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Immigration Daily News A new ‘low-skilled’ visa could help prevent the exploitation of our young visitors.
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A new ‘low-skilled’ visa could help prevent the exploitation of our young visitors.
The exploitation of sc417 workers revealed by the ABC report this week put into the spotlight a shadow economy reliant on low-skilled workers which various governments of the day have refused to acknowledge.
“Officially, Australia only has a high-skilled migration programme (namely, the 457 visa), but in truth the Australian labour market is flooded with low-skilled temporary migrant workers on other visas”, state two academics in an opinion piece in The Age today.
There is a large underclass of workers in the agriculture and hospitality industries made up foreigners on various types of temporary visas including work/holiday visas, student visas and tourist visas. The numbers are not known but their plight is only talked about when media reports pierce the veil of secrecy behind which these vulnerable individuals work and are exploited.
“So how have we allowed this to happen? Successive Coalition and Labor governments have not only tolerated this unskilled migrant workforce, but have encouraged its growth,” state the opinion piece by Dr Joanna Howe and Associate Professor Alexander Reilly of the Adelaide Law School.
The academics propose that Australia introduce an official entry stream for low-skilled workers.
“This visa would be subject to strict independent labour-market testing so that only occupations that are in shortage can be accessed. This independent labour-market testing would also confirm that the skill shortage was not owing to a lack of investment in training and/or Australia's apprenticeship program, or because of unacceptably poor wages and working conditions for that occupation.”
Dr Joanna Howe and Associate Professor Alexander Reilly work in the Adelaide Law School and are members of the Public Law and Policy Research Unit at the University of Adelaide Law School. Their article "Meeting Australia's Labour Needs – the Case for a Low Skill Work Visa" will be published in the Federal Law Review later this year, according to The Age.
Comments
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Thursday, 07 May 2015
Clearly sufficiently large for it to be all over the media and have the DIBP and FWO scrambling to investigate.
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Thursday, 07 May 2015Simply put the WHV holders come here to Australia and can work, and whilst I totally agree with the exploitation of the WHV holders and needs addressing by the appropriate authorities, it is that these individuals can actually move on to find employers that offer the correct wage no one forces them to work for what they get paid.
I watched the report and I have only seen Asian workers interviewed. A relative of mine from Germany (low skills level and with very little English) worked for a Bundaberg tomato farm picking tomatoes and yes complete exploitation he said, working hard for very little money, and he moved on to a cleaning job that paid him AUD20 per hour. He is now back in Germany and called Australia an experience and realised that he needs to get himself an education. Before he came here he thought of Australia as the land where "milk and honey' flowed and "I'll be right down under for a while", eventually he realized that running away from Germany did not solve his problems, he brought here with him, all along of course whilst he had the comfort of well to do parents back in Germany that supported his fancy holiday in Australia for a year.
I think that the Asian WHV and Labour Hire people also come here to Australia with a different expectation and were probably told a lot of lies at the other end by the people that arranged WHV and/or a place under the Labour Agreement,
All (I think) of the Asians interviewed during the Four corner program could not speak English most likely they are not educated and rely on labour work in Australia to survive and most likely have no savings or a back-up support from back home from their parents, otherwise they would stop working for such low wages.
I would think almost a bit like with the boat people, there are Rooks in Asia, promising them lot of what is calle "lies" untruth and once they are here, they may be told more lies as in if they keep working at this pay rate, they may get eventually PR and I suspect that is why they hang on because again suspecting that back home in Asia, conditions for them are not good either. This very fact (low skilled, not speaking English, hope for Australian PR) is exploited also from the person that organizes the Labour Hire, did you see that the person called "Sam" is Asian himself and very well I suspect he is the one to focus on also. -
Thursday, 07 May 2015
Hello Gerry-Gomez. "Clearly sufficiently large for it to be all over the media and have the DIBP and FWO scrambling to investigate." And how many would that be? 300? 3000? 30000? The documentary did not even speculate. A television program can be created from nothing or something. I watched Four Corners do the Degrees of Deception program that said there was a large number of cheaters, English illiterate overseas students, etc. They seem to have generated the program from almost nothing. However, all the relevant agencies have been alerted, and if any of them find a problem, they'll presumably report it. Or at least maybe report they'll it. These sensational programs often lead nowhere except to higher audience ratings.
