The Australian labour market is characterised by an exploitable class of temporary migrants, a situation that is generally thought to be undesirable.
A 2016 Senate Education and Employment References Committee report documented systemic abuses in Australia’s visa system for foreign workers. In 2017, the Fair Work Ombudsman revealed that foreign workers were involved in more than three-quarters of legal cases it initiated against unscrupulous employers in 2014-15.
The 2018 book, The Wages Crisis in Australia, noted that “scarcely a day goes by without another headline of wage theft involving temporary migrant workers”. In that book, it was further noted that “temporary demand for migrant workers often creates a permanent need for them in the labour market”, acknowledging that “where employers have turned to temporary migrants en masse, it erodes wages and conditions in these industries over time, making them less attractive to locals.”
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