Last week Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil released the government’s review report on immigration policy with an overhaul of the point system for skilled migrants. She said the system makes people see studying just as a stepping stone to migration. That may end up immigrants not actually meeting our labour force needs. And allowing overseas students to work part-time on low-pay jobs extensively is not really in their interest.
The immediate change is to raise the minimum annual wage of overseas working visas to AUD 70,000, and to make it easier for temporary workers to apply for PR in serving the labour market.
The policy change is to impact most students from China and South Asian countries. Many of the Chinese students aim to get more PR merit points through higher educational standards, better English and mature age – that’s “persistence” mentioned in the Report. The Report quoted them as immigrants not solving labour shortage in Australia. For students from South Asia who mostly study in private vocational training schools, they study for 10+ hours but work for 50+ hours per week. They are filling up many low-pay jobs but not really enhancing national productivity.
O’Neil admitted this policy change could dampen our education export and migration intake, but this should be in the long-term interest of the nation. But she did not want to make an assessment on the economic impact that might result from the change.
Many Chinese parents have been sending their children to study in Australia as an investment. By spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on overseas study for a few years with properties acquired, their children can obtain PR status, enjoy Australian welfare benefits, get good investment returns from real estate… and at the end can come over as retired immigrants through family reunion with their children. Thus, the number of Chinese immigrants surged over the past 20+ years under this policy.
If studying overseas cannot lead to immigration, the market for Chinese overseas students would not be the same. The government must be mindful of the economic consequences.
For sure this nevertheless can help Australia in attracting more immigrants who are willing to play an active role in the society.
Mr. Raymond Chow, Publisher