DIMIA Annual Report 2001-02
THE LINKS BETWEEN TEMPORARY AND PERMANENT RESIDENCE
'Sponsored temporary business residents generally have higher incomes than permanent business migrants because employers use the temporary visa facility to bring personnel with specialist managerial or technical expertise to Australia at short notice.'
Chris Richardson, Access Economics
The global hunt for temporary skilled entrants is also intensifying because many nations see temporary entry programs as an easier and more publicly acceptable way of moving into the global market for skilled workers.
Temporary skilled entry programs also give employers greater flexibility in targeting skilled workers, some of whom are, in any case, not interested in permanent residence in any one country.
Australia's history as a country of migration and the strong public support that has been created by a well managed and demonstrably beneficial migration program gives us certain advantages in the area of temporary migration.
It allows DIMIA to offer temporary entrants several benefits that many other nations do not.
For example, Australia has, by design, made it easier to switch status between temporary and permanent programs.
In other countries, the route from temporary schemes to permanent residence is indirect, unplanned and uncertain.
A prime example of Australia's approach in 2001-02 was the legislation allowing overseas students graduating from Australian universities to apply directly for permanent migration, without leaving the country.
This has opened up an immediate source of young, English-speaking migrants, with Australian qualifications and experience of our culture and labour markets.
The right to work for spouses is another advantage that Australia has been able to offer temporary entrants that several of our competitors, for example the USA, Germany and Ireland, do not.
The economic benefits of DIMIA's temporary skilled entry programs are evident. Sponsored temporary business entrants have a more beneficial impact on both Commonwealth and State budgets than any permanent migrant.
This is because they have higher incomes and lower eligibility for publicly provided services.
In their first year alone, the sponsored temporary business residents who came to Australia in 2000-01 are estimated to have contributed $652m. net to the Commonwealth Budget.
Since principal applicants enter Australia on the basis of a firm job offer, they also, by definition, have full employment.
EQUITY
'The education and skill levels of immigrants have powerful effects both on average incomes and on their distribution.'
Professor Ross Garnaut, Australian National University
Skilled migrants not only have a positive impact on the Australian economy, they also help to minimise income inequality.
In 2001-02, Professor Ross Garnaut found that immigrants with levels of economically valuable skills higher than the Australian average tend to raise average incomes.
He also found that an increase in the number of people with substantial skills and education raises the relative incomes of Australian workers with fewer skills.
Conversely, a disproportionately high component of unskilled labour in the migration program would raise the relative incomes of Australians with high levels of skill and reduce the incomes of unskilled Australians.
It would also increase unemployment because of Australia's system of minimum wages for lower paid workers.
Professor Garnaut also found that Australia has been rapidly upgrading the education levels of migrants, whereas the USA, in terms of its permanent migrants, has been going in the opposite direction.
Several prominent American scholars, particularly Professor George Borjas of Harvard University, have found that this increase in unskilled migration to the USA has had seriously negative results for low skilled American workers whose wages have been reduced as a consequence of increased competition from low skilled migrants.