia is building the domestic pipeline of highly skilled workers, the permanent Migration Program will help:
- build resilience
- boost productivity and
- support our economy as it transitions to net-zero emissions.
The 2023-24 permanent Migration Program also recognises the strong contribution all migrants make to social cohesion. It focuses on strengthening family and community bonds in Australia. It also demonstrates the Government’s commitment to family reunification.
The permanent Migration Program will help address the challenges of an ageing population. Migration reduces the average age of the population and slows the rate of population ageing. This is because migrants are, on average, younger than the existing Australian population.
A well-targeted, skills focussed Migration Program supplements the cohort of working-age people. It helps boost participation rates and the size of the labour force.
The 2023-24 permanent Migration Program has the following composition:
- Skill stream (137,100 places, approximately 72% of the program) – This stream has been designed to improve the productive capacity of the economy and fill skill shortages in the labour market, including those in regional Australia.
- Family stream (52,500 places, approximately 28% of the program) – this stream is predominantly made up of Partner visas, enabling Australians to reunite with family members from overseas and provide them with pathways to citizenship. Of this stream:
- 40,500 Partner visas are estimated for 2023-24 for planning purposes, noting this category is demand driven and not subject to a ceiling.
- 3,000 Child visas are estimated for 2023-24 for planning purposes, noting this category is demand driven and not subject to a ceiling.
- Special Eligibility stream (400 places) – this stream covers visas for those in special circumstances, including permanent residents returning to Australia after a period overseas.
