After two years of cold shoulder, foreign workers and international students rush back Down Under

By Mark Saunokonoko • Senior Journalist

International students and foreign workers are roaring back into Australia, and visa approvals are now running at pre-pandemic levels, according to new data.
Fears that disillusioned foreign students, after being locked out for two years, would abandon Australia and look to the UK or other countries to study have not materialised.
The surge of approvals will be music to the ears of many businesses, particularly companies operating in the service sector who have struggled to fill vacancies.
Universities will also be breathing a huge sigh of relief with the return of an armada of students who generate a whopping $40 billion annually to the national economy.
However, there will be a downside for some.
The new arrivals will put even more pressure on the rental market, particularly in Sydney and Melbourne where supply is already very stretched.
A recent report suggested tenants may soon hit their financial limit.
"The influx will definitely help some of those workforce shortages, which a lot of businesses have been complaining about," AMP Capital senior economist Diana Mousina told 9news.com.au.
She predicted the hospitality, tourism and administration sectors, who for many months saw their employee pool and customer base gutted, would feel an immediate improvement.
But the extra competition for jobs will impact Australian workers, she said.
"One of the reasons we've had such strong employment performance in the past two years is because we closed our borders.
"We had to fill those gaps using domestic workers, rather than relying on foreigners."
Mousina said the return of foreign workers would combine with higher inflation to push the rate of unemployment up from its current 48-year low.
The migration bounce back could also impact new housing demand, she said, which was vulnerable to recent Reserve Bank cash rate hikes, she said.
"We could actually see housing construction not declining as much as expected next year."
Although permanent and long-term arrivals had recovered to pre-coronavirus levels, international travel to Australia is moving much slower.
Overseas arrivals and departures data for August is tracking up but remains at around half of its pre-pandemic capacity.

https://www.9news.com.au/national/international-student-working-holiday-visas-back-to-pre-pandemic-covid-19-levels/9be29762-319f-410a-b97c-25f6f3cc4f18