Australia to restrict migrants moving to big cities

AUSTRALIA plans to restrict some new migrants from living in its largest cities – Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane – for “at least a few years” in an effort to ease urban congestion and encourage skilled workers into struggling towns.

Nearly 70 per cent of the 186,000 migrants who settled in Australia last year arrived on skilled migrant visas, and nearly all moved to Sydney or Melbourne, according to government data.

The new plan would affect the roughly 40 per cent of migrants who have the desired skills and are looking for work on arrival. It would class five cities – Darwin, Perth, Hobart, Adelaide and Canberra – as regional centres for migrants to settle in.

Immigration is expected to be an issue in the next federal election due before May 2019. A poll published last month found that 63 per cent of Sydney residents surveyed said they supported restrictions on the number of migrants moving to Australia’s biggest city.