Labour market testing for sc457 visas remains a thorn in the side of employers. It is generally required for the employment of foreign workers in trade, technical, engineering and nursing jobs as well as occupations where Australian workers were recently retrenched. Although the sc457 review recommended that LMT is abolished, the Coalition maintained the view that such a move was unlikely to pass the senate.

This government has however been chipping away at the LMT by providing exemptions to it for signatories to its free-trade agreements. It's become a bargaining chip of sorts.

The Republic of Korea (or South Korea) has now become the latest country to be added to the list of nationals who can work in Australia without the need to have their jobs screened by the labour market testing rules of the sc457 visa program.

The effect of the new legislative instrument IMMI 14/107 is that labour market testing will not be applied to Korean nationals/permanent residents or to employees of businesses in Korea transferring to an Australian branch of that business being nominated under the 457 programme.

"we still maintain a high immigration intake but governments spend very little time or energy nowadays talking to us about that program, why it's there, what it entails ... the politics that emerge out of that is that people are really kept in the dark" said Gwenda Tavan, Latrobe University lecturer in politics and author of The Long, Slow Death of White Australia in a recent interview with The Age.

This December marks 70 years since Australia appointed its first immigration minister, Arthur Calwell, who was tasked to ‘sell’ immigration to Australians. The Age says that on his appointment as the immigration minister in 1944, Arthur Calwell made "the speech that changed Australia" when he told parliament:

"If Australians have learned one lesson from the Pacific War it is surely that we cannot continue to hold our island continent for ourselves and our descendants unless we greatly increase our numbers. We are about 7 million people and we hold 3 million square miles [7.7 million square kilometres] of this Earth surface ... much development and settlement have yet to be undertaken. Our need to undertake it is urgent and imperative if we are to survive"

Dr Tavan notes that, "It was only when Calwell got involved in very late 1944 that he realised if we're going to do this, it's going to be big, and we're going to really have to engage the Australian people. Selling a message to the Australian people would be fundamental. …We view [the selling] of it cynically but it did help that process of helping the people understand why this program was necessary.”

"India will be the answer to your search for new economic opportunities … your source for world class skills at home or for a manufacturing location abroad”, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi told the Australian parliament recently adding that there are 800 million Indians under the age of 35, “eager for change, willing to work for it because, now they believe that it is possible" and they want Australia’s help on many fronts.

The flow of Indian citizens into Australia is at a six-year high. DIBPs 2012-13 immigration data shows that of the 190,000 who arrived under the permanent immigration program over 40, 051 were Indian citizens, while China had 27,334 and the United Kingdom 21,711. The Philippines is fourth with 10,639 people gaining permanent residency.  

The report also notes that India has replaced the United Kingdom as the top origin country applying for 457 visas. According to The Age, the latest 457 visa figures indicated that, Indian citizens comprise almost a quarter of the skilled visas, at 23.3 per cent. This was followed by the United Kingdom at 18.3 per cent; the People's Republic of China at 6.5 per cent and the Republic of Ireland, 7.2 per cent. The number of American citizens applying for the skilled visa was at 6.2 per cent.

PM Modi no doubt has observed these close links between Australia and India and has promised even closer ties indicating there are huge opportunities for Australia to provide education, health care and clean energy to India in coming years. In response, the Australian Prime Minister Mr Abbott has flagged the prospect of a free-trade pact with India by the end of next year.

The department of immigration has stepped up its scrutiny of working holiday visa applicants after detecting that many applicants have been defrauding the system by making applications under different identities.

In one case an applicant acquired five Working Holiday visas illegally by using different identities. DIBPs prevailing systems were unable to detect the fraud until the fifth application according to a DIBP media release.

DIBP states that it started scrutinising these visa applications more closely for identity fraud in the recent years after it became aware that some young visitors were unlawfully trying to use the Working Holiday visa (subclass 417)—the most popular visa for younger visitors to Australia—to secure ongoing work.

The visa is available to nationals from 19 countries and regions and can be used to visit, study and work in Australia for up to a year. If a Working Holiday visa holder spends three months or more doing designated approved work in regional Australia during their visit, they may be eligible for a second Working Holiday visa for an additional year.

Since 2013, in its efforts to detect people trying to gain unlawful entry to Australia, the department has been using an innovative automated form of discreet profiling that checks every application for a Working Holiday visa.

Migrants need a long-term well-considered strategy if they want to have a realistic chance of obtaining permanent migration to Australia. Rising costs, tougher rules, a stricter enforcement regime and a tight job market could easily derail poorly considered migration plans. With the government preferring temporary visas and forcing tough competition in the capped permanent visa program, engaging professional migration advisers must surely become an part of astute applicants plans.

Statistics indicate that government policy now prefers temporary immigration over permanent migration according to a recent academic article by Professor Jock Collins on www.theconversation.com. He points out that Australia is steadily shifting away from being a country that wanted immigrants and their families and subsequent generations to stay and become part of nation building to a country that prefers temporary migrants.

The OECD’s latest report on global migration indicates that trends in Australian immigration in the past two decades strongly suggest that Australia can no longer be regarded as a settler immigration nation. 2012-13 immigration data shows that 190,000 arrived under the permanent immigration program (or 192,599 when Trans-Tasman migrants are included).

In the same year, 725,043 – or 766,273 including Trans-Tasman migrants – migrants arrived on temporary immigration visas. This included 258,248 on working holiday visas, 259,278 on international student visas and 126,350 on temporary work (skilled) visas.

“This shift of Australia from a settler immigration nation to a temporary migrant nation has been the biggest change in nearly seven decades of post-war immigration history,” notes Jock Collins, Professor of Social Economics, UTS Business School at University of Technology, Sydney. “Yet, remarkably, there has been virtually no debate about it other than understandable concerns about abuses of workers under the temporary 457 visa and of some working holiday makers by unscrupulous employers or agents” says Prof Collins.

With permanent migration quotas amounting to about a quarter of the temporary migrant visa grants (excluding tourists), the figures roughly translate to mean that for every 4 hopeful temporary entrants, only 1 will have a chance of getting permanent residency.