tag:theconversation.com,2011:/id/topics/temporary-migration-20038/articlestemporary migration – The Conversation2022-12-29T20:56:20Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1959302022-12-29T20:56:20Z2022-12-29T20:56:20ZDigital nomad visas offer the best of two worlds: what you should know before you go<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/500249/original/file-20221212-93608-ctxrb1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C251%2C6709%2C3380&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Imagine starting your work day with a fresh coconut juice perched by your laptop as you gaze over the ocean or a tropical rainforest. </p>
<p>It’s the sort of thing to fantasise about during long, tiresome commutes and days in a claustrophobic, noisy office. </p>
<p>But so long as you have the right type of job, and an accommodating employer (<a href="https://theconversation.com/elon-musks-hardcore-management-style-a-case-study-in-what-not-to-do-194999">not Elon Musk</a>), it could be your reality.</p>
<p>The war for talent is no longer just between companies. More than 40 nations or territories now offer “digital nomad” visas to attract those able to be employed in one country while living, and spending their income, in another. </p>
<p>Fancy the beach? A bunch of exotic islands are on the list. Prefer tropical forests? Try Brazil or Costa Rica. </p>
<p>Looking for history? There’s Spain or Greece. Love Wim Hof-style <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/a70a8678-5281-400e-8dc3-cba56cbd6e54">ice-bathing</a>? Iceland beckons.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/500931/original/file-20221214-14-myirxs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Iceland's Blue Lagoon geothermal spa, about 50 km south-west of Reykjavík." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/500931/original/file-20221214-14-myirxs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/500931/original/file-20221214-14-myirxs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500931/original/file-20221214-14-myirxs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500931/original/file-20221214-14-myirxs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500931/original/file-20221214-14-myirxs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500931/original/file-20221214-14-myirxs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500931/original/file-20221214-14-myirxs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Iceland’s Blue Lagoon geothermal spa, about 50 km south-west of Reykjavík.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
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<h2>What is a digital nomad visa?</h2>
<p>Think of a “digital nomad” visa as a cross between a tourist and temporary migrant visa – a working-on-holiday visa. Instead of the visa giving you the right to work in the country, it’s allowing you to stay so long as you’re gainfully employed and bringing money into the local economy. </p>
<p>How long you can stay varies, from 90 days in Aruba in the Caribbean to up to two years in the Cayman Islands. Most are for 12 months, with an option to renew. </p>
<p>Some places, <a href="https://www.schengenvisainfo.com/digital-nomad-visa/latvia/">such as Latvia</a>, restrict visas to employers registered in an OECD country. But generally the key requirement is that you can show you have no need to find local work and can meet minimum income requirements.</p>
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<p>Generally, the visa conditions simplify taxation issues: you continue to pay your income tax in the country of your employer. </p>
<p>But this varies. For example, in Greece (which offers a two-year renewable visa) you are exempt from paying local income tax only for the first six months. </p>
<h2>Combining work and travel</h2>
<p>A key driver of the digital nomad trend is the ability to maintain a career while ticking off other personal goals, particularly travel and the ability to experience a different way of life. </p>
<p>Moving somewhere with a cheaper cost of living could be another motivation. </p>
<p>But before you decide to pack up, there are some things to consider to ensure being a digital nomad is right for you.</p>
<h2>You’re a long way from home</h2>
<p>The first is whether reality will live up to the fantasy. </p>
<p>As a digital nomad you’re a very remote worker, with all the pros and cons that come with that.</p>
<p>Some <a href="https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/00483481211229375/full/html">studies</a> have shown remote workers can feel socially and professionally isolated. </p>
<p>Having an employer that’s supportive of your move will help. A 2017 <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1359432X.2018.1541886?casa_token=pbCgsWDjx2EAAAAA%3AdCFn0NynlWycJ0JTa0l0khkI0XYtTHYc4LV-QPb5XQ3qpC5y4OE6sztSnm11rKgovsZAXpEGYnJu">review</a> of prior studies on remote work found organisational support greatly reduces the psychological strain and social isolation felt by remote workers. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/its-not-just-the-isolation-working-from-home-has-surprising-downsides-107140">It's not just the isolation. Working from home has surprising downsides</a>
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<p>But working from home is one thing; being in another country is entirely another. Living a long way away from family and friends and support networks is likely to be more challenging, no matter how idyllic your location. </p>
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<img alt="Woman with laptop sitting beside pool in tropical location." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499420/original/file-20221207-20-tcptf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C860%2C5472%2C2776&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499420/original/file-20221207-20-tcptf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499420/original/file-20221207-20-tcptf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499420/original/file-20221207-20-tcptf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499420/original/file-20221207-20-tcptf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499420/original/file-20221207-20-tcptf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499420/original/file-20221207-20-tcptf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Even with a great view, remote work can have its downsides.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
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<p>If you like predictable structure and routine, the uncertainty and inevitable inconveniences that arise may mean it isn’t for you. </p>
<p>And while you may be exempt from paying local income tax, you’ll have to comply with all other local laws – such as <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/world/asia/indonesia-ban-on-sex-outside-marriage-problematic-for-bali-tourists-20221206-p5c42a.html">Indonesia’s new laws</a> making sex outside marriage potentially punishable with a year in jail.</p>
<h2>Foreign countries do things differently</h2>
<p>If those things don’t faze you, here are three tips to make the transition easier. </p>
<p>First, all the usual considerations about remote work apply – and some are amplified. You will absolutely need reliable high-speed internet, and access to support services. Living in a remote village might be alluring, but how close is the nearest computer shop?</p>
<p>Second, understand when you’ll need to work. You may be on a different time zone to colleagues or clients. The novelty of an ocean view could easily wear thin after a few weeks of getting up in the middle of the night for zoom calls. How available you need to be could be a big factor in choice of destination. </p>
<p>Third, you may still find maintaining work-life balance a challenge. <a href="https://www.igi-global.com/chapter/escaping-the-cubicle/275123">Research</a> has shown how easily work-life boundaries are blurred with remote work. The desire to prove you’re not slacking off may make it even harder.</p>
<p>But if you have the right personality, and you’re lucky enough to have the right job and employer, being a digital nomad might bring you the best of two worlds.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/195930/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Libby (Elizabeth) Sander does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>More than 40 nations or territories now offer ‘digital nomad’ visas, allowing you to live in one country while being employed in another.Libby (Elizabeth) Sander, MBA Director & Assistant Professor of Organisational Behaviour, Bond Business School, Bond UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1158442019-04-26T01:51:02Z2019-04-26T01:51:02ZLabor’s crackdown on temporary visa requirements won’t much help Australian workers<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270933/original/file-20190425-121228-r7auy7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=143%2C425%2C3832%2C2311&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Labor wants higher minimum pay for temporary visa holders, but most are already being paid much more.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Bill Shorten is holding out the prospect of protecting Australian workers from foreign ones. </p>
