Skilled Visa Research Articles

Employment, income, and skill alignment of humanitarian migrants in the Australian labour market: Metropolitan and regional contexts, 2000–2016

AbstractHumanitarian migration to Australia has reached new levels, accompanied by unprecedented complexity and diversity. Little is known about labour market integration for these newcomers, nor about how well their skills match those required for or relevant to their employment. Here we analyse how labour force engagement and skill alignment are influenced by migration status, including migration scheme, region of birthplace, applicant status, year of arrival, citizenship, and internal migration after settlement, and metropolitan versus regional geographic location of settlement. In particular, we focus on employed humanitarian visa holders who arrived between 2000 and 2016. Using the 2016 Australian Census and Migrants Integrated Dataset (ACMID) for quantitative analysis, our modelling established that they were not as likely to be in the labour force as skilled visa holders. Similarly, humanitarian visa holders who were employed were less likely to be in jobs that matched their skills and more likely to have lower income levels. Moreover, there were significant differences in skill alignment between those settling in metropolitan and in regional areas. The relative probability of being over‐skilled was correlated with migration scheme, origin, duration since arrival, internal movement in the year preceding the census, proficiency in spoken English, family status, and gender. Labour market outcomes varied by visa subtype and by metropolitan versus regional settlement. We conclude that the design of migration policy requires further important consideration, both to improve the outlook for this vulnerable population and to address chronic skill shortages in Australia.

Refugees as Skilled Migrants: Insights from Australia’s 2018 Employer-Sponsored Refugee Migration Pilot

Many of the more than 27 million refugees in the world today are highly educated professionals, but resolving their displacement via skilled migration pathways is typically not possible. At the request of employers facing severe skill shortages and the coordination of Talent Beyond Boundaries (TBB)–a non-profit organisation–the Australian government introduced in 2018 a pilot program enabling employers to sponsor refugees through an employment contract meeting existing skilled visa requirements. The pilot effectively added immigration places to refugees, as employer-sponsored visa are uncapped in Australia. We highlight some insights collected from TBB’s 2018 and subsequent pilots.

Regulating migrant worker temporariness in Australia: the role of immigration, employment and post-arrival support policies

ABSTRACT This article examines how the interaction of migrant agency and policy arrangements influence different forms of regulated temporariness in Australia’s temporary migration regime. It analyses regulated temporariness under the temporary skilled visa, the Seasonal Workers Program, working holidaymaker visa and international student visa schemes. The findings demonstrate that migrant temporariness is a form of insecurity driven not only by policies governing migrants’ entry and stay, as existing migration studies theories emphasise, but also by the insecurity of their employment and settlement. This highlights the importance of employment regulations and post-arrival support policies in determining whether temporary migrants attain their migration objectives, which is a key factor shaping temporariness as a category of practice.

Some practical aspects of the Japanese Specified Skilled Worker visas vis-a-vis migrant workers in Singapore

Some practical aspects of the Japanese Specified Skilled Worker visas vis-a-vis migrant workers in Singapore

Australia's Immigration Selection System and Labour Market Outcomes in a Family Context: Evidence from Administrative Data

This paper examines the efficacy of the Australian points system in a family context among working‐age permanent resident immigrants who arrived between 2000 and 2011 when there was a major focus on skills selection. Sixty‐seven per cent of these immigrants were granted a skilled visa while 25 per cent hold a spousal visa (spouses of Australian citizens). More than half of the skilled visa recipients are the spouses of the primary applicants. Primary applicants among skilled visa holders are assessed for their skills in line with the Australian points system but secondary applicants, such as spouses, among skilled visa holders and spousal visa holders are not subject to any skills assessment before becoming permanent residents. We study differences in economic outcomes by permanent visa types and the role of points system factors in explaining these differences using the Personal Income Tax and Migrants Integrated Dataset and the Australian Census Longitudinal Dataset. We find that primary skilled visa holders earn at least 26–28 per cent more than spousal visa holders, and this is similar for both genders. However, spouses of primary skilled visa holders earn 13–18 per cent more than spousal visa holders. This difference is higher among females than males. Occupation differences can account for nearly half of the differences in income and can entirely capture the role of education and English proficiency. Primary skilled immigrants and their spouses have higher rates of labour force participation and employment than spousal visa holders, starting in the first year of arrival, and the gap is much higher for primary skilled visa holders, but these differences do not disappear quickly.

