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Global Migration Solutions

GMS e News May, 2012

AUSTRALIA is leading the world in removing barriers

for foreign workers with an agenda for ready recognition of overseas credentials which is "radical in global terms", according to a world authority on skilled labour migration.

A U S T R A L I A i s leading the world in removing barriers for foreign workers with an agenda for ready r e c o g n i t i o n o f overseas credentials which is "radical in g l o b a l t e r m s " ,

according to a world authority on skilled labour migration.

The country's skilled migration program had undergone a revolution from permanent to temporary entry and from points-tested to employer-nominated as the dominant basis of entry, said Lesleyanne Hawthorne, a consultant to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development on migrant labour to meet global skills shortages.

The recent decision to allow skilled US workers to get work licences on arrival instead of in the US, and the introduction of Enterprise Migration Agreements for large-scale resources projects, are the latest steps in a decades-long process of freeing up entry to the Australian workforce. This started under the 1980s Hawke government, said Professor Hawthorne, from the University of Melbourne."

Permanent skilled migration to Australia had almost quadrupled in the past 15 years.

The "privatisation" of the skilled migration program was well advanced, she said, as 70 per cent of Australia's labour migrants were employer-sponsored by 2009.

Temporary skilled migrant arrivals surpassed permanent arrivals in 2007-08 at 110,570 compared with 108,500. Though they had since dropped back, it was clear Australia's "old paradigm" of permanent migration was disappearing, Professor Hawthorne said.

Occupations preferred by employers for importing labour were significantly different from those selected by government. The top five professions selected by government in order were accounting, computing, architecture/building, engineering and nursing. For employers it was nursing, computing, business

p r o f e s s i o n a l s , engineers and sales a n d m a r k e t i n g professionals. The c h o i c e o f s o u r c e c o u n t r i e s a l s o differed, with the government favouring Asian countries and

employers favouring English-speaking countries.

In what the OECD has dubbed the "looming war for skills", foreign credential recognition strategies were "a policy imperative", Professor Hawthorne said.

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The 19th-century credential recognition systems which h a d f o r c e d m a n y p r o f e s s i o n a l s t o w a i t sometimes for years before t h e i r o v e r s e a s q u a l i fi c a t i o n s w e r e recognised in Australia "are

not fit for purpose in the 21st century".

Bob Birrell, a demographer at Monash University, objects to the details of Enterprise Migration Agreements being kept confidential and so not open to

public scrutiny. He fears Australian job seekers might have no opportunity to apply for jobs, and that "compliant" foreign workers "beholden to employers" are at greater risk of exploitation in terms of wages and conditions.

A spokesman for the Minister for Immigration, Chris Bowen, said there was a need for temporary workers to "help keep our economy strong". By law, such workers could not be used to undercut local wages or labour costs, and the government was committed to identifying and penalising employers who did the wrong thing.

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Report showed bright future of Australian IT industry

Extracted from “IMMI”, “EIU” and “Migration Expert”

Edited by Global Migration SolutionsA new report released by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) named "The Means to Compete: Benchmarking IT industry Competitiveness" showed that Australia was ranked third of countries providing the most positive competitive conditions for IT firms in the Asia-Pacific region, following South Korea, and Taiwan.

According to the EIU's report, Australia was also ranked fifth in the world in terms of the overall competitiveness of its IT industry, along with the U.S. topping the index table, then Japan, South Korea, and the United Kingdom, respectively.

Similarly, Australia was ranked fourth in the world in terms of Advanced IT and communications infrastructure, preceded only by US, Canada, and Switzerland and ranked first in the Asia-Pacific.In the report, Australia’s mobile phone penetration had been showed to be high at 94.5 percent.In addition, Australia’s IT industry has kept making steps in becoming more g reen - f r i end l y for many year s . Environment and energy are concerned factors of several major Austral ian organizations recently.However, Australia is now facing the skills shortage in IT professionals, which affects IT project delivery times and drives up salaries, creating highly paid IT job opportunities in Australia.Employers in Australia are now looking o ver sees to br ing in IT sk i l l ed professionals on the 457 visas for Australia.Australia REALLY needs your skills, it’s time to move on a better life!