The Bhutanese Leading the way.
Number set to cross well over 15,000 once 12-month figure for 2022-23 FY is released
This paper in April 2023 had reported 10,755 Bhutanese got visas to Australia in the last nine months from 1 July 2022 to 31st March 2023.
However, that number has now jumped to 13,683 in the last 11 months from 1 July 2022 to 31 May 2023 and is set to well cross 15,000 when the numbers for June end 2023 come out completing the Australian financial year.
This is because in the month of April 2023 1,396 visas were given and in May 2023 it was 1,710 visas. June 2023 is expected to be as high if not higher.
A matter of concern for Bhutan here is that the 15,000 plus number expected for the last 12 months is more than the total migrations in the last six financial years of 2016-2017, 2017-18, 2018-19, 2019-20, 2020-21 and 2021-22 which comes to 14,005.
Of the 7,327 doing courses, 6,385 are for the higher educational sector which is masters and under graduate courses and then 849 are for vocational education and training courses. The rest are for other courses.
There are 6,536 dependents which is a much higher ratio of dependents than the overall average of other countries.
The data shows that all it is not only the young and the professionals leaving but also their children. 283 who got visas are 4 years and below, 349 are between 9 and 5 years old, 315 are 10 to 14 years of age.
710 are from 15 to 19 years old of which 574 are going as students while 136 are going as their dependents.
2,676 are from the 20 to 24 age group who are mainly college graduates.
4,017 are from the age group of 25 to 29 which would constitute the entry level or young professionals. This is the largest group.
The next largest group is also in the professionals age category of 30 to 34 of which 2,944 got visas.
This is followed by the mid level professionals of ages 35 to 39 of which 1,729 got visas.
The senior professionals of 40 to 44 make up 633 people. There are also those from 45 to 49 coming to 163.
35 people of ages 50 to 54 and only 9 of 55 and above age got visas which shows that only a few older people are going there.
Of those who got the visas there are slightly more females than males showing that slightly more women are heading out.
The largest group are for Western Australia which is Perth with 10,114 people headed or heading there.
1, 519 are for Queensland whose capital is Brisbane, 842 are in Australian Capital Territory which has Canberra, 334 in Victoria whose capital is Melbourne, 379 in New South Wales which has Sydney, 124 in South Australia which has Adelaide, 14 in Tasmania, 18 are for Northern Territories while data for 519 is not listed.
16,890 Bhutanese had lodged their visa of which 13,863 got it. With higher rejection rates the visa grant rate for Bhutan is coming down to 81 percent which is the lowest since 2014-15.
As per data from the National Statistical Bureau (NSB) Bhutan has 763,250 people in 2022 and of this 13,863 got visas in the last nine months making them 1.81 % of the population.
Bangladesh has a population of 171.186 mn people but only 8,024 people got student visas in the last 11 months.
Sri Lanka with a population of 21.83 million and an ongoing economic crisis sent only 11,608 people.
Maldives at 523,787 people in 2022, sent only 145 people to Australia in the last 11 months.
