Australia needs a fresh start for its immigration programs.
Back when Australia recruited immigrants mainly from developed countries, the emphasis was on attracting the best people to come live in Australia. A few lemons might slip through, but that was a price worth paying. Australia was the supplicant in the immigration market.
Now that Australia recruits mainly from developing countries, it is in the driver’s seat. Access to the Australian labour market is at a premium, and permanent residence is the golden ticket.
Immigration policy hasn’t kept up with that change in prospects. Australia’s current obsession with net overseas migration (NOM) ignores the all-important drivers of how immigrants are admitted to the country. And it completely misses the point that the real driver of NOM is making sure that temporary immigrants actually leave.
Whatever NOM target a government wants to hit, an effective immigration policy would give it the tools it needs to hit it. Subject to the usual allowances for treaties, exceptions, etc., a ten-point program would put the government back in control. Any government, from any party.
First, require that all student visa applications be lodged from offshore. Students who want to do a second or third course in Australia should have to go home to apply. That would give everyone a fair chance to study in Australia.
Second, award temporary graduate visas only to graduates who have lined up jobs in their fields of study. The whole point of this visa class is to allow students to gain experience before returning home. It’s not there to help students pay off their tuition loans.
Third, raise the salary threshold for temporary skilled visas to 1.5 times the median full-time wage in Australia. Any employer that desperately needs rare skills should first try paying Australians a premium to take the job. No one should be recruited from overseas to take skilled employment at less than the median wage.
Fourth, offer skilled independent visas only to people who are already employed in their supposed areas of skill. The points test should be reconfigured to make that paramount. And those with family already in Australia should get priority—especially the spouses of Australian citizens.
Fifth, limit other family members to stays of only 8 months out of each year, with the family paying for private health insurance (to avoid stress on Medicare). Families could then bring in all the grandparents they want—as long as they cycle through.
Instead of a few lucky families getting all the grandparent visas, every family could have a grandparent (or four) in the country to help throughout the school year.
Sixth, eliminate ‘working holiday’ visas entirely, rolling existing agreements into a new youth mobility scheme. No one takes a three year holiday in Australia. The youth mobility scheme should be strictly reciprocal, and focused on the countries where Australian youngsters actually want to go. And it should have no ridiculous regional work requirements.
Seventh, if the regions need unskilled labour, establish an 8-month temporary labour visa. Let workers come on reduced-wage packages that include free airfare, transportation, insurance, housing, and food. Make them go home every year and reapply for unlimited returns. They will build savings in Australia while retaining human connections to their home countries.
Eighth, establish a ‘safe list’ of countries where people can apply from without additional scrutiny. That’s not a dog-whistle for a ‘Muslim list’. It’s a list of countries for which asylum applications can routinely be denied. People who want to come to Australia from a country that people are fleeing as refugees should be redirected to the humanitarian stream.
Ninth, require that all asylum applications be lodged within 3 months of a person entering Australia. Why should people be allowed to stay for years on temporary visas, only to apply for asylum at the end of the rope? Let their asylum claims be considered while they’re concurrently on study or other visas.
Tenth, make all applications for permanent residence and eventual citizenship apply from offshore. The current onshore preference is madness; it encourages people to cling to temporary residency for dear life, desperately hoping that their numbers come up before they are forced to leave. Instead, let people prove their worth overseas, and only then invite them into Australia.
What about culture, assimilation, English skills, and ‘Australian values’? Those are all meaningless priorities without the tools to control immigration. Truly temporary immigrants (who actually go home between visas) don’t have to adopt Australian values; you don’t need Australian values to pick vegetables.
And if permanent migrants are recruited from offshore, Australia can decide who gets in. A successful Pakistani surgeon who has never been to Australia should get preference over a Cambodian student who uses his Australian MBA to stock shelves at a Sydney supermarket.
A Swiss engineer who actually works in tunnel boring should get preference over an Indian engineer who graduated from an Australian university but drives for a ride-hailing app.
Most of all, high-skilled, well-degreed, well-employed people who are related to Australian citizens should be preferenced over people who just happen to be in the country already on temporary visas. Current policy preferences those already onshore in an innumerate attempt to keep down the magic NOM number.
Australians should always be asking: would we want this person if he or she were offshore? If the answer is ‘no’, then the answer should be no.
The ten-point program laid out here would let the responsible minister make the decision at every stage of the process. That would take immigration policy out of the hands of the bureaucrats and put the voters in control.
