Australia’s much maligned ‘skilled’ visa system is about to become even more unskilled, judging by Morrison Government’s new region visas:
New regional visas have launched this week, giving migrants in more occupations a chance to stay in Australia…
Migrants need to commit to life in regional Australia for at least three years…
But if they can become part of a regional community, it opens to the door to permanent residency for overseas workers from a wider range of occupations than before — including real estate agents, call centre managers, actors, historians and even kennel hands…
Professor James Raymer argues she is an exception.
Migrants in a regional or remote area have a “very low chance” of staying in that area, he said, and this pattern has been “very consistent over time”.
Professor Raymer has led a team of Australian National University researchers to collect and refine almost 40 years of localised immigration data.
“Most migrants will leave [a region] within a five-year period — over half, if not 70 per cent — and if they’re going to stay in Australia they’re going to go to one of the big cities, probably Sydney or Melbourne,” he said.
“What we actually see in the data, the chances of them leaving remote and regional areas has been increasing for a lot of the newer migrant groups”…
There will likely be 25,000 regional visas granted during 2019-20, up by around 15,000 on 2018-19, mostly at the expense of independent points-based visas without geographic requirements.
Actual pay rates for ‘skilled’ workers are already below the general population.
According to the Department of Home Affairs’ Continuous Survey of Australia’s Migrants, the median full-time salary 18 months after being granted a skilled visa was just $72,000 in 2016, below the population median of $72,900. This is shocking given the population median includes unskilled workers, which obviously drags the nation-wide median full-time salary down.
Therefore, adding a whole bunch of low-skilled professions to Australia’s skilled visa system, such as “real estate agents, call centre managers, actors, historians and even kennel hands”, is only going to push median pay rates down even further, undercutting locals and crushing overall wage growth.
Moreover, once these migrants gain permanent residency, most will head to Melbourne and Sydney, like they have always done, adding to already chronic population pressures.
Rather than creating policy gimmicks to distract voters’ concerns over excessive immigration, Australia’s skilled visa system needs a complete overhaul to ensure that it only brings in migrants to fill genuine skills shortages, and to maximise productivity benefits.
The easiest solution is to make all skilled migrants employer-sponsored and require them to be paid at the 80th percentile of earnings, or indexed to double the median wage. This would ensure that the skilled visa system is used sparingly to import only the ‘best of the best’, not as a general labour market scheme to undercut local workers.
Of course, our policy makers have no intention to actually fix the system. To them, mass immigration is a tool to juice headline growth and to feed the growth lobby both consumers and cheap foreign workers. The welfare of ordinary voters is ignored entirely.
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Jacob might have a fit… apparently we have a shortage of truck drives…. need to import more.
https://www.smh.com.au/business/small-business/costs-must-go-up-freight-companies-warn-of-looming-truckie-shortage-20191118-p53bho.html
Must be the booming wages and good hours that is keeping would be truckies away…oh wait…
ie., we can’t allow a wage rise and improvement in work conditions to happen can we? It would be a disaster to allow wage rises so as to attract locals. Let’s declare a “skills shortage” and import coolies. How good’s Straya?
http://singhtruckdrivingschool.com.au
That must be a fvckn joke?
This barely scratches the surface of the patently ridiculous errors all over the site…
It has to be a spoof
The logistics council claims the industry struggles to attract women and people from diverse backgrounds……. and every friggin truck in Sydney is currently being driven by an Indian student LOL this logistics council could be chaired by Innes willox it’s so openly corrupt and anti Australian
LOL
FML
What do you reckon is worse – the importation of truck drivers or if Gladys let Jimmies ride public transport for free?
>>>”Moreover, once these migrants gain permanent residency, most will head to Melbourne and Sydney, like they have always done, adding to already chronic population pressures.”<<<<
Precisely what is intended to keep the ponzi going; coolies for the regions and then fresh coolies and debt serfs for the major city ponzis. How good’s Straya?
Also the government gave their mates over $200 million in grants for regional workers. This ex-LNP MP got $300,000 for a crocodile farm. Maybe his plan is to save money by feeding backpackers to the crocs?
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/nov/19/former-nationals-candidate-spruiks-regional-jobs-scheme-after-300000-grant-for-crocodile-farm
The Nationals nationalising the nation’s wealth. LOL
“Of course, our policy makers have no intention to actually fix the system.”
Our policy makers’ intention – above all else – is not to jeopardise the prospect of their million-dollar-a-year directorship when they retire from office. That mean boosting the profits of their future patrons by any means possible, no matter how much damage it does to the Australian economy and to Australian society.
It is unpalatable to say it out loud but Australia’s problem is corruption – entrenched corruption at all levels of government. It is corruption which lies beyond the reach of bureaucratic “anti-corruption” commissions. It is the corruption which stems from the way in which elective government adversely selects narcissistic, machiavellian megalomaniacs to high office.
The next time you hear a corrupt politician droning on about “simply wanting to serve”, try asking if he or she would be prepared to undertake an Implicit Association Test. (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S009265661830148X?via%3Dihub)
Unless and until that it corrected there is no hope for any of us.
There is no hope. No hope.
We are on the path to re-feudalisation.
Australia continues its slide down the list of global corruption rankings and no one really cares; if anything, they want to be a part of it. Fvck working third world wages, that’s for Jimmy Grants and they young.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/jan/29/australias-global-corruption-ranking-sparks-urgent-calls-for-federal-integrity-body
100% agree with the corruption argument. It’s everywhere.
Great to see you back. Our rulers are not only trashing our economy and our society, but our environment as well, and this may well be the most serious consideration in the long run.
Why Australians Migrate to Capital Cities (posted on Macrobusiness 13 April 2018):
Great post, thanks Stephen
MB, could you please sign up Stephen Morris to do some guest post or even a weekend link post.
That would cause a Jonestown-style reduction in the number of shutins.
+1
A post on the perils of the Westminster system.
Christ it’s good to have Stephen Morris back
Also, REAL ESTATE AGENTS?
FMD. We don’t need more of those in regional NSW
I’m still hoping to stumble across the key piece of information. does the increase in regional visas represent a drop in other visas, or are they additional to other visas? the whole conjob from the Libs before the election was to boost migrants to the regions to reduce the pressure on the cities…so are these visa just an uplift in total visas or an offsett against other categories?
There will be no drop on any visa numbers. They might frame it as a drop in a particular number of visas, but it’ll increase in other areas or they’ll make it even easier to switch visa types. Scummo cannot be trusted.
At least Labor didn’t win the election. Their plans were to allow anyone and their granny in.
I live in regional NSW. The local employment market is basically completely dead (you need to be a born and bred local with connections to get a job here) and half the population is either getting an age or disability pension, or unemployed on the dole.
I find it impossible to fathom why on earth any government would be trying to divert an influx of foreigners to come here or to any other town with a similarly bleak economy (aka nearly all of them). It’s almost like they have it in for the already impoverished locals of these places.
And from the ABC article, w t f is the ‘Migration Institute of Australia’? Some university renamed with a refreshing bit of honesty?