MIGRANTS

Since the mid-1990s, Australia's immigration program has increasingly been driven by skilled migration. In 2007-08, Skilled visas accounted for over two-thirds (68%) of the 2007-08 Migration Program (ABS 2009c). In 2007, three-fifths of migrants who had arrived after 1997, and were aged 15 years and over, had a vocational or higher education qualification on arrival.

Levels of educational attainment have generally increased among successive waves of migration. Over three-fifths (63%) of migrants who arrived between 2005 and 2007 (aged 15 years and over) had a vocational or higher education qualification on arrival compared with 55% of those who arrived between 2002 and 2004; 52% of those who arrived between 1995 and 2001; and 45% of those who arrived between 1986 and 1994.