As a lot of people have probably known about Australia, migration still remains as one of the major issues affecting the country. Indeed, with the way immigration has been closely tied with the country, one can see how this would affect Australia. And because of these, the Australian government is closely monitoring the level of immigration to the country.

However, the current immigration data might actually have mixed reactions coming from many sectors in Australia. According to the latest figures, the number of immigrants who has arrived into the country topped at 240,000 people. This one is significantly lower than the 320,000 posted last year. As a consequence, the population growth rate (of which migration is a big factor of) decreased from last year's 2.2 percent to around 1.8 percent this year.

According to experts, the decline in immigration numbers is still attributed to the effects of the changes made by the Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) to the country's immigration programs. It can be recalled that the DIAC started the implementation of these new rules since early last yea. Many of these changes were intended to regulate the number of people going into the country. However, a lot of experts have said that these will likely cause a large decrease in the number of immigrants into the country.

Indeed, the figures are showing that there is a significant decline in the immigrant arrivals. Oddly enough, some sectors in the government are actually very welcoming of the development. According to immigration officials, these are actually the results that they are expecting. They also added that the lower immigration numbers will make it easier for the government to manage the population.

Interestingly, this one is in fact very much inline with current Prime Minister Julia Gillard's sustainable population policy. Gillard unveiled the plan during the recent federal elections held in the country last August, which she won. According to her, Australia needs to effectively control and manage its population in order to sustain its current rate of development.

However, the Australian business community is actually not well too impressed with the happenings. They said that the decline is likely to cause the country's economy a big deal. As it is, Australia is highly dependent on immigrant labor in order to make its economy run, and the decline in the number of people coming in will surely affect their businesses. Thus they urged the government to try to encourage more people to move into the country.

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