<p>He has pledged to <a href="https://www.billshorten.com.au/protecting_local_workers_restoring_fairness_to_australia_s_skilled_visa_system_tuesday_23_april_2019">tighten the visa system</a> for short-term skilled migrants, ensuring they have to be paid more so that “it isn’t cheaper to pay an overseas worker than pay a local worker”.</p>
<p>But the evidence does not support his claim that his policy proposal will boost local jobs and wages. He said</p>
<blockquote>
<p>There are more than 1 million underemployed Australians wanting more work and youth unemployment is at 11.7%</p>
<p>At the same time, there are almost 1.6 million temporary visa holders with work rights in Australia, with the top end of town turning to temporary work visas to undercut local jobs, wages and conditions</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Requirements have already been toughened</h2>
<p>The first point to note is that Shorten’s policy relates only to short-term visas for skilled migrants. Up until 2017, these were known as 457 visas. Their number peaked at 126,000 in 2012-13.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270910/original/file-20190425-121228-cnjtch.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270910/original/file-20190425-121228-cnjtch.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270910/original/file-20190425-121228-cnjtch.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=205&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270910/original/file-20190425-121228-cnjtch.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=205&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270910/original/file-20190425-121228-cnjtch.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=205&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270910/original/file-20190425-121228-cnjtch.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=257&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270910/original/file-20190425-121228-cnjtch.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=257&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270910/original/file-20190425-121228-cnjtch.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=257&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/pubs/rp/rp1617/Quick_Guides/457Visa">Parliamentary Library</a></span>
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<p>Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull replaced the 457 visa with the <a href="https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/visas/getting-a-visa/visa-listing/temporary-skill-shortage-482">482 visa</a>, partly in response to evidence that some employers had <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/leaked-report-raises-concerns-over-457-visa-20141018-117wfc.html">exploited the 457</a> to employ foreign workers on low wages.</p>
<p>The new visa required</p>
<ul>
<li><p>applicants to demonstrate work experience (minimum two years) and English language proficiency</p></li>
<li><p>the sponsoring employer to demonstrate lack of success in finding a local worker to do the job </p></li>
<li><p>the salary level to be at the market level for the role, and above what is known as the Temporary Skilled Migration Income Threshold. This is now about A$54,000. </p></li>
</ul>
<p>Since August 2018, employers of workers with 482 visas have also had to pay a fee to the Department of Education and Training to subsidise apprenticeships. Known as the <a href="https://www.tssimmigration.com.au/migration-news/blog/the-new-skilling-australians-fund-saf-levy/">Skilling Australians Fund Levy</a>, it ranges from $2,400 to $7,200, depending on the length of the visa and the employer’s annual turnover. </p>
<p>The core of Labor’s policy is to increase the income threshold to $65,000, a figure that will be indexed annually. The skilling levy would be 3% of the income threshold, a level that for some businesses would be <a href="https://www.australianchamber.com.au/news/labors-proposed-changes-to-temporary-skilled-migration-impose-big-costs-on-small-business/">an increase of 63%</a>.</p>
<h2>Skilled migrants are not the problem</h2>
<p>The most recent statistics published by the federal government (for 2017-18) show a total of <a href="https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/research-and-stats/files/temp-res-skilled-rpt-summary-30062018.pdf">83,470</a> people on temporary skilled worker visas (both 482 visas and residual 457 visas). </p>
<p>This means Shorten’s reference to the almost 1.6 million temporary visa holders with work rights in Australia – such as backpackers and international students (who we know are often <a href="https://theconversation.com/weve-let-wage-exploitation-become-the-default-experience-of-migrant-workers-113644">exploited by unscrupulous employers</a>) – is something of a red herring. Labor’s proposal won’t make any difference to them. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/crackdown-on-foreign-workers-is-part-of-shortens-wages-campaign-115816">Crackdown on foreign workers is part of Shorten's wages campaign</a>
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<p>Even if the 83,470 workers that the policy would affect were being employed to undercut local wage expectations, their number – less than 1% of Australia’s <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/DetailsPage/6306.0May%202018?OpenDocument">10 million</a> total employees – is simply not enough to influence market wages. In no occupation are visa holders more than 1% of total employees.</p>
<p>But there’s scant evidence to suggest the 482 visas are routinely used to employ cheaper workers. The average base nominated salary for visas in 2017-18 was <a href="https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/research-and-stats/files/457-quarterly-report-31122017.pdf">$94,800</a>, well above the <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/DetailsPage/6306.0May%202018?OpenDocument">average full-time wage</a> (about $85,000) and even higher than the $54,000 or Labor’s proposed $65,000 minimum.</p>
<p>Admittedly, averages don’t <a href="https://thenewdaily.com.au/money/finance-news/2018/06/08/average-australian-wages-revealed/">tell the full story</a>. But in only one sector – food and accommodation, accounting for 10.7% of visas granted – was the average wage lower than $65,000. </p>
<p>It suggests that raising the income threshold won’t have much impact.</p>
<h2>Labor’s proposals would be felt in the regions</h2>
<p>There is one possible exception to this: regional and remote Australia, which has benefited the most from temporary skilled worker visas. If the market wage for say, an early career chef, is below $65,000 (which it could be for some places in Australia), a restaurant or café employer in a small town would no longer be able to employ a migrant worker at the going rate, and it might also struggle to find would be be a $7,800 levy. </p>
<p>Labor’s proposal would impose higher relative costs on regional employers. </p>
<p>Claims about the impact of temporary work visas on employment and wages have been heard but seldom subject to rigorous analysis.</p>
<p>A significant inquiry into short-term migrant work visas in Australia was conducted by a <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/pubs/BriefingBook44p/TempSkilledMigration">Senate select committee</a> in 2015-16. It <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Education_and_Employment/temporary_work_visa/Report/c03">noted an inverse relationship</a> between 457 visas granted and the unemployment rate. In other words, the visas were associated with low, rather than high unemployment rates.</p>
<p>This suggests visas are meeting genuine skills shortages rather than displacing Australian workers.</p>
<h2>Migrants create as well as fill jobs</h2>
<p>Migrant workers are also consumers. They spend their income, contributing to demand for goods and services from local businesses, which adds to the demand for workers generally.</p>
<p>The same dynamics apply as those involving all migrants. As peer-reviewed <a href="https://crawford.anu.edu.au/files/uploads/crawford01_cap_anu_edu_au/2018-05/policy_note_-_immigration.pdf">research</a> by researchers at the Australian National University has shown, migration has had “no detectable effect on employment or wages of all workers who have lived in Australia for more than five years”.</p>
<p>These findings are essentially supported by the <a href="https://www.pc.gov.au/inquiries/completed/migrant-intake/report/migrant-intake-report.pdf">Productivity Commission</a>. </p>
<p>In sum, there’s little evidence that Australia’s current visa program for temporary skilled migrants has a negative effect on local jobs or wages. </p>
