Australia’s top priority migrants will be doctors, nurses and school teachers who speaks good English and already have jobs organised under a major overhaul of immigration policy.
The changes, to be unveiled by Immigration Minister Chris Evans, are expected to target professionals with university degrees who are sponsored by employers and discourage self-nominating migrants such as cooks, hairdressers and accountants. The new policy will axe the Migration Occupations on Demand List, which lists 106 occupations in demand. Only half the migrants entering Australia with skills on the MODL actually end up employed in their field and one-third end up unemployed or in a low-skill job, Senator Evans said.
It will be replaced by a new Skilled Occupations List of high-value professions and trades drawn up by Skills Australia. If the job they are studying for is not on the new list, foreign students will not be able to apply for a permanent residency visa unless an employer will sponsor them. Senator Evans says in recognition of the problems the changes could cause for colleges and existing overseas students, he is temporarily allowing them to spend 18 months in Australia after graduation to work and seek sponsorship from employers.
He has also announced that around 20,000 people who applied for skilled migrant visas before September 2007 will have their applications cancelled and their fees refunded. Senator Evans says the current list of jobs is distorting the economy.
“We had tens of thousands of students studying cookery and accounting and hairdressing because that was on the list and that got them through to permanent residency,” he said.
This is because the system that allocates potential migrants points based on their qualifications and skills will be restructured.
“The current points test puts an overseas student with a short-term vocational qualification gained in Australia ahead of a Harvard-educated environmental scientist,” Senator Evans said. The new system is likely to give potential migrants more points if they are qualified in certain high-value professions and trades, went to a prestigious university, have more experience and display excellence in English.
The Immigration Minister will get the power to set a maximum number of visas that may be granted in any one occupation and the states will be able to prioritise skilled migrants. Senator Evans said the changes would shift our immigration system from a supply driven model to a demand driven system in which migrants sponsored by an employer would get priority.
While Australia’s hospitals need nurses and doctors there are 12,000 foreign cooks waiting to come to Australia under the existing system, he said.
Under the existing system 40,000 unsponsored visas were issued to accountants over the past five years yet a shortage of accountants persists because most did not get work in the profession.
“Australia’s skilled migration program has been delivering self-nominated migrants from a narrow range of occupations with poor to moderate English language skills who struggle to find employment in their nominated occupation” Senator Evans will tell an Australian National University demography institute. About 170,000 people applied to migrate to Australia last year.