High skilled immigration and the occupational choices of native workers: the case of Australia

AbstractThis paper estimates the effect of a major skilled visa programme in Australia on the wages and occupation-specific skills performed by native workers. We combine data from the full population of approved Temporary Work Visa applications with the nationally representative Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) longitudinal survey from 2005–2015. Our findings indicate that skilled international workers increase the wages of natives, and induce native workers to specialize in occupations associated with a high intensity of communication and cognitive skills. We find no evidence of negative effects of the visa programme on the wages of high-skilled or low-skilled native workers, or on previous migrants who may be close substitutes to the skilled visa holders.

Foreign-Born graduates and innovation: Evidence from an Australian skilled visa program✰,✰✰,★,★★

This paper estimates the effect of a skilled visa program that permits foreign-born graduates from Australian universities the right to temporarily live and work in Australia post-graduation on regional innovation outcomes. Our analysis combines data on innovation measures at the regional level with administrative data from the full population of approved Temporary Graduate visa applications. The empirical strategy accounts for the potential bias introduced by skilled foreign-born students sorting into innovative regions by using an instrumental variables strategy. Results show a positive impact of the visa program on the number of patent applications, indicating a positive impact of the skilled immigration visa program on regional innovation. We find no impact of the Temporary Graduate Visa program on the number of design rights or trademarks.

Why recruit temporary sponsored skilled migrants? A human capital theory analysis of employer motivations in Australia

This article uses human capital theory to analyse employer motivations for recruiting skilled migrants on temporary sponsored visas, a group receiving limited attention within human resource management (HRM) scholarship despite being an increasingly important part of the workforce in many organisations and countries. We address this gap through a survey analysis of 1602 employer respondents who sponsored temporary skilled visa holders in Australia. The findings indicate that cost-effectiveness as a motivator for recruitment decisions can be achieved not only through HRM strategies to maximise worker productivity, as human capital theories emphasise, but also by identifying groups of workers perceived as harder working than other groups. The findings also draw attention to the role of government policy in this identification process, specifically visa regulations constraining the mobility of temporary sponsored skilled migrants, which allows employers to utilise these workers’ human capital effectively.JEL Classification: J61, M12, M51, O15

Australia's Immigration Selection System and Labour Market Outcomes in a Family Context: Evidence from Administrative Data

This paper examines the efficacy of Australian points system in a family context among working-age permanent resident immigrants who arrived between 2000 and 2011 when there was a major focus on skills selection. 67% of these immigrants were granted a skilled visa while 25% hold a spousal visa (spouses of Australian citizens). More than half of the skilled visa recipients are the spouses of the primary applicants. Primary applicants among skilled visa holders are assessed for their skills in line with Australian points system but secondary applicants, such as spouses, among skilled visa holders and spousal visa holders are not subject to any skills assessment before becoming permanent residents. We study differences in economic outcomes by permanent visa types and the role of points system factors in explaining these differences using Personal Income Tax and Migrants Integrated Dataset and Australian Census Longitudinal Dataset. We find that primary skilled visa holders earn at least 26-28 percent higher than spousal visa holders and this is similar for both genders. However, spouses of primary skilled visa holders earn 13-18 percent higher than spousal visa holders. This difference is higher among females than males. Occupation differences can account for nearly half of the differences in income and can entirely capture the role of education and English proficiency. Primary skilled immigrants and their spouses have higher rates of labour force participation and employment than spousal visa holders starting in the first year of arrival and the gap is much higher for primary skilled visa holders but these differences do not disappear quickly.

