The federal government has revealed how many backpackers and foreign students have arrived in Australia in recent weeks, amid pleas for their return due to workforce shortages.
Thousands of backpackers and international students have answered the call to return to Australia after pleas from the federal government.
Strict border measures implemented in March 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic had locked the two groups out of the country but the door was swung wide open late last year as Australia faced acute workforce shortages.
New figures released on Thursday show almost 7,000 foreign students landed in Australia in the past week alone, ahead of the start of the university year.
Prime Minister Scott Morrisonannounced last monththe federal government would be rebating the $630 visa application fee for students for an eight-week period from January 19 to entice them to return.
The measure was extended to those applying for a Working Holiday Maker visa, for a period of 12 weeks from that same date.
Between January 24 and 30, 2,600 overseas backpackers applied for a Working Holiday Maker visa, with a total of 28,000 lodgements since they were given the green light to come back to Australia.
Australia is open for business. We are welcoming back increasing numbers of international students, backpackers and skilled migrants, Minister for Immigration, Citizenship, Migrant Services and Multicultural Affairs, Alex Hawke, said.
Visa application rates have surged in the last week, since the government's announcement of a special Visa Application Charge (VAC) refund window for people who travel and arrive in Australia over the coming weeks.
We are building back healthy pipelines of Working Holiday Makers, and we are processing these visas very quickly. The government is seeing a surge in demand from backpackers and we are ready to welcome them to our shores.
The visa application fee rebate was announced as the government sought to throw a lifeline to businesses struggling to find staff in industries such as healthcare, aged care, hospitality and agriculture.
Confidence in Australia's economic recovery is extremely strong. Unemployment is at record lows, industry and government are providing incentives for workers to come to Australia, and we are ready to meet the demand, Mr Hawke said.
We all have a role to play in the economic recovery, filling vital skills shortages, and the government is providing these incentives to encourage skilled workers to come to Australia now and fulfil these opportunities and participate in the phenomenal economic recovery that we are seeing in Australia right now.
There are more jobs now available in Australia than before the COVID-19 pandemic, and there are still many more places available to backpackers and students that we are ready to fill, so come on down.
Thursday's figures also show more than 50,000 students have lodged visa applications since late 2021, while a total of 56,000 students have arrived in the country since November 2020.
The federal government announced on Monday it was spending $7 million on a new Work and Play the Aussie Way marketing campaign to boost the uptake of Working Holiday Maker visas in the United Kingdom, Europe, Japan and Republic of Korea.
https://www.news.com.au/finance/work/at-work/shifted-expectations-1-in-5-aussies-quit-their-jobs-in-the-last-year/news-story/c28970b577b261b61b0cbf3c0a6cd68a
