The Impact Of Australian Immigration Policy Changes

Australian migration is often one of the most common things that many workers applying here think about. And this is really not that surprising, as there are indeed many opportunities waiting for them here. However, in recent years, various changes in immigration policies seems to have made these opportunities harder to reach.

One of the major overhauls done in the last two years concerns the skilled migrant workers program. According to Immigration and Citizenship Minister Chris Evans, the biggest problems that they have faced in recent years was an imbalance of the number of incoming workers to that needed by the country. He cited the number of lower level skilled migrants over that of the higher ones as an example.

"We are taking in more hairdressers than doctors and nurses," he said in an interview with the Associated Press earlier this month. He argued that the problem came about due to the changes made about by the previous administration. He also added that this was done in order to attract more foreign workers to the country. However, he added that the over representation of the demand for some of the lower level positions have lead to the unbalanced distribution of the foreign labor force.

Under the new system that Evans have laid down, a much stricter selection process will be used in choosing the applicants to be granted working visas. Now, according to him, priority will be given to those applicants who already have a standing job offer, as opposed to those who simply have the qualifications and are yet to secure a job. He also added that their priority will shift into getting more high level workers, such as health professionals ad engineers. According to him, this will ensure that they will be able to meet the demands of the major industries in the country.

Another particular point the the Immigration department wants to revise is skills assessment. They are planning to implement stricter rules in order to filter only those applicants that has the highest degrees of skills. One of the skills that they will give large priority on is English language proficiency. Thus, they are planning to put in new changes into the language exams required for granting a working visa.

A new list of of jobs deemed in demand will also be published by the Immigration department. This will encompass those jobs that are low in supply as well as those that have been newly prioritized. On the other hand, foreign students will now also find it a little harder to secure permanent residency, as they are given only 18 months to find a job in the field they graduated from, or they will be forced to move back to their home countries.

According to observers, these moves will likely decrease the number of immigrant workers coming in. But government officials are sure that this will only be temporary, until the changes have been fully adopted.