The Australian labour market in 2018

In 2018, the Australian labour market continued to see only very moderate wages growth despite strong employment growth and low unemployment. This remains an international phenomenon with underlying economic and legal structural causes. Employment growth was concentrated in part-time jobs for both males and females, and in both manufacturing and white-collar industries. The Fair Work Commission increased the National Minimum Wage by 3.5%, a higher percentage increase than previous years but one that reflected higher growth in average earnings and inflation. The climate surrounding agreement making was less febrile than in recent years, with fewer high-profile attempts to terminate existing enterprise agreements. However, collective bargaining coverage in the private sector continues to decline to historic lows. Changes to skilled migration were the most significant shift in labour market policy in 2018, with a significant reduction in the number of permanent skilled migrants and a new temporary skilled migrant visa category with much stricter eligibility requirements. If sustained, this reduction may contribute to increasing pressure on wages in the years to come.

Global staffing and control in emerging multinational corporations and their subsidiaries in developed countries

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the control mechanisms used by multinational corporations (MNCs) from emerging economies to manage their subsidiaries in developed countries and their implications for human resource management practices.Design/methodology/approachThe paper draws on data collected through in-depth case studies and interviews with senior subsidiary managers of 12 major Indian information technology (IT) MNCs operating in Australia.FindingsIndian IT MNCs rely heavily on the use of people-centric controls exerted through global staffing practices (via the transfer of parent-country nationals), which, in turn, influence their subsidiary’s discretion over their HR practices. The use of people-centric controls allows Indian IT multinationals to replicate parent-country HRM practices in their Australian subsidiaries in an ethnocentric manner and significantly leverage the people-based competitive advantages from India through short- and long-term expatriate assignments.Research limitations/implicationsThe study investigates control and HRM practices from a single country and a single industry perspective. It provides an insight into the normative means of control in foreign subsidiaries of MNCs and enhances our understanding by explaining the integrated relationship that control mechanisms (and their people-centric components) have with HRM practices including the global staffing approaches and expatriate management practices of emerging MNCs.Practical implicationsIndian MNCs are using their business model to leverage the Australian immigration and skilled visa programme to maintain cost advantages. However, the immigration legislation in developed countries needs to be capable of allowing emerging multinational corporations (EMNCs) to maintain such advantages as developed countries seek to attract foreign direct investment from emerging economies.Originality/valueThe results indicate that the control practices of EMNCs are similar to the controls exerted by MNCs from developed countries. They also show that EMNCs do not adopt a portfolio approach to global staffing, and that the people-centric components of their control have a clear impact on their subsidiaries’ HRM practices.

Measuring migrant worker rights violations in practice: The example of temporary skilled visas in Australia

Despite global attention to worker rights violations experienced by temporary migrants, we lack a clear evidence base to understand the extent and nature of these abuses. This article presents findings from a pilot of a Migrant Worker Rights Database. This pilot measures rights abuses of former Temporary Work (Skilled) visa (subclass 457) entrants to Australia from 1996 to 2016. This visa was the key formal temporary visa into Australia over this period. The pilot codes all available court cases that 457 visa holders brought before the national workplace relations tribunal, the Australian Fair Work Commission and relevant state and federal courts and tribunals, to capture legally recognised rights abuses that migrant workers experienced on the ground. It also codes coverage in three daily newspapers of these rights violations. This combined evidence base generates a series of rights violations, or ‘events’, that are then analysed to present patterns of rights abuses of migrant workers on the 457 visa. Key findings are that ethnic background and occupational status of migrants appear to inform the level of reported rights abuses. Further, legal representation of migrant workers assists in successful outcomes, particularly through the Fair Work Ombudsman – a government body empowered with enforcing compliance with workplace laws (197).