I enjoy your posts, and I usually agree, but you take your "facts" from the media. The media are irresponsible (my opinion) and should be approached with caution. It seems reporters dream of being Woodward and Bernstein. On the other hand, I know that the particular agricultural abuse goes on. I think we need to urge the migration department to look into it closely. It is bad for everyone--except for the participating employers who are profiting. -
Thursday, 07 May 2015
I'm actually surprised that everybody is surprised. I came to this country as a student 15 years ago and worked low skilled for low wage for years to build myself up, same as every other hopeful immigrant did before and does ever since. Australia is really the "land of milk and honey" but not for every drifter, you have to work for the privilege unless you were lucky enough to be born here or managed to jump the que on a boat... What I see and have seen in my last 15 years here, all students and WHM-s and other temporary visa holders with legal work right - all the hundreds of thousands of them in Australia in any given time - know the drill: you have to work hard for the privilege of living in the "land of milk and honey". I've done my duty of working a lot for very little, so did every one of my acquaintances in the same pathway, and we never had a thought of winging why we do not get the same rights and acknowledgement than others who are already above us. How could we? Limited English, no skills to speak of or any local work experience, we had no personal assets to sell apart from the will and drive to better ourselves.
And this is exactly what is sooo attractive in Australia for many around the globe, you get the opportunity to better yourself, to prove yourself that you are worth enough to be part of this society. I never understood the confusing and quite demagog rants saying either "everybody who comes here must have the same rights and privileges right on stepping out of the plane" or " nobody should come here at all to take our jobs away". That's the same as if and Australian youth would go to France (for example) and demand to be paid the same for the same job as a frenchman who speaks French and has local experience. Of course it won't happen. It should not happen, as the value of the work is lesser for the total skills are lesser. Everyone coming here to try themselves should knowingly accept that they are not equal with the locals in the workplace until they have built themselves up to the same level, and thus working conditions are expected to be lower accordingly.
I might not think in a politically correct manner, but sorry to offend any bleeding heart, this is what I think, and apart from deceitful recruitment and downright slavery which are abhorrent practices, I do not see any wrong in paying low wages for low skills. Employers not only need high skills but also the skilless but very cheap work, and workers are happy for the conditions as they know they have less to offer than the locals and they are still better off with it than they were at their home countries. It is not parasitism but rather a symbiosis really, as long as both parties are clear on what they give and what they get, and enter the agreement freely.
And to the righteous beading hearts who tried to make a revealing media sensation out of a long standing status-quo: Pray it will remain the same, as likely you would be the first in line to protest if a coffee would suddenly cost $8 and a takeaway meal $25, or supermarket prices would double for the fruit and veg, cleaning and shelf stacking costs would double. It is an often conveniently overlooked economic fact that in a society for the general wages to remain this high while consumer prices remain low, a relatively large low paid portion of the workforce in the bottom of production and service industries to be present is an absolute necessity, - in Australia's case the temporary and newly arrived migrants. So it has been for decades, just go back to the Snowy Scheme in the 1950-70-es, or ask any mainland European immigrant "wog" how did they start out here 30-40 years ago. This country has been made great by the initial sacrifices of ever coming migrants, and this is exactly what keeps it great to this day. Eliminate it, and there goes your fancy comfy entitled lifestyle with it. -
Friday, 08 May 2015
Imagine getting an 8 score in IELTS,getting a distinction in Masters,being offered a scholarship for PHd and then working for 16.5 dollars an hour and paying tax on that and waiting for 5yrs on a 886VISA.Yes,my vision of Australia was different,I've lost my youth in the process and I'm a woman
Immigration blog
"There is a large underclass of workers in the agriculture and hospitality industries made up foreigners on various types of temporary visas including work/holiday visas, student visas and tourist visas. The numbers are not known but their plight is only talked about when media reports pierce the veil of secrecy behind which these vulnerable individuals work and are exploited." I don't mean to quibble, but if the numbers are not known, how do we know that there is a "large" underclass or the kinds of visas? Some TV show?