http://au.news.yahoo.com/a/-/newshome/5070281
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has flagged a cut in immigration
because of the global financial crisis, faltering economic growth
and a rise in unemployment.
Mr Rudd said the current immigration rate was an increase on the
previous year.
He said that increase was to meet employer demands for more
skilled workers, particularly in mining and resource intensive
Western Australia and Queensland.
"As with all previous governments, and mine's the same, whenever
we set immigration targets we will adjust them according to the
economic circumstances of the day," he told the Fairfax Radio
Network in Melbourne.
The 2008-09 Migration Program is set at 190,300 places,
representing a 19.8 per cent increase on the 2007-08 program. The
figure includes 56,500 places for family migrants sponsored by
people already in Australia and 133,500 places for those with
special skills.
But that's now been criticised as excessively large in a period
of economic turmoil.
Mr Rudd said immigration was not one-size-fits-all across the
country and the government would take advice on where skilled
workers were needed.
Monash University researcher Andrew Markus has estimated that of
the 21 million Australians, a quarter were born abroad - twice the
proportion of the population in the United States and three times
that of Britain.
Britain and New Zealand are still the largest source countries,
but almost every country is represented.