Melbourne Migration Area
Letter to the Editor - The Age
12 December 2003
Dear Sir/Madam
It is important to put your article 'Regional area' of Melbourne a migrant target into context.
The objective of the Government's State-Specific and Regional Migration policy is to work with individual jurisdictions to enable them to use immigration to support their development plans.
There are a range of State-Specific and Regional Migration visa categories, which are designed to meet the individual requirements of different areas of Australia.
Melbourne is designated to benefit from migration initiatives in one of these visa categories, based on advice received from the Victorian Government and a Victorian Parliamentary report. Therefore it is not surprising that a significant proportion of people who hold this visa settle in Melbourne.
To be successful in this particular visa category, the applicant or their spouse must:
- have a post-secondary qualification that has been assessed by the relevant skills assessing body as meeting Australian standards
- be under 45 years of age
- have at least functional English, and
- have a family relative living in a designated area who is prepared to sponsor them and pay an Assurance of Support bond to cover any access to Social Security in the first two years after arrival.
This serves to ensure that Australia is attracting skilled people through this migration category.
Roger Wheatley
Acting Director
Public Affairs
DIMIA