Recent regulatory changes by the government have made it more difficult for new migrants to sponsor their parents visas to come to Australia. Changes to the assurance of support scheme has made the financial requirement nearly double for couples and individuals. The government says these changes are in order to ensure that new migrants will not create burden on the social welfare network in Australia. For couples they will have to earn a combined $115,475 a year per annum when previously it was $45,185 per annum. For an individual it has also increased from $45,185.40 to $86,606 a year. These changes will have major impacts for recent migrants to Australia in terms of their long term settlement in Australia and also access to community. This particular change is involved in a raft of different measures for migrants in how they access social welfare. I spoke to Dr Alia Imtoual who is the Director of Policy at The Federation of Ethnic Communities Councils of Australia about these changes.
Image credit: FECCA Website