Skilled Migration Shame

There have been some dramatic changes to the skilled migration program announced this week. See The Australian: http://bit.ly/aVdt7J and ABC News: http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/02/08/2812638.htm

The government’s proposed changes to Australia’s skilled migration scheme highlight one of the greatest failings of the immigration system – albeit one that unfortunately receives far less press than the so-called “boat people” epidemic.

The 20,000 applicants referred to are all highly skilled individuals, whose applications meet all relevant criteria but who have not had their visas processed since 2007.

Refunding the application fees is not enough – applicants will have invested considerable time, money and expectations of life in Australia, which have now all gone to waste due to the system’s failures. Many applicants could have explored options for migrating to other countries, but chose not to do so, only now to have their loyalty to Australia rejected.

And let’s spare a thought for the Australian economy – now denied the potential benefits of countless highly skilled individuals who, in many cases, will take those skills to competing economies.

This is a shameful situation and demonstrates that ill-thought-through reactions cause damage to real people. It is essential that Australia’s migration system be overhauled and mechanisms put in place to avoid instant changes to the rules which are severely detrimental to the applicants and Australia’s economy.