Immigration to Australia

With all the happenings going on with regards to Australia immigration visa, business visa holders, as well as others who want to travel there are worried how these will affect their chances of getting in. and with the elections in the country just a few months away, many of them are crossing their fingers that the policies would become favorable to them.

One of the most crucial of the many issues on immigration that is being closely monitored, not only by incoming foreigners but also the local people, is the so called big Australia policy. What this is basically is an attempt to attract more people to move into the country and increase its population. While the country is a large one, with an area of over 7.6 million square kilometers, it has a relatively small population of only a little over 22 million.

One of the biggest reason why some people thing that the big Australia policy is much needed by the country is because of its economy. The Australian economy is actually one of the fastest growing in the world today. In fact, there are a lot of new businesses being opened in the country yearly. However, because its population is small, Australia can not cope up with the labor demands of its economy. Thus it regularly gets workers from the thousands of immigrants that move in to the country each year.

The policy has, in fact, been espoused by former Prime Minister John Howard during his term. Howard's policies with regard to immigration was rather lax at that time, allowing a lot of foreigners to enter the country and work. In fact, it was during his time that Australia experienced one of its largest immigration booms for some time.

Interestingly, current Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, who succeeded Howard, was initially also for the big Australia policy. However, once elected, he quickly changed his views and decided that a big population would not be in the best interest of the country. Thus, upon his ascension to the Prime Minister position, the Department of Immigration and Citizenship immediately began changing its regulations in that direction.

And those that go against the policy does have valid reasons to do so. One of their biggest contention is that a bigger population would not really do much for the country, but instead contribute to the faster depletion of its resources. Many critics of the policy are also concerned about the quality of incoming workers, as many of them are not qualified for the positions needed by the country, thus creating the current worker shortage in some industries.

It is unlikely that the issue would be resolved any time soon. And for the meantime, all the would be immigrants can do is wait as to what happens next.