<p>Labor’s plans are unlikely to achieve anything positive. They might even hurt.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/dog-whistles-regional-visas-and-wage-theft-immigration-policy-is-again-an-election-issue-113557">Dog whistles, regional visas and wage theft – immigration policy is again an election issue</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/115844/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ross Guest does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Bill Shorten’s promise to tighten the visa system for short-term skilled migrants won’t do anything for local jobs or wages.Ross Guest, Professor of Economics and National Senior Teaching Fellow, Griffith UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1135572019-04-10T20:11:03Z2019-04-10T20:11:03ZDog whistles, regional visas and wage theft – immigration policy is again an election issue<p><em>This article is part of a <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/coalition-record-2019-69102">series</a> examining the Coalition government’s record on key issues while in power and what Labor is promising if it wins the 2019 federal election.</em></p>
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<p>Immigration policy will be a major issue in the 2019 federal election. We know this because immigration has featured significantly at every Australian election since the 2001 “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Children_Overboard_affair">children overboard</a>” election. </p>
<p>David Marr and Marian Wilkinson argued in their 2003 book, <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/books/dark-victory-20030329-gdgiaw.html">Dark Victory</a>, that willingness to play the race card in relation to boat people was a decisive factor in John Howard’s election victory. For Tony Abbott, “Stop the boats” was a major campaign theme when the Coalition won back government in the 2013 election. The current prime minister, Scott Morrison, rose to prominence as Abbott’s unyielding immigration minister who stopped the boats.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australian-politics-explainer-the-mv-tampa-and-the-transformation-of-asylum-seeker-policy-74078">Australian politics explainer: the MV Tampa and the transformation of asylum-seeker policy</a>
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<p>While the <a href="https://theconversation.com/christchurch-attacks-strike-at-the-heart-of-muslims-safe-places-from-islamophobia-113922">events of Christchurch</a> may have cramped the opportunity for the Coalition to run hard on fear, promising to be tough on borders and tough on (Muslim) terrorism, the dog-whistle politics on the issue of refugees and asylum seekers will be there for those wanting to hear it.</p>
<p>For Labor these policy issues have been difficult. It was Kevin Rudd who as PM <a href="https://theconversation.com/no-more-asylum-in-australia-for-those-arriving-by-boat-rudd-16238">declared that those arriving by boat would never be settled in Australia</a>, irrespective of the validity of their claims for protection under the UN <a href="https://www.unhcr.org/en-lk/1951-refugee-convention.html">Refugee Convention</a>. Labor supported efforts to get children out of detention on Manus Island, but doesn’t want to give the conservatives too much space to convincingly advance a “Labor weak on border security” line.</p>
<h2>Humanitarian intake is growing</h2>
<p>The Coalition governments of Abbott, Turnbull and Morrison have in fact increased Australia’s annual humanitarian intake significantly. The number has <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/pubs/rp/BudgetReview201516/Migration">risen from just over 13,750 to more than 18,000</a> – though the government has not loudly broadcast this fact. </p>
<p>In addition, Abbott in 2015 announced a <a href="https://theconversation.com/australia-ups-its-syrian-refugee-intake-but-what-about-its-own-backyard-47160">one-off intake of 12,000 Syrian conflict refugees</a>. Most of them arrived in 2017, effectively doubling the annual refugee intake in that year.</p>
<p>Australia – and the refugees – coped well, demonstrating the nation’s capacity to significantly increase refugee intakes. <a href="https://theconversation.com/refugees-are-integrating-just-fine-in-regional-australia-101188">Our research</a> with newly arrived Syrian, Iraqi and Afghan refugee families suggests they are settling well in Australia, receiving a warm welcome from locals in the cities and regional centres. Employment and family reunification are their key worries.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/refugees-are-integrating-just-fine-in-regional-australia-101188">Refugees are integrating just fine in regional Australia</a>
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<p>Labor’s shadow immigration minister, Shayne Neumann, has flagged a new <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/yourlanguage/punjabi/en/article/2019/02/12/labor-government-will-replace-new-sponsored-parent-visa">temporary sponsored visa for the parents of migrants</a>. Unlike the current visa, it does not have a cap and it might assist refugees to get their parents to Australia.</p>
<p>Labor has <a href="https://www.alp.org.au/asylumseekers">announced it will increase the annual humanitarian intake</a> of refugees to 27,000 by 2025. It will also abolish <a href="https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/visas/getting-a-visa/visa-listing/temporary-protection-785">Temporary Protection Visas</a> (TPVs). These visas provide boat arrivals who are found to be refugees the right to stay for only three years with work and study rights and access to Centrelink payments. As Labor argues, this places them “in a permanent state of limbo”.</p>
<p>The Coalition parties have not announced their policy intentions in relation to humanitarian intakes or the rights of asylum seekers, including those who arrived by boat.</p>
<p>At a time when Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton scans the horizon for new boat arrivals, <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/worst-ever-immigration-minister-asylum-seekers-jet-in-under-dutton-s-nose-20190302-p511d8.html">record number of asylum seekers are arriving by plane</a> under tourist visas. In 2013-14, there were 18,718 asylum applications, including 9,072 boat arrivals. This had increased to <a href="https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/national/2018/12/09/record-number-asylum-seekers-peter-dutton/">27,931 asylum applications, with no boat arrivals, by 2017-18</a>. </p>
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<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Department of Home Affairs</span></span>
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<p>Each year the Australia government sets the permanent immigration targets. Until recently this was set at 190,00. In practice just <a href="https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/research-and-stats/files/report-migration-program-2017-18.pdf">162,000 immigrants have been admitted</a> over the past year or so. </p>
<h2>A token cut and 2 new visas</h2>
<p>In this context Prime Minister Morrison’s announcement that the <a href="https://theconversation.com/slimmed-down-migration-program-has-regional-focus-113847">permanent immigration target will be cut to 160,000</a> is really no change in immigration policy. There is nothing to see here if you dismiss the need to be loudly anti-immigration in the current populist political climate.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/governments-population-plan-is-more-about-maximising-win-wins-than-cutting-numbers-114190">Government's population plan is more about maximising 'win-wins' than cutting numbers</a>
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<p>The announcement is linked to congestion-busting in the major cities of Sydney and Melbourne. It is accompanied by the <a href="https://www.news.com.au/finance/economy/federal-budget/immigration-cuts-and-regional-visas-to-ease-strain-on-sydney-and-melbourne/news-story/da7de88690966d4c202ab0d372a5b253">introduction of two new visa pathways</a> – the Skilled Work Regional (Provisional) Visa and the Skilled Employer Sponsored Regional (Provisional) Visa – for skilled migrants to live and work in regional areas for five years.</p>
<p>These visas offer the carrot of permanent residency at the end of three years to attract new immigrants to regional Australia. In addition, the budget announced that scholarships to the tune of $94 million over four years would be available to domestic and international students who study there.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/settling-migrants-in-regional-areas-will-need-more-than-a-visa-to-succeed-114196">Settling migrants in regional areas will need more than a visa to succeed</a>
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<h2>Temporary migrants exploited</h2>
<p>Most immigration policy debates centre on permanent immigration intakes, particularly of humanitarian immigrants and asylum seekers. Yet annual temporary migrant intakes – international students, <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/pubs/rp/rp1617/Quick_Guides/WorkingHoliday">working holidaymakers</a> and temporary skilled workers – are <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/pubs/rp/rp1617/Quick_Guides/MigrationStatistics#_Table_2:_Temporary%20_and%20214,583%20Working%20Holiday%20Makers%20on%20417%20and%20462%20Visas">three times greater</a> than the permanent intake. <a href="https://docs.jobs.gov.au/system/files/doc/other/mwt_final_report.pdf">Over 800,000 temporary migrants</a> were in Australia in June 2018.</p>
