Late last month, Judith Sloan – the Commissioner in charge of the Productivity Commission’s 2006 review into the Economic Impacts of Migration and Population Growth – penned a great article calling on the Government to reduce Australia’s permanent migrant intake by around 100,000.
Today, Sloan has returned to take aim at Australia’s temporary migrant program, which she claims is being rorted. From The Australian:
…the number of temporary entrants to Australia has soared. In 2004-05, for instance, there were 49,000 457 visa entrants. In 2014-15, the number was 96,000, having peaked the previous year at 126,000.
The number of working holiday-makers also has skyrocketed, more than doubling in the decade ending 2014-15. There were 226,000 working holiday entrants in 2014-15. The number of international students rose by more than 70 per cent between 2004-05 and 2014-15, reaching 300,000 in the latter year.
All these temporary migrant categories are uncapped; as long as the applicant meets the conditions of the visa, then entry is granted. We are at the point that the number of new temporary immigrants is swamping the number of permanent entrants. But bear in mind that a high proportion of temporary immigrants apply to become permanent residents in due course.
So what are the problems with our immigration program?…
There are 650 occupations listed on the Consolidated Sponsored Occupations List — many more than on the Skilled Occupation List used for the independent skill category — and the applicants need only minimal English proficiency.
International students who have graduated are allowed to stay in Australia with full work rights for considerable periods. Increasingly, these graduates are using the family stream to secure permanent residence, rather than the skill category.
When we look at the occupations of those who enter under the 457 visa category, we note that cook and cafe/restaurant manager are in the top three occupations. In fact, accommodation and food services is the industry with the largest percentage of 457 visa holders. Does anyone really think that cook and cafe/restaurant manager are occupations that can’t be filled by locals?…
The story that emerges at this more nuanced level is that employer sponsorship of immigrants, permanent and temporary, is scammed in many cases, oftentimes with linked ethnicity between the employer and the immigrant.
It is also clear that being an international student is often seen as a pathway to permanent residence and recent changes to the regulations have facilitate this — a move much appreciated by the university sector…
Judith Sloan goes on to explain how many temporary visa holders are exploited by their employers, and how humanitarian and parental visas impose a strong burden on the Budget, before concluding that “our program is no longer working in the national interest. Rather, it is working to favour particular groups and to buy votes in certain electorates”.
Sloan then warns Australia’s politicians to wake up to the fact that running an excessive immigration program is becoming unpopular in the electorate, with Australians fed-up with worsening traffic congestion, declining housing affordability, and overall reduced amenity. Politicians, therefore, need to recognise the growing backlash and curb the immigration intake pronto.
We obviously agree wholeheartedly with Judith Sloan’s view and have made similar arguments for years.
As noted yesterday, there were nearly 1.9 million temporary visa holders in Australia in 2015, with around 1.4 million of these having work rights (see below table). This means that temporary visa holders comprise around 10% of Australia’s labour force:
There has also been widespread rorting within the temporary visa system, as documented in the recent Senate Report entitled A National Disgrace: The Exploitation of Temporary Work Visa Holders (see here), ABC’s 7.30 Report (see here), and a variety of other places (e.g the 7Eleven and Caltex scandals).
In short, Australians are growing tired of the flagrant disregard for Australian law and the reduction in their living standards. The systemic abuse of Australia’s visa system is harming the prospects of local workers; harming small businesses that do the right thing; harming the temporary foreign workers being exploited under slave-like conditions; harming the integrity of the tax system, which is losing revenue via the black economy; and creating strain on infrastructure and housing.
Politicians should get ahead of the growing backlash and focus their attention on closing down these rorts as well as reducing the permanent migrant intake to sustainable levels.
