One of Australia’s most respected population experts has busted the myth that immigrants are filling skills shortages.
Bob Birrell, who heads the Melbourne-based Australian Population Research Institute, said the nation was importing migrants who couldn’t find work as engineers, accountants and IT technicians.
However, few skilled migrants with trades qualifications were moving to Australia despite the shortage of plumbers, builders and electricians.
Bob Birrell, who heads the Australian Population Research Institute, said the nation was importing migrants who couldn’t find work as engineers, accountants and IT technicians
Few skilled migrants with trades qualifications were moving to Australia despite the shortage of plumbers, builders and electricians
‘The claim that it is attracting scarce skills is a myth,’ Dr Birrell said in a research paper published on Tuesday, called Scarce Skills Not Required.
‘The Skill Stream could be abolished and employers would hardly notice.
‘The selection system does not prioritise professional occupations where there are skill shortages in Australia.’
Dr Birrell, who previously headed Monash University’s Centre for Population and Urban Research, said Australia was also ‘awash with graduates’ in fields where there was already an oversupply of labour.
This included information technology and medicine, as a large number of graduates competed with overseas-trained professionals.
During the 2016/17 financial year, Australia accepted 128,550 skilled migrants, who made up more than two-thirds of the 190,000 permanent migrants accepted into the country.
Dr Birrell, who previously headed Monash University’s Centre for Population and Urban Research, said Australia was also ‘awash with graduates’ in oversupplied fields
‘The great majority of those visaed in the skill program are professionals, an increasing share of whom hold occupations that are oversupplied,’ he said.
‘This is a major reason why most recently arrived degree-qualified migrants are not in professional employment.’
Professionals made up the vast bulk of those who came to Australia under the Skilled Stream program, with just 788 technicians or trade workers migrating as part of the scheme.
He pointed out that just 102 carpenters, 17 bricklayers, 114 electricians and 47 plumbers had moved to Australia.
Dr Birrell refuted the argument from the Housing Industry Association and big bank economists that migrants had helped alleviate skills shortages in the construction industry.
Dr Birrell refuted the argument from the Housing Industry Association and big bank economists that migrants had helped alleviate skills shortages in the construction industry
‘It is delivering a negligible number of construction trade workers,’ he said.
‘This is despite housing industry claims that continued skilled migration is crucial to supplying the workers needed to provide the housing and infrastructure to accommodate Australia’s booming population.’
Australia also took in 5,502 engineers in fields that were already oversupplied, including 1,355 industrial, mechanical and production engineers and 570 chemical and materials engineers.
Australia also imported 5,204 information technology workers, despite data showing graduates were struggling to find work in this area.
Dr Birrell said both sides of politics supported misguided immigration policies that pushed up house prices without even addressing genuine skills shortages
Accountants and auditors were also high on the list, with 2,381 people given visas.
Dr Birrell said both sides of politics supported misguided immigration policies that pushed up house prices without even addressing genuine skills shortages on the flawed belief population growth was needed to boost the economy.
‘The Coalition, Labor and Greens effectively have prioritised these ends above the concerns of Australians living in the metropolitan areas,’ he said.
‘They have been left to put up with the loss of urban amenity, high dwelling prices and the costs of providing the additional infrastructure needed to accommodate population growth in their cities.’