Recent changes to immigration laws: Implications for hospitality employers

Immigration New Zealand (INZ) recently announced changes to the skilled migrant residence and essential-skills work visas based on a strong association between skills and salary. This shift will impact both employers and migrants, especially in hospitality.
 According to the INZ, the hospitality sector was the fourth-largest recipient of skilled migrant residence visas in their last reporting year [1,2]. INZ expects migrants employed as chefs, café/restaurant managers and retail managers to be the hardest hit by these changes [1,2]. Residence under the skilled migrant policy can be gained for jobs in skill levels 1–3 as defined in the Australian and New Zealand Standard Classification of Occupations (ANZSCO). Traditionally, hotel managers, chefs, and café/restaurant managers have been classed as level 2, and bakers at level 3 in accordance with ANZSCO. However, skills levels are now also assessed based on salary (at least $23.49 p/h) and specialist skills obtained through qualifications and/or work experience.
 Migrants paid a justifiable $35.24 p/h for a position previously considered unskilled (levels 4–5), or those with positions unclassified by ANZSCO, could gain residence under the new policy shift. While this could mean a residence visa for people whose jobs do not neatly fit within ANZSCO, INZ are not easily deceived. Indeed, the Labour Inspectorate reports that 20 percent of the published list of employers currently barred from recruiting migrants (due to breaches of employment and immigration laws) are in the hospitality sector. Accordingly, there is little to be gained by migrants claiming to be paid $80,000 for a housekeeping position. 
 Approximately 21 percent of essential-skills work visas issued by Immigration New Zealand in the last reporting year were for migrants in the hospitality sector [1,2]. Essential-skills work visas cover five skills levels (as indicated by ANZSCO) but now have accompanying salary thresholds. The main change affects migrants earning below $19.97 p/h because they will now be unable to sponsor their partner’s work visa or child’s domestic student visa. While their partner and child would still be able to apply for visas, the partner would have to meet the visa requirements in their own right to obtain a work visa, and their child could only obtain an international student visa – the costs associated with which would likely consume the ‘low’ salary of the migrant worker. Additionally, this ‘low-skilled’ migrant will only be able to obtain one ‘low-skilled’ essential-skills work visa of three-year duration before experiencing a 12-month stand-down period, during which they would be barred from applying for another low-skilled essential-skills work visa. This does not, however, prevent the migrant from applying for an essential-skills visa at a higher skill level or for a visa in another category entirely. Those in positions assessed as skill levels 4–5 under ANZSCO and paid below $19.97p/h will only be issued a 12-month work visa, and will be unable to sponsor a partner for a work visa or a child for domestic student status. There are some elements of the policy change that are not retrospective. It is, therefore, vital to seek specific advice in each case.
 Many employers will now be faced with the prospect of increasing salaries to attract migrants or expending more time and resources to recruit and train New Zealanders. However, it is recalled that many employers, particularly in the regions, have experienced recruitment difficulties for decades. It is, therefore, unclear whether these changes will produce the desired increase in job opportunities and salaries for New Zealanders or whether they will only add to the recruitment woes of employers.
 Corresponding author
 Stewart is a Senior Solicitor with Ryken and Associates (www.rykenlaw.co.nz). He assists in all aspects of immigration and refugee law, including advising on visas, deportation and humanitarian claims. He has experience in representing clients at the Immigration and Protection Tribunal, Family Court, District Court and High Court. Stewart is an active member of the Auckland District Law Society’s Immigration and Refugee Law Committee, where he engages with Immigration New Zealand, the Immigration Protection Tribunal, and other outside organisations, to help shape and inform discussion on immigration and refugee-related policy matters. His work has been published in the New Zealand Law Society’s official magazine (LawTalk) and the New Zealand Law Journal.
 Stewart Dalley can be contacted at: stewart@rykenlaw.co.nz
 References
 (1) New Zealand Immigration. www.immigration.govt.nz/about-us/research-and-statistics/statistics
 (2) Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment. Aide Memoire Information for Ministers: Composition of the Skilled Migrant Category – updated slide pack, May 26, 2016.

Australian Immigration Policy in Practice: a case study of skill recognition and qualification transferability amongst Irish 457 visa holders

