Despite massive skills shortages, employer-sponsored visas are growing very slowly, partly due to excessively bureaucratic design, costs and lengthy processing times | OPINION from Abul Rizvi
. In response to massive skill shortages, business groups such as the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry will argue the skill stream of the migration program be increased to 200,000 a year – a level never delivered in Australian history.Australian Financial ReviewBut a stream of 200,000 skilled migrants is an ambit claim with no underlying analysis of how it would be delivered and how risks would be managed, especially if there is a sharp economic downturn in 2023.
In a world where competition for skilled migrants will intensify as populations age further, it is essential that the design of employer-sponsored visas is internationally competitive, focusing on genuinely skilled migrants and minimising ineffective bureaucratic requirements such as labour-market testing.
After two years of negative net migration, international movements of skilled migrants, students, working holidaymakers and other temporary entrants increased to over half pre-pandemic levels at end July 2022. We are likely to hit pre-pandemic levels by late 2022. This needs to be factored into thinking on immigration policy at the jobs summit.
The number of people in Australia currently in “immigration limbo”, despite the current skill shortages and negative net migration during the pandemic, has increased dramatically since 2015. This is not just the 130,000 people who are stuck in the asylum system, an unprecedented number that is growing at around 1000 a month and accelerating. Nor is it just the 340,000 people on bridging visas, another consequence of poor management of the visa system.
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