A migration program to support our regions
The Government is introducing reforms to encourage migration to regional areas, ensuring the economy gets the skills it needs now, in the regions that need them most.
By directing a larger portion of migrants to the regions we can also help ease the pressure on busy suburban roads and transport routes in our major cities.
The Government will increase the migration program by 16,300 places, to 185,000 places in 2011‑12, with the increase aimed at attracting highly skilled migrants to live and work in regional areas. New initiatives include:
- Specifying, for the first time, 16,000 skilled migration places to the Regional Sponsored Migration Scheme and providing priority processing for regional visa categories
- Introducing Regional Migration Agreements that allow local authorities to negotiate and coordinate access to overseas labour for employers in the region
- Fast‑tracking permanent residency for 457 visa holders who have spent two years in regional Australia and where their employer is continuing to sponsor them for a further two years.
The Government will also introduce Enterprise Migration Agreements (EMAs) to address genuine skill vacancies in major resource projects with capital expenditure greater than $2 billion and a peak workforce of 1,500. Projects that utilise EMAs will be required to contribute to training Australian workers to address future skills needs in the resources sector.
Regional Sponsored Migration Scheme as a percentage of the
Skilled stream
Source: Department of Immigration and Citizenship.