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Notes -
Australia has a backdoor pathway that is effectively this - essentially, you can get a student visa to study at one of our universities, and if you graduate with a useful degree like medicine or engineering you can get permanent residency. Of course, university fees are much higher for foreign students and this is a major revenue stream for them.
I don't have stats on hand but I think this is how the largest slice of our immigrants get in. So basically if you can scrounge up the money to pay for an Australian degree and are smart/conscientious enough to actually complete it, you're in.
For all the issues I have with the uni > PR pathway, it does seem to be a good mix of cash injection into the Australian economy with university as an IQ/conscientiousness screen. My big issue is the rubber stamping of international students through the kayfabe of 'group assignments' with native students which waters down the later screening.
An alternative to the 'golden visa' that is often used is a 'business investment' visa which gives you eventual PR for investing in the local economy. This has the downside of creating a whole subsidiary ecosystem of local companies that keep a bunch of businesses on their books to sell to prospective immigrants. How it works is that you go to a local agent who is fluent in your language of choice. They sell you a Chinese restaurant/grocery store. The business is not incredibly profitable, but doesn't always make a loss. After 3-5 years showing financial statements you get PR and then sell the business back to the agent to be recycled for the next immigrant. Business investment falls afoul of Goodhart's Law.
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