<p>One key policy issue is the exploitation of temporary migrant workers. The Turnbull government abolished the 457 temporary skilled migration visa because of increasing <a href="https://theconversation.com/457-visa-changes-wont-impact-on-wider-temporary-education-workforce-and-maybe-thats-deliberate-76579">reports of abuse and exploitation by employers</a>.</p>
<p>One <a href="https://apo.org.au/sites/default/files/resource-files/2017/11/apo-nid120406-1162971.pdf">recent survey</a> of 4,332 temporary migrant workers found “increasing evidence of widespread exploitation of temporary migrant workers, including wage theft”. <a href="https://www.mwji.org/highlights/2017/11/14/report-released-wage-theft-in-australia-findings-of-the-national-temporary-migrant-work-survey%20and%20other%20abuses%20of%20workers%20rights">Half of all temporary migrant workers may be underpaid</a>. About one in three international students and backpackers earned $12 an hour or less – about half the minimum wage.</p>
<p>This issue goes not just to the ethics of maintaining a temporary migration program largely premised on migrant worker exploitation. It also resonates with Labor’s <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-04-05/labors-budget-reply-was-a-careful-pitch-to-voters/10973572">campaign for a living wage and the restoration of penalty rates</a> for workers in response to the low rate of real wage growth in Australia, which constrains consumer demand.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/ultra-low-wage-growth-isnt-accidental-it-is-the-intended-outcome-of-government-policies-113357">Ultra low wage growth isn't accidental. It is the intended outcome of government policies</a>
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<p>The 2019-20 federal budget allocated extra funding to the Fair Work Ombudsman to bolster enforcement action against employers who exploit vulnerable workers and announced the National Labour Hire Registration Scheme to <a href="https://www.jobs.gov.au/migrant-workers-taskforce">target rogue operators in the labour hire industry</a>. However, the research suggests wage theft is widespread in the small business sector, a key target for tax relief in the budget. It is an area of immigration policy that requires considerably more resources and punch.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/113557/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jock Collins receives funding for three research projects from the Australian Research Council</span></em></p>Immigration has featured as an issue in every Australian election since 2001. But the numbers often tell a different story from the political posturing.Jock Collins, Professor of Social Economics, UTS Business School, University of Technology SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1090952018-12-20T15:39:05Z2018-12-20T15:39:05ZUK to remain a hostile environment for immigration under nebulous new post-Brexit policy<p>As the UK <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/no-deal-brexit-army-troops-eu-uk-leave-remain-date-vote-tory-party-theresa-may-a8689771.html">heads to war with itself</a>, the country got an early Christmas gift in the form of a long-awaited <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/766465/The-UKs-future-skills-based-immigration-system-print-ready.pdf">white paper</a> on immigration. <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/home-secretary-announces-new-skills-based-immigration-system">Touted</a> by home secretary Sajid Javid as “the biggest change to our immigration system in a generation”, after reading the details, I beg to differ. </p>
<p>Much like the Brexit <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/withdrawal-agreement-and-political-declaration">withdrawal agreement</a>, the paper is a stop gap, full of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/dec/14/nebulous-brexit-proposals-crystal-clear-may-eu">nebulous</a> transitionary measures with few concrete plans for Britain’s future labour market and no solutions to the shortages caused by ending free movement from the EU.</p>
<p>Its vision is for a migration system where the country somehow attracts highly skilled people despite a hostile environment, while the labour market relies on a churn of temporary workers with no rights and no concern over how that precariousness will lead to exploitation. </p>
<p>Reminiscent of a Tom and Jerry cartoon, the white paper reads like a battle between prime minister Theresa May’s hardline immigrant leanings and Javid’s incredulity with his Home Office brief, with the end product being no product at all.</p>
<p>The government’s objective for the <a href="https://www.palgrave.com/gb/book/9783319646916">last 18 years</a> to attract the brightest and best remains, yet there are few new proposals for how to actually do this. The spousal income threshold of £18,600 remains, for example, despite findings from the University of Oxford’s Migration Observatory that it may be <a href="https://migrationobservatory.ox.ac.uk/resources/commentaries/how-many-people-have-been-prevented-from-bringing-a-partner-to-the-uk-due-to-the-18600-minimum-income-requirement/">deterring tens of thousands</a> of high-skilled workers. </p>
<h2>Policy by inertia</h2>
<p>The net migration target gets no explicit mention, suggesting it has been abandoned. Still, the ambition to reduce migration to the nebulous “sustainable levels” remains. With free movement ending, immigration is likely to decrease in any case – the “Brexodus” of EU citizens is already <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/nov/29/eu-net-migration-uk-falls-lowest-level-almost-six-years">very much underway</a>. </p>
<p>As recommended by the independent <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/741926/Final_EEA_report.PDF">Migration Advisory Committee</a> (MAC) in September, the government plans to scrap the resident labour market test which requires employers to ensure no EU resident is available or suitable before hiring somebody from outside the EU. Yet with free movement ending after Brexit, this protection measure is rather redundant. So both so-called “changes” are policy through inertia. </p>
<iframe height="532px" width="100%" src="https://www.ons.gov.uk/visualisations/dvc568/charts/fig2.html"></iframe>
<p>Javid may have shifted the rhetoric from reducing net migration as a “target” to an “ambition”, and from a “hostile” environment on immigration <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/editorials/sajid-javid-immigration-hostile-compliant-environment-marr-a8381711.html">to a “compliant” one</a>, but the end result is indistinguishable.</p>
<p>We’ll see new border controls including electronic travel authorisation for visitors and the return of exit controls. There will be new digital checking services which will make it easier for employers, landlords and public service providers to confirm immigration status. These are simply extra layers of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/welcome-to-britain-where-everybody-is-expected-to-be-a-border-guard-75148">everyday bordering</a> which caused the deplorable Windrush scandal in 2018 and led to countless problems of discrimination in the <a href="https://research.rla.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/state-intervention-into-renting-2017-report.pdf">housing market</a>, not to mention immeasurable <a href="https://researchbriefings.parliament.uk/ResearchBriefing/Summary/LLN-2018-0064#fullreport">wrongful deportations</a>. </p>
<p>Much to the relief of business, a cap on the number of highly skilled migrants allowed to enter on Tier 2 visas will be scrapped. Still, salary thresholds look likely to continue to demarcate what the government deems as “skills”, and the government will consult on what that threshold will be – an exercise already conducted by the MAC. This is clearly a sop to the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/dec/19/may-cabinet-split-over-30000-immigrant-salary-threshold">cabinet rows</a> over a proposed £30,000 minimum income threshold – the latest front in the battle between May’s obsession with cutting immigration and the economic costs of doing so.</p>
<p>There will be new routes for skilled workers, including lowering the skills threshold. Presumably, this will be a new route under Tier 2, but with tiers getting no mention in the white paper, it’s unclear whether the <a href="https://www.palgrave.com/gb/book/9783319646916">points-based immigration</a> system which has been in the place for the last ten years for non-EU migrants will be terminated altogether. </p>
<h2>It’s temporary</h2>
<p>What is genuinely new is the launch of a temporary short term route. Don’t get too excited, though, the government is at pains to stress this is transitionary and very much a stopgap until 2025. This forms part of the government’s ambition to make all non high-skilled migration strictly temporary, a vision of a constant churn of young, single migrants. While the intention may be to force companies to raise wages and improve working conditions in sectors which rely on EU labour, the result is likely to be an increase in the <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0016718515301342">exploitation of temporary migrant workers</a>, or sectors <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/titles/11040.html">off-shoring</a> certain jobs, or going under altogether.</p>
