Australia is the third most popular country for South Africans living abroad.
According to the latest statistics, there were roughly 159,020 South African-born expatriates living in Australia, making it the third most popular country for South Africans who live abroad.
The year-on-year increment has doubled between 2006/07 and 2009/13, with a little under 13,000 new permanent additions granted Australian visas (majority via the skilled route, 89% to be precise) in 2009/13.
Interestingly enough, the median age of South African-born migrants is 38 years old, while the labour force participation rate was 76%, which is considerably higher than the national average of 65%.
Contrary to popular belief, New South Wales was the most popular state for South Africa born residents in Australia at the time of the last Census in 2006.
In the 2012-13 Australian Commonwealth Budget announced in May, the government had good news for South Africans hoping to migrate to the country. The financial plan outlined a targeted increase in numbers accepted on the Migration Program to support Australian regions and sectors with acute skills shortages.
The standout feature of the Budget was an increase of 5,000 places in the Migration Program from 185,000 places in 2011‑12 to 190,000 for 2012-13 made up of 129,250 skilled stream places, 60,185 family stream places and 565 special eligibility places. Minister for Immigration and Citizenship Chris Bowen MP said the increase “comes in the context of significant skills gaps in both the short and medium term in certain sectors of our patchwork economy” and that skilled migrants “are complementing rather than competing with our domestic labour force.”
International removals company, Anglo Pacific, has already noticed a surge in enquiries for Australian 2012, up 15% to date for the same period in 2011. The Company attributed this rise to the Australian Government’s other latest initiative – Skill Select. Combine this with the increase in allocations on the Migration Program and Anglo Pacific could be in for a very busy year shipping personal belongings down under.
