Looking Into Impacts of International Labour Mobility on Australia

¶ … International Labour Mobility on Australia

Migration of international individuals across various countries is becoming very common these days, which is imposing many global issues, such as social, cultural and economical, in both the sending and receiving states. The main agenda of migration is to reunite the family, help labour market, develop the nation and strengthen economy. Of all the people moving to Australia, 68% consists of skilled people whereas 32% are migrated through family visa streams. The number of people who migrate and their trends change from time to time, from smaller migration programmes mostly consisting of families in 1993-94 to large scale programme with an increased number of skilled people in 2013-14 (Migration programme statistics, n.d.). This paper explains the latest developments in international labour movement in Australia.

Trends of Australia's International Labour Mobility

The skilled visa stream was introduced for the individuals who have specific skills, education and business outlook mostly demanded in Australia. These qualified individuals who migrate to Australia help the economy through higher productivity, filling the shortages and fulfilling the needs of the labour market. They also give an indirect advantage through the higher demand for products and services, resulting in increasing employment rate. The skilled stream slightly dropped by 0.3% in the previous year. However, skilled workers delivered their services at 128,550 places in 2013-14 in Australia. The skilled stream visa is based on four main aspects. The main and widely used aspect is the Points-Based Skilled Migration system, which holds 58.1% of the skill-based stream whereas 36.9% of the applicants are Employer Sponsored and 4.8% are based on Advanced Business and investment visas. There is another visa component that is based on specific talent and it exhibited only 0.2% of the skilled stream in 2013-14. During the period 2012-2014, the four components under the skilled stream remained unchanged in size. However, many changes occurred in the groups of each component. For example, as of 1 July 2012, Labour Agreement visas were switched with other categories under the Permanent Visas Sponsored by Employers. As a result, the number of visas based on the Labour Agreement was decreased from 1266 in 2012-13 to just nine visas in 2013-14 (Australia's Migration Trends 2013-14, 2014).

According to the Continuous Survey of Australia's Migrants (CSAM), individuals who got accepted through the skilled stream were able to find a job faster than those who migrated under the Family stream. Applicants who applied under the skilled stream had an unemployment rate of just 5.7%, which was very close to the overall unemployment rate of 5.8% in Australia. These skilled migrants were given special favour being considered as newly moved to Australia. During the survey, it showed that the labour force input rate was 95.6% for the skill-based candidates, which was surprisingly greater than the 64.8% national rate. Migrants who applied through the family stream visas were also not able to perform well, with a higher unemployment rate of 22.2% and a full-time annual average income of $46,200 only, which is less than the national average income of $65,000 (Australia's Migration Trends 2013-14, 2014).

Causes of Australian International Labour Mobility

Mixing Migrated People into the Labour Market

Australia has a major migration programme for both skilled and family-based migration, leading towards permanent residency. The Australian Migration Programme has two main categories:

1. Skill Stream -- providing migration opportunities to the individuals having advanced skills and education who can prove to be a valuable addition to the Australian economy.

2. Family Stream -- allows the unity of families such as children, parents, spouses and many other members of large families through migration (Australia's Migration Trends 2013-14, 2014).

Permanent Employer Sponsored Migration

This migration programme allows the employers to hire skilled workers to fulfil specific vacancies. The employees can be based temporarily on a visa in Australia or reside overseas. There are not many restrictions on these visas and the process is usually given priority in order to fulfil the needs of Australian employers quickly (Australia's Migration Trends 2013-14, 2014).

Business Innovation and Investment programme

The main purpose of this programme is to give chance to experienced and talented investors and business owners who have proven success record in business. Individuals who migrate under this programme usually participate in the Australian economy by investing ample amounts in business at a senior level as a sole or part owner (Australia's Migration Trends 2013-14, 2014).

Pros and cons

Pros

The main advantage of international migration is that it can positively affect the economies of both sending and receiving countries. Migrants can increase the productivity of the economy where they move through their skills and hard work, while giving benefits to their country of origin in the form of remittances (Johnson and Turner, 2010).

International migrants who are also customers add valuable addition to the economy, which also results in creating new job vacancies.

International migration also helps in developing the cultures through transfer of skills and capabilities (Opportunities and Challenges of International Migration for Sending and Receiving Countries, n.d.).

Cons

Though international migration has many advantages for the receiving countries, it also imposes many issues in the form of economic, political and social tensions. It creates complications for the countries of origin as they lose many skilled and experienced people.