<p>May has long wanted to “break the link between temporary routes and permanent settlement”, as she <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/immigration-limit-changes-oral-statement-by-theresa-may">put it back in 2010</a>, and it looks like she’s finally got her wish. Workers on this route will need visas to come to work in the UK for a maximum of 12 months (meaning they don’t need to be counted in the net migration figures), although whether they’ll need a job offer for the visa remains unclear. But the certification system is long and bureaucratic and not suited to sectors looking for the flexibility to hire and fire people quickly on zero-hour contracts. </p>
<p>Temporary workers cannot bring dependants, extend their visa or transition to another visa. Temporary migration programmes have been heralded as a <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12134-018-0577-x">panacea across EU states</a> satisfying the “no borders” and “no migrants” arguments. Yet much <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0950017010362141?casa_token=GGYst1mVyD8AAAAA%3AF1zUz7Nvy4sLZjSqDdK51Abz3GaDkFCDSjFk7AWy-aZrpC0Ft22Ne52r1ys6zRKNAE93Hy7IZPSK">research</a> demonstrates that temporary migrants are more vulnerable to exploitation in numerous ways, and usually create <a href="https://www.ilo.org/beirut/media-centre/news/WCMS_553086/lang--en/index.htm">bonded labour</a> or, in other words, modern slavery.</p>
<p>As alluded to in its Brexit <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/725288/The_future_relationship_between_the_United_Kingdom_and_the_European_Union.pdf">white paper</a> in July, the government has now proposed a UK-EU Youth Mobility Scheme (YMS) using the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/tier-5-youth-mobility">existing design</a> as a basis.</p>
<p>The YMS allows young people aged between 18 and 30 from eight countries (mostly part of the Commonwealth) to come to work in the UK for up to two years without a job offer and the administrative headaches of sponsorship. Little is known about what work these YMS migrants do, because they don’t require employer sponsorship. The government believes most people engage in lower-skilled work, but <a href="http://www.temperproject.eu/low-mid-skilled-work/">my own research</a> found that the majority of Australians on the scheme work in high-skilled occupations.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/youth-mobility-scheme-after-brexit-wont-fill-gaps-left-by-end-to-free-movement-99955">Youth mobility scheme after Brexit won't fill gaps left by end to free movement</a>
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<p>The assumption of the entire white paper is that the UK will continue to be an attractive destination for migrants. In a hostile environment with a clear anti-immigration message, a probable <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-46366162">decline in the economy</a> and with London losing its attraction as a <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/analysis-and-features/brexit-financial-centres-city-of-london-frankfurt-dublin-paris-luxembourg-financial-services-banking-a8471886.html">financial hub</a>, this seems like a leap. One is left wondering why migrants would come to a country where they are clearly so unwelcome.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/109095/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Erica Consterdine does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The UK government has done little to prove how it will continue to attract highly skilled migrants after Brexit.Erica Consterdine, Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Immigration Politics and Policy, University of SussexLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/952922018-04-26T22:16:01Z2018-04-26T22:16:01ZThe issues facing Canadian workers this May Day<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/216127/original/file-20180424-57604-s5aaju.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Organized labour held demonstrations in front of Tim Hortons franchises in Ontario in January 2018 to protest the actions some Tim Hortons franchises have taken in response to an increase in the province's minimum wage.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source"> THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>May Day is upon us. What are the issues that have defined labour politics in the past year in Canada? </p>
<p>Minimum wage was certainly front and centre in many parts of the country.</p>
<p>But if May Day is a time to reflect on the radical labour struggles of the past and demands for the future, the minimum wage is not and should not be enough — not least because it cannot address the contradictions of Canadian capitalism. </p>
<h2>The politics of minimum wage</h2>
<p>The governments of British Columbia, Alberta and Ontario have raised or committed to raising the minimum wage for most workers to $15 an hour by 2018 (Ontario and Alberta) and 2021 (B.C.). </p>
<p>This has resulted in a predictable backlash. <a href="http://pressprogress.ca/news-coverage-of-ontarios-minimum-wage-increase-was-slanted-heavily-towards-business-interests/">Analyses of media coverage</a> have noted that business sources were overwhelmingly cited in stories rather than labour sources, negative impacts on employers were over-reported relative to positive impacts for workers and research findings were misreported to create the impression of damage to the economy. </p>
<p>The fact that politicians have been willing to advocate for minimum wage increases, however, points to several important trends in the Canadian economy and their implications for working people.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/democracy-freedom-and-cheap-stuff-can-we-pay-more-for-our-coffee-90621">Democracy, freedom and cheap stuff: Can we pay more for our coffee?</a>
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<p>First, income and wealth inequality have increased in Canada. The top one per cent of income earners took about a <a href="http://www.conferenceboard.ca/hcp/Details/society/income-inequality.aspx?AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1.">third of all income gains in the decade from 1997 to 2007</a>. After an initial hit during the 2008 recession, this trend has again accelerated.</p>
<p>The effects on total wealth are even more striking. According to <a href="https://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/75-006-x/2015001/article/14194-eng.htm#a5">Statistics Canada</a>, between 1999 and 2012, the bottom fifth of total families in Canada saw a 14.5 per cent increase in net worth, compared with a 106.9 per cent increase among the top fifth. </p>
<p>At the same time, the cost of living for workers — especially housing and child care — has increased. The stagnation of wages among low- and middle-income families and rising costs, of housing in particular, has led to record levels of consumer debt. <a href="https://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/75-001-x/2012002/article/11636-eng.htm">Data show that residents of B.C., Alberta and Ontario held three out of four dollars of household debt</a> in Canada in 2012.</p>
<h2>Precarious employment on the rise</h2>
<p>Meanwhile, precarious employment is increasing in Canada, especially the proportion of self-employed workers and those in temporary jobs, and especially for younger workers. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/216569/original/file-20180426-175069-1dm6y20.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/216569/original/file-20180426-175069-1dm6y20.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216569/original/file-20180426-175069-1dm6y20.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216569/original/file-20180426-175069-1dm6y20.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216569/original/file-20180426-175069-1dm6y20.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216569/original/file-20180426-175069-1dm6y20.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216569/original/file-20180426-175069-1dm6y20.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">A part-time shift worker at a grocery store, who wished to remain anonymous, is pictured in Toronto in August 2015. The rise of precarious employment in Canada - mainly work in the services and retail sectors - has brought with it questionable employer practices that have employees stressed out and labour activists fuming.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young</span></span>
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<p>Research from a <a href="https://pepso.ca/">Poverty and Employment Precarity in Southern Ontario (PEPSO)</a> project, which demonstrated the limitations of existing studies like Statistics Canada’s <a href="https://www.statcan.gc.ca/eng/survey/household/3701">Labour Force Survey</a>, show high levels of precarious work in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), with a range of negative impacts on workers, households and communities.</p>
<p>At a time of record low unemployment, then, the issues of income and wealth inequality, rising debt linked to housing and living costs and increasingly insecure employment have helped fuel minimum wage increases. These issues are highlighted by sustained, creative grassroots campaigning and community-union alliances like the <a href="https://www.fightfor15bc.ca">Fight for 15</a> movement. </p>