ABSTRACTImmigration quotas in Australia are guided primarily by economic policy—the needs of the nation are quite rightly the principal concern of policymakers. Using data from a mixed-methods study, this article engages in a dialogue between labour geography and population and migration studies through an examination of the lived experiences of migrating workers and their families. The paper examines a number of cases where policy and practice have detrimentally affected the migration experience of Irish migrants who came to Australia under the Temporary Work (Skilled) (subclass 457) visa. The case study focuses on interviews with secondary 457 visa applicants, namely the wives of former 457 workers. These interviews highlight the problems faced by newcomers to Australia who arrive under this visa. The experiences relayed by these women demonstrate how ill-considered policy relating to qualification transferability makes entering the workplace and, therefore, transition to life in Australia more difficult than it needs to be. While the cases that underpin this paper ended in migration failure (the families involved returned to Ireland), the core issues of qualification transferability and skill comparison were replicated in the wider study dataset (of 1022 survey responses and 80 qualitative interviews). While acknowledging that citizens generally have more freedom and more civil rights than non-citizens, the findings of this study indicate that further review of Australia’s 457 visa is needed, particularly with respect to the limitations placed on the agency of migrant workers. Greater awareness amongst prospective migrants as to the purpose and limits of the 457 visa is also necessary, in order to avoid misinterpretation and the extreme personal repercussions outlined in this paper.

Why Do States Adopt Liberal Immigration Policies? The Policymaking Dynamics of Skilled Visa Reform in Australia

The question of why states actively choose to relax skilled immigration controls given the potential political risks involved remains largely unaddressed in the non-European context. Using a systematic process analysis of recent policy change in Australia, this paper asks whether comparative political economy frameworks, which have been conceived mainly with reference to European states with corporatist policy-making traditions, can explain the reasons for liberal skilled visa reform in states where governments have greater autonomy from the ‘social partners’. Consistent with the assumptions of these frameworks, labour market demands generated by a predominant liberal production regime strongly conditioned the policy preferences of key actors and institutions in the Australian case, which in turn influenced skilled visa reform. The findings suggest that while the comparative political economy frameworks have considerable utility in explaining skilled immigration policy change in non-European cases, they cannot fully account for the autonomy and distinct motivations of the state and the influence of ‘non-market’ factors over policy preferences and actor behaviour.

Highly skilled migration and the negotiation of immigration policy: Non-EEA postgraduate students and academic staff at English universities

Whilst scholarly research has highlighted the role of the state in facilitating labour migration, little academic work exists on how skilled and highly skilled migrants actively negotiate changes to immigration policy. Since 2008, UK labour immigration policy has undergone significant reform, including: the introduction of a Points Based System (PBS); the imposition of an annual limit on entry of selected skilled migrants; and the direct linkage of highly skilled visas to offers of employment. Consequently, further investigation is required into how highly skilled individuals negotiate immigration policy and work around the practical challenges they may face in everyday life. This paper seeks to address this gap in knowledge by presenting a qualitative case study investigating the experiences and opinions of students and staff from outside the European Economic Area (EEA), based at universities in London and the Midlands. By focusing on Higher Education (HE), we draw attention to the inter-relationships between highly skilled academic mobility, globalisation and labour immigration policy, highlighting the juxtaposition between perceived ease of movement and the restrictions imposed by border and immigration controls, on this group of individuals.

‘Mate Speak English, You'Re in Australia Now’

Amid the fanfare of 'stopping the boats' and cracking down on international student rorts, a quiet revolution has been brewing in skilled migration to Australia. The last decade has seen the introduction or increase in English language requirements to obtain a broad range of permanent skilled visas and, in trades-related fields, the temporary skilled 457 visa. These moves have been variously justified on the bases that enhanced English language ability is necessary to ensure occupational health and safety ('OH and S') standards are met, to facilitate skills transfers to Australian workers, to improve migrants' labour market participation and to guard against exploitative working conditions for migrant workers who may not be familiar with their labour rights or know how to readily access legal or union assistance.

Do Skilled Immigrants Perform Better than their Family Reunion Counterparts?

This paper assesses the impact that selection criteria have on immigrants' economic outcomes. It asks whether migrants on a skilled visa as opposed to a family reunion visa earn higher wages on entering the labor market in their host country, and if this differential persists over time. The data for the analysis comes from the first Longitudinal Survey of Immigrants to Australia. Migrants selected for entry into Australia on the basis of their skills, and who work, generally report higher earnings. Skilled males earn between 17 and 12 percent more and women between 28 and 17 percent more, depending on how long they have been in the country. The effect of visa category is greater for those with strong English language skills. Over time the relative gap in reported wages across visa category reduces for all groups, but the change is not statistically significant.