They also tend to be countries trying to restrict family size and limit the ability of people to relocate within their own country. In Australia, our below replacement and declining fertility rate, means that our population growth rate will decline steadily over the next 50 years. If current immigration policies are maintained, the population could peak at about 23 million sometime in the middle of the next century. Australia only needs a more formal population policy if it wants to alter this trend. When setting the migration level each year, the Government carefully considers its impact in the context of long-term population projections.
Most migrants do speak English.
In 1996-97 more than 75 per cent of those entering under the Migration Program had a high level of English. The list includes about 80 per cent of occupations. Cost recovery for English-language tuition is obtained from those who can afford to pay. Migrants get none of those things from the Government. Most newly-arrived migrants are not allowed to access welfare until they have been in Australia for at least two years.