<p>There is also increasing media and political attention on these issues, despite some glaring failures to connect the dots. </p>
<p>The uncritical narrative of NAFTA, for example, <a href="https://www.hilltimes.com/2017/10/18/nafta-2-0-now-britain-boon-canada/122470">as a boon to all Canadians</a>, conceals the loss of Canadian manufacturing jobs and the decline in manufacturing wages as a direct result of trade policy (not an inevitable outcome of the natural forces of globalization). </p>
<h2>A racialized labour market</h2>
<p>Trade policy is only one area in which the contradictions underlying our economy are obvious. Another is Canada’s continued reliance <a href="http://nationalpost.com/news/canada/farmers-dismayed-as-government-begins-unannounced-temporary-foreign-worker-audits">on temporary foreign workers (TFWs).</a> </p>
<p>In my own research, I’ve addressed the continuum between precarious employment and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2016.01.008">unfree labour relations</a> in the Canadian economy. Temporary foreign workers hold work permits that are tied to an employer, which means they aren’t free to switch jobs if they are exploited. Many fear being deported if they report abuse or if they try to organize. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/216568/original/file-20180426-175041-30wauv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/216568/original/file-20180426-175041-30wauv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216568/original/file-20180426-175041-30wauv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216568/original/file-20180426-175041-30wauv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216568/original/file-20180426-175041-30wauv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216568/original/file-20180426-175041-30wauv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216568/original/file-20180426-175041-30wauv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A Canadian flag flaps in the wind behind migrant worker Henry Aguirre of Guatemala during a demonstration in Montreal in July 2017. Activists and migrant workers say Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker program doesn’t adequately protect the rights of vulnerable workers despite the laws in place.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It’s not only sectors like agriculture that are reliant on migrants who have no route to settlement in Canada. The Temporary Foreign Worker Program <a href="http://www.policynote.ca/temporary-foreign-worker-program-changes-who-do-they-help/">expanded fastest in sectors like accommodation services</a> and food services in the late 2000s. Temporary migration leaves these workers vulnerable by controlling the conditions of their work, and sets a dangerous precedent for all workers.</p>
<p>The second, related point is that labour market disadvantages in Canada are racialized. <a href="http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/11f0019m/11f0019m2017397-eng.htm.">Data from the 2016 census</a> highlighted that immigrants, in particular immigrant women, are more likely to be low-income than Canadian-born workers. The PEPSO study found that racialized workers are also more likely to be in precarious employment. </p>
<p>The impacts, which include <a href="https://justlabour.journals.yorku.ca/index.php/justlabour/article/view/8">what’s known as <em>de-skilling</em> as well as poverty</a>, are felt by communities, not just households and individuals. De-skilling occurs when workers become trapped in jobs that don’t fully utilize their qualifications and experience — for example, when qualified Filipino nurses come to Canada to work as nannies and are unable to move back into nursing in this country.</p>
<p>For Black and Indigenous communities, meantime, labour market disadvantages shape and are compounded by disproportionately high rates of incarceration and the <a href="http://www.cwp-csp.ca/2017/01/criminalizing-poverty-a-national-trend/">criminalization of poverty</a>.</p>
<h2>Harder to unionize</h2>
<p>For unions and labour organizers, the changing economy creates additional challenges as class-based solidarities fray and the full weight of huge shifts in the composition of the labour market are felt.</p>
<p>As the labour movement well knows, unionism is now an uncomfortable fit for workers more likely to be employed in a branch of Tim Hortons than a branch plant.</p>
<p>Finally, and most fundamentally, Canada is far from grappling with the core contradictions of its model of economic growth. </p>
<p>Our economic policy continues to be based on what’s known as <em>extractivism</em> — the large-scale extraction of natural resources for the export of raw materials — which is at odds with the realities of climate change. And the wealth of the settler state, premised on that extractivism, derives directly from the expropriation and dispossession of First Nations and Indigenous peoples and their lands. </p>
<p>Here we see the shape of struggles to come — in the nascent alliances and tensions between the labour movement and those on the front lines of the struggle for climate justice. </p>
<p>This is about far more than a bigger slice of the economic pie, as important as better wages are. </p>
<p>It is about the definition and the goals of labour politics, and who counts.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/95292/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kendra Strauss receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). She is also on the Research Advisory Council of the BC office of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.</span></em></p>May Day is a time to reflect on labour struggles of the past and demands for the future, and Canada’s move toward increasing the minimum wage is not enough. Labour politics is about who countsKendra Strauss, Director and Associate Professor, The Labour Studies Program, Simon Fraser UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/664962016-10-07T01:55:12Z2016-10-07T01:55:12ZProtecting migrant workers requires a rethink on employer freedoms<p>Detail on the federal government’s long-awaited <a href="https://ministers.employment.gov.au/cash/coalition-delivers-election-commitment-protect-migrant-workers">Migrant Workers Taskforce</a> has barely made a splash this week. This is surprising given last year’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/7-eleven-20033">7-Eleven firestorm</a> exposing the widespread exploitation and coercion of international students employed in 7-Eleven franchises.</p>
<p>The new taskforce, to be headed up by Allan Fels and David Cousins (who came to prominence in this space as chairs of the <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-05-11/7eleven-underpaid-workers-alan-fels/7405968">now infamous 7-Eleven wages panel</a>) brings together a vast array of different government departments and agencies. Its brief is to identify and address the systemic causes of migrant worker exploitation and provide a vehicle for inter-agency collaboration. It’s a big mandate for a taskforce which is only set to meet four times a year.</p>
<p>The mission which now confronts Employment Minister Michaelia Cash and her taskforce is to redesign Australia’s rather chaotic and unfair temporary labour migration program. To do this they will need to address the underlying causes of temporary migrant worker vulnerability in the Australian labour market. This will necessarily involve curtailing some of the freedoms currently enjoyed by employers who engage temporary migrant workers.</p>
<p>The establishment of the taskforce shows the government recognises the inherent vulnerability of temporary migrant workers. In the UK, post Brexit, the Conservative government appears to be going backwards on this issue by <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/oct/05/government-faces-backlash-from-business-leaders-over-foreign-workers">demonising temporary migrant workers</a> and increasing government controls on them.</p>
<p>Cash is to be commended for being the first Minister for Employment to recognise the particular disadvantage faced by temporary migrant workers. Although such workers are entitled to the protections contained in the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth), which applies to all workers in Australia, Cash appears to understand that temporary migrant workers find it difficult to access legal remedies and exercise their workplace rights under Australian law. This is a fact that has been well established in the <a href="http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2649296">academic literature</a>, both here and abroad. </p>
<p>An essential starting point for the taskforce is to acknowledge the precarious position of migrant workers at work – their temporariness, their dependence on employers for essential income (including to send home), their need for ongoing sponsorship (in the case of 457 visa holders) and the desire of many for permanent residency.</p>
