Immigration policy and the Australian labour market

Economic Papers (Economic Society of Australia), March, 2003 by Bob Birrell

This attitude also shaped Helen Hughes' position. In her 1985 Boyer Lectures she argued for a high intake on the grounds that "migrants form a self selected group that brings high productivity to a country" (Hughes, 1985, p. 52). In her subsequent role as the sole economist member of the Committee to Advise on Australia's Immigration Policies (CAMP) Hughes played an important part in shaping the Committee's recommendations when it reported in 1988. These included a migration intake of 150,000 per year (CAAIP, 1988, p. xiv). However according to the Committee the selection focus should be on 'skilled, entrepreneurial and youthful' migrants. The high point of this attitude was the Gamaut Report of 1989. Garnaut was commissioned by the Hawke Government to study the implications of Asia's economic growth for Australia. 1-Le recommended drawing from the source of Asia's dynamism - its people.

There is an opportunity now for Australia to recruit to citizenship young, well-educated and professionally accomplished people from Hong Kong, Taiwan and the Republic of Korea... There is a strong case for making good use of this opportunity while it lasts (Garnaut, 1989, p.292).

Reflecting these influences, the migration program was expanded in the second half of the 1980s, particularly the Independent skilled category. The selection system for this category was based on generic characteristics, including tertiary education, employment experience, English capacity and age (with no requirement that applicants first establish that their qualifications were recognised by Australian authorities). The strict rules limiting skilled migration recruitment to occupations where there was evidence of shortages, which marked the small skilled program in the early Hawke government years, were abandoned. In effect, the skill pattern of incoming migrants was demand driven, in that the occupations selected were determined by applicant patterns. As long as an applicant achieved the requisite points on the generic characteristics cited above he or she would gain selection. Since immigration was about an infusion of skilled, ambitious and entrepreneurial migrants, the expectation was that such migrants would find a niche for themselves, perhaps as initiators of the new industries the Hawke Government was hoping to promote as a consequence of its 'clever country' policies.

An expanded business migration program was part of this strategy. The number of such visas peaked at 10,600 (including dependents) in 1989-90. By this time more than half were drawn from Hong Kong and Taiwan. In order to gain selection an applicant only had to provide a business plan for his/her intended activities and to transfer certain specified funds to Australia.

2 Cracks in the Facade

These arrangements began to unravel in the late 1980s. Ironically it was representatives of migrant communities, who though enthusiastic about high migration, got to the heart of the problem. Australia was attracting large numbers of Asian professionals, just as Garnaut had recommended. Some came through the Independent program, many others as family members (mainly as brothers and sisters and spouses). By far the single largest occupational group were engineers. By 1991 there were some 15,226 overseas-born persons in Australia who possessed degree level qualifications in engineering who had arrived in Australia between 1986 and 1991. Since the number of persons in Australia employed as professional engineers actually fell slightly between 1986 and 1991 (to 82,047) it is not surprising that many recent arrivals struggled to find openings. Only 3,332 of these 15,226 engineers were employed as professional engineers by 1991 (Birrell, 1996, p. 58). Nevertheless, as critics pointed out, an additional hurdle was t hat many of the Asian engineers (as well as other professional migrants from non-Anglo countries) could not get their professional credentials recognised. Claims of bias on the part of employers, even racism were widespread.