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Too many cooks granted PR
A spike in the permanent residence grants for cooks and hairdressers has had the media reporting that skilled migration policy has lost its way.
Cooks have topped the skilled migration list. Over 8000 cooks got permanent visas in 2012-13, followed by 5700 accountants, 2160 software engineers, 1550 IT business analysts and 1500 hairdressers, reports the Herald Sun.
The Herald Sun report also noted that skilled migration is dominated by Indians and Chinese, who comprised about half of the 129,000 places approved last year.
It is suggested that the students, who were caught out by changes to the skilled migration rules, have been ‘unwisely told’ that they could continue to apply for residency.
In an interview with the Herald Sun, Monash University migration researcher Dr Bob Birrel claimed that the number of highly skilled applicants wishing to enter the country is now falling, causing immigration officials to fill their quotas with ‘warehoused applicants’.
"Now that demand for migration is tapering off a bit they are obliged to deal with these applicants…They are filling up their quota with these warehoused applicants, that's why we're getting so many cooks."
"The program has a life of its own and it's continuing at very high levels notwithstanding the sharp downturn in the need for skilled migrants," he said.
According to the department's 2012-13 Migration Program Report, the skilled migration system focused on migrants to help fill critical skill needs, particularly in regional areas.This included almost 50,000 places nominated by employers and state or territory governments, and 44,000 in the skilled independent category. There were more than 114,000 applicants waiting to be processed for skilled migration as of June 30 last year.
Comments
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Wednesday, 05 February 2014The possible reason for skilled migrants tapering of may be down to the skills assessment program and their bodies have become as big a process as a visa application,
Today its seems a person who achieves an AQF III in a trade by Recognition of prior learning RPL is only regarded as a qualified person from the day he is issued the Australian Certificate III even though he has many years of experience, and also when issued the certificate the skills assessing bodies want the skilled migrant to have three years full-time, paid employment in a relevant and directly related trade, including 12 months full-time paid employment in the 24 months preceding their application; and
through a technical assessment, determine if the applicant meets the definition of a ‘skilled worker’ and this is post AQF III , this undermines the AQF III certificate and is decimating against skilled overseas workers because if an Australian apprentice serves 4 years and 900 hrs attending technical college and is issued the same AQFIII , He is regarded as q qualified person the day after he receives this certificate and does not require 3 years post qualification experience to work in Australia as a qualified person . why such a big difference ?
If a overseas skilled worker obtains a AQF III certificate through RPL pathway he should not be required to show post AQF III work experience to an assessing body from the day he is issued an a AQF III , Many AQF III holders have not got these years and return home to work another 3 years to apply later, Its a ridiculous approach to assessing overseas workers and discriminates. Most loose Thousand of dollars to assessing bodies due to this requirement. -
Wednesday, 05 February 2014
These graduates were lured to Australia by the promise of permanent residence. There was always a Skilled Independent (Overseas Graduate) visa or a similar name. The Honourable J Gillard as Education Minister and during a visit to Indoa declared there was no such pathway. The PAMS always provided that an applicant for a Student Visa was not non-genuine if their intention was to progress to PR. Bob Birrell is on an adventure in rewriting history. John Findley MARN0316938
Immigration blog
Bob Birrel always seems to have an adversarial view of all migration matters. The fact is he fails to differentiate between ENS and general skilled migration. More visas being approved for nominated positions than general skilled migration belies his "warehousing" theory. Hairdressers representing just over 1% of the total number is not unreasonable considering the demand for this occupation as evidenced by positions advertised. What evidence is there that demand for highly skilled migration is tapering off? I have questioned [via email] Bob Birrel regarding quotes attributed to him in previous articles which contained errors of fact but he did not bother to reply or give access to the document he had written. I presume this means that he was not misquoted and the errors were his alone.