<p>It’s vital that the taskforce is able to affect real policy change, rather than being just another voice identifying temporary migrant worker vulnerability. This is a space which is becoming increasingly crowded and it’s difficult to know where the taskforce fits in. Since 2014 Cash has created a reconstituted Ministerial Advisory Council on Skilled Migration, Operation Cardena, a Ministerial Working Group on Vulnerable Visa workers and a new Fair Work Ombudsman Migrant Worker Strategy and Engagement Division. Despite the addition of these new voices, there has been very little change to the regulations governing temporary migrant work.</p>
<p>Additionally, in the past four years there have been eight separate official reviews of Australia’s temporary labour migration program. In the main, these reviews have made important recommendations for how the regulation of temporary migrant work could be improved. Although the government has implemented some of these recommendations, many of the more challenging ones (for example, recommendations around the introduction of independent labour market testing and greater regulation of labour hire use) have been conveniently bypassed.</p>
<p>The primary question facing Minister Cash and her taskforce is whether they are prepared to challenge the primacy of employers in the current regulatory design of Australia’s temporary labour migration program. </p>
<p>Although it is critical that employer interests are met through the labour migration program, it is equally important that the use of temporary labour migration meets Australia’s national interest and is fair to temporary migrant workers. In our new book, <a href="http://www.bloomsbury.com/au/temporary-labour-migration-in-the-global-era-9781509906291/">Rosemary Owens and I argue</a> there needs to more nuanced and stronger enforcement and greater regulatory control and supervision of Australia’s temporary migration program. </p>
<p>The primary focus of the temporary migrant program cannot be on the efficacy of the visa process and the reduction of regulatory burdens on business. It is critical that genuine efforts are made to ensure that the design of visas for temporary migrant work doesn’t open the door to exploitative work.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/66496/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dr Joanna Howe receives research funding for projects examining temporary labour migration from the Fair Work Ombudsman, the Australian Research Council and Horticulture Innovation Australia.</span></em></p>The taskforce must redesign Australia’s rather chaotic and unfair temporary labour migration program.Joanna Howe, Senior Lecturer in Law, University of AdelaideLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/630352016-08-11T19:59:58Z2016-08-11T19:59:58ZHow temporary migration is changing Australia – and the world<p><a href="http://www.border.gov.au/ReportsandPublications/Documents/statistics/temp-entrants-newzealand-dec31.pdf">More than 1 million temporary migrants</a> are now living in Australia at any time. They include international students, skilled migrants on 457 visas, working holidaymakers, New Zealanders and refugees on temporary protection visas. </p>
<p>This is a marked change from the permanent settler model that characterised Australian migration in the 20th century. It throws up challenges for Australia’s claim to be a democracy committed to a system of citizenship-based multiculturalism.</p>
<p>In his time as opposition spokesman on immigration, Scott Morrison made the <a href="http://www.affinity.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Morrison-Doing-far-more-to-build-our-nation-170713.pdf">following observation</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>When we arrive in this country, we become part of it – and it becomes a part of us – it becomes what [Sir Henry] Parkes described as “the land of our adoption”. It changes us – and in doing so it provides the basis for our connection with one another.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Yet the thrust of contemporary migration policy – not just in Australia, but globally – is in the opposite direction: not towards settlement but temporariness, not towards belonging but contingency.</p>
<p>What does it mean for an avowedly liberal, multicultural society like Australia if a significant proportion of the population is “unsettled” – if they are “wanted” for their temporary labour power or university fees, but not “welcome” as engaged and active members of society? </p>
<p>What does it mean for our democracy if a growing proportion of the population are paying taxes, abiding by laws, but having no say in the affairs of the nation and denied essential support in times of need? </p>
<p>If government treats migration as a purely contractual arrangement, then we will encourage migrants to treat their relationship to Australia in exactly the same way: to ask “what is in it for me, what can I get out of this country?” rather than “what is my connection to this country and what are my obligations?”</p>
<p>As prime minister, Malcolm Fraser made a similar point in a <a href="http://archives.unimelb.edu.au/malcolmfraser/resources/postparliamentspeeches/inaugural-address-on-multiculturalism-to-the-institute-of-multicultural-affairs">landmark speech</a> on multiculturalism in 1981:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I am talking here about basic human rights, not benevolence which the giver bestows or withdraws at will. No society can long retain the commitment and involvement of groups that are denied these rights. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>To focus on borders rather than belonging is to stab at the heart of the idea of the nation as an inclusive political community.</p>
<p>We must ask at this point whether temporary migration can ever be reconciled with liberal democracy. Is there a way of organising temporary migration that is compatible with the idea of an inclusive, pluralist society that upholds basic rights and fosters engagement and commitment? </p>
<p>Or, as political theorist <a href="http://philosophyfaculty.ucsd.edu/faculty/rarneson/phil267fa12/9WALZERmembership.pdf">Michael Walzer argues</a>, does temporary migration inevitable require such significant ethical compromises that we should oppose it altogether?</p>
<p>Political theorists <a href="http://isites.harvard.edu/fs/docs/icb.topic162929.files/E_European_enlargement/Carens.pdf">Joseph Carens</a>, <a href="http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/immigration/#AppQueImm">Michael Walzer</a> and <a href="http://www.compas.ox.ac.uk/2012/ruhs_american_behavioural_scientist_2012/">Martin Ruhs</a> all agree that it is ethically unacceptable to render migrants indefinitely temporary. This is because that risks creating a group of “second-class residents” excluded from the political community of the nation and the benefits and rights of citizenship. Yet this is what can happen in Australia today.</p>
<p><a href="http://insidestory.org.au/who-gets-to-be-australian">Many New Zealanders</a> and <a href="http://www.kaldorcentre.unsw.edu.au/publication/temporary-protection-visas">recently arrived refugees</a> face the prospect of living permanently in Australia on temporary visas. Migrant workers can potentially have their temporary 457 visas repeatedly renewed. And, after they graduate, international students can end up hopping precariously across temporary-visa categories for a long time.</p>
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<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Text</span></span>
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<p>Consequently, the starting point for a consistent liberal response to temporary migration must be a pathway to permanent residence that is, after a certain period of time, unconditional – not one that depends on an employer’s endorsement, or a particular qualification, or the ability to achieve a certain score on an English-language test, or a person’s health status, or whether they arrived by plane with a visa rather than by boat and without one.</p>
<p>So, we must set a threshold after which migrants are offered membership. What should this time limit on temporariness be? There is no mathematical formula to help us out here. </p>
<p><a href="https://books.google.com.au/books?id=Hck4AAAAQBAJ&pg=PA114#v=onepage&q&f=false">As Carens says</a>, the argument that time has moral force – that the longer a migrant stays in a country, the stronger their claim to membership – does not provide clear demarcation points.</p>
<p>Yet opting for a particular number of years must be a reasoned decision rather than an arbitrary one. It will take into account political considerations and established norms and standards.</p>
<p>We have already set time thresholds in relation to a raft of other migration questions in Australia. </p>
<p>A permanent resident, for example, must wait <a href="https://www.humanservices.gov.au/customer/enablers/newly-arrived-residents-waiting-period">two years</a> to become eligible for most social-security payments. </p>
<p>In order to apply for citizenship, a migrant must have been living in Australia on a valid visa for <a href="https://www.border.gov.au/Trav/Citi/am-i-eligible">four years</a>, including the last 12 months as a permanent resident. A child born in Australia to parents who are not citizens or permanent residents gains an independent right to citizenship after living here for ten years.</p>
