Close to half-a-million foreigners have arrived in Australia during the past year with an increasing number of international students staying in the country on a bridging visa when they graduate rather than return home.
Preliminary Australian Bureau of Statistics figures show 491,060 migrants, on a net basis, moved to Australia in the year to April.
This is based on permanent and long-term arrivals of at least 12 months, as stated on passenger arrival cards, minus equivalent departures.
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This is much higher than the 295,000 net overseas arrivals forecast for 2025-26 made in last month’s Budget although the ABS notes its preliminary figures can count international students multiple times and advises caution with the data.
Those preliminary figures also haven’t been adjusted to remove those who intended to stay for 12 months but left early.
Nonetheless, Treasury is expecting the immigration intake for this financial year to be 35,000 higher than predicted as recently as December in the Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook.
Looking at Friday’s preliminary ABS data, the 26,860 long-term residents leaving Australia in April was the lowest monthly number since August 2025, with separate Department of Home Affairs data showing more than 432,000 foreigners were on bridging visas during the March quarter.
MacroBusiness chief economist Leith van Onselen said too few international students were leaving Australia as they stayed on bridging visas to either switch course or claim asylum.
“We’ve had a big boom in the number of students going on graduate visas, so basically, when they’re finishing their studies, they’re now going on a graduate visa which keep them in here for up to three years,” he told The Nightly.
“We’ve got a migration system that’s been set up so temporaries aren’t leaving at the end of their visas.”
The arrival numbers are still at high levels because international students can also bring their partner and their children with them – a fact promoted on the Federal Government’s Study Australia website.
“It’s a marketing ploy,” Mr van Onselen said.
This was worsening Australia’s rental crisis, with SQM Research calculating a national rental vacancy rate of just 1.2 per cent.
“More imports of people through migration equals more rental demand,” he said.
“If you import hundreds of thousands of people every year, they’re going to need rental accommodation and that puts upward pressure on rents.”
One Nation leader Pauline Hanson wants international students to return home if they wanted to apply to switch courses to avoid a large number of them staying in Australia.
“Many of these people are occupying homes and accessing services that should be for Australians first,” she said on Friday.
“It’s apparent that when it comes to some of these students, there’s no intention to study and every intention of abusing the system to access economic benefits and high Australian wages.”
Senator Hanson’s plans for a fundraiser a restaurant in the Melbourne suburb of Moonee Ponds was moved on Friday, due to protests.
Senator Hanson’s policy was announced this week, five months after University of Sydney associate professor of sociology Salvatore Babones wrote a paper pointing out many of those on a student visa were simply coming to Australia for work rights to game the system.
International students are able to work 48 hours and the Government has tried to crack down on dubious vocational colleges that entice them to switch to their lower-fee courses from a university degree.
The final ABS population numbers with a refined net overseas migration figure for the year to June 2026 won’t be released until December 17 – four months after the preliminary figures on net arrivals for the same period are released.