<p>If I apply gut feeling to the question, ten years seems too long a qualification period. Carens notes a European Union directive that recommends:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Third-country nationals [people from outside the EU] be granted a right of permanent residence if they have been legally residing in a single EU state for five years. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>In Canada, a temporary migration scheme for <a href="http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/work/caregiver/permanent_resident.asp">live-in care-givers</a> leads to permanent residency after two years of full-time employment.</p>
<p>The point of such examples is not to suggest there is an objectively identifiable or average time period at which temporary migration should transition to permanent residence. Rather, it is to agree with Carens that:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Some threshold must be established beyond which the right to stay is indefeasible. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Migrants who live in Australia for a significant time, who contribute to the economic life of the nation through their labour and their taxes, who possibly pay fees to study, are people who, for all intents and purposes, make Australia their home.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>This is an edited extract of <a href="https://www.textpublishing.com.au/books/not-quite-australian">Not Quite Australian: How Temporary Migration Is Changing The Nation</a>, by Peter Mares, published by Text.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/63035/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Peter Mares is a member of the research committee of the Centre for Policy Development. More than a decade ago he received ARC funding for research into the feasibility of a seasonal labour scheme for Pacific Islanders to work in horticulture.</span></em></p>Temporary migrants are excluded from the benefits and rights of Australian citizenship. Is such immigration policy compatible with Australia’s democratic principles and values?Peter Mares, Contributing Editor, Inside Story; Adjunct Fellow, Swinburne Institute for Social Research, Swinburne University of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/469412015-09-04T00:23:35Z2015-09-04T00:23:35ZTemporary migrants are people, not ‘labour’<p>This week’s <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/stories/2015/08/30/4301164.htm">Four Corners expose</a> on the plight of underpaid international students at 7-Eleven franchises comes as a <a href="http://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Education_and_Employment/temporary_work_visa">Senate inquiry</a> investigates the rights of temporary migrant workers.</p>
<p>The inquiry is looking at the vulnerability of migrant workers to exploitation; the compliance challenges of temporary migration; and the question of whether migrants are displacing local workers. Yet many larger questions about what temporary migration means to Australian society remain unanswered and indeed are rarely asked.</p>
<p>More than one million temporary migrants are currently resident in Australia, making up approximately 6-8% of the workforce. </p>
<p>The huge increase in temporary migration programs that we are seeing today represents a disruption of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/report-marks-australias-shift-from-settler-to-temporary-migrant-nation-34794">“settler migrant” paradigm</a> of old. Yet we don’t know enough about the lives of temporary migrants outside the workplace. What are the social circumstances of nearly one million residents living and working on temporary visas? And what are the consequences of temporary migration for these migrants’ families and for communities and Australian society overall?</p>
<h2>A path to permanency</h2>
<p>Both statistical and sociological work shows that temporary migration programs are in fact very closely connected to permanent intakes. About 50% of permanent residencies are now granted to migrants already living onshore on temporary visas, and a proportion of offshore PR grants go to migrants who have previously lived in Australia on temporary visas. </p>
<p>Almost 50% of Temporary Work (Skilled) or subclass 457 visas are also granted to onshore applicants. Around 142,405 student visa holders transitioned onto another visa after study in 2012-2013. </p>
<p>What these figures show is that for many migrants temporariness has become long-term and multi-staged, with the path to permanent residency and citizenship non-linear. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14747731.2011.576850#.VefjtfmqpBc">Overseas research</a>, especially from Canada, has shown that extended periods with a temporary status have long-term impacts on migrants even after they become permanent — in terms of labour market integration and income, but also in terms of social wellbeing. Living in Australia for a long time across different visa statuses is “precarious” both within the labour market and more broadly. This precariousness is characterised by a general uncertainty about the future; pressures to make decisions about careers and other life choices in relation to migration outcomes; and a lack of access to social and political rights despite extended periods paying tax and living in the Australian community.</p>
<h2>Families and temporariness</h2>
<p>The focus on temporary migrants as workers often leaves out any analysis of their social and family lives. </p>
<p>Several temporary visa categories (including students, 457 workers and graduate workers) grant the right to have spouses and dependants in Australia. This sets them apart from temporary migration programs in many other countries. However, these families have limited access, depending on their specific visa category, to free public education, Medicare, government-funded legal assistance and many other forms of social security. </p>
<p>There are a wide-range of potential implications for areas like education, domestic violence prevention and maternal child health. With spouse visas being a key pathway to permanent residency for temporary migrants, visa conditions also have significant impacts on intimate relationships. Marriage and children can be delayed until migration goals are achieved, or relationships can be accelerated or sustained past their use-by date for the sake of partner visas. </p>
<p>Continued periods on temporary visas can also affect migrants’ relations with offshore family and how they negotiate care of elders, marriage and financial support across borders. Family reunion is available only to those with permanent residency or citizenship, so an individual’s migration journey can in fact be a collective investment in the future of a family. For example, permanent residency can enable better options for children’s future education, parents’ retirement, or siblings’ work opportunities. This raises the stakes of the transformation of temporariness into permanence.</p>
<h2>People need people</h2>
<p>Understanding the social networks of temporary migrants is also crucial. Social networks can be highly supportive and dramatically improve migrants’ sense of wellbeing and belonging, as well as access to work. Peers can educate each other about rights, trade information about support services, and develop grassroots institutions that assist other temporary migrants.</p>
<p>NGOs or informal support networks (including online networks) often fill the gaps for those without access to government-funded services, providing advice on everything from legal rights to health and housing. Established ethnic communities can provide a basis of support for temporary migrants, but there is also concerning evidence of co-ethnic exploitation, where employers or intermediaries such as labour hire companies benefit from the particular vulnerabilities of temporary migrant workers. </p>
<p>It is time for a more rigorous discussion of temporary migration that includes but goes beyond the labour market experiences of migrant workers. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“They called for labour but people came.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>This much-quoted observation on the European guest worker programs of the 1960s by Swiss writer Max Frisch still rings true.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/46941/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Shanthi Robertson currently receives funding from the Australian Research Council for the Discovery Early Career Researcher Award Project 'Staggered Pathways: Temporality, Mobility and Asian Temporary Migrants' (DE150100748).
</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Martina does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond the academic appointment above.
</span></em></p>Australia’s current interest in the work temporary migrants do is laudable but needs to extend to other important issues of this million-strong community.Shanthi Robertson, Senior Research Fellow, Institute for Culture and Society, Western Sydney UniversityMartina Boese, Lecturer, Sociology, La Trobe UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.