Following the release of the skilled occupation lists for the skilled migration program (see post of 8th July 2017 in the ‘News’ page), we are now into the fifth year of the deliberate oversupply of the Australian engineering labour market. The Federal Government has planned and implemented the oversupply of engineers for two main reasons:
The Federal Government has been able to implement this ongoing oversupply of specific professional groups because the skilled migration program is fundamentally corrupt. It is designed to maximise the number of skilled migrants that can enter the country each year, often with little regard for the prevailing market conditions for the occupations in which the migrants will seek work. For skilled occupations on the Medium and Long-term Strategic Skills List (MLTSSL), current market conditions are accorded no relevance by the Government. The Department of Education and Training determines eligibility of occupations for listing on the MLTSSL based on whimsical projections of occupational demand in 5-10 years’ time. To justify bringing in migrants now to satisfy some presumed market demand 5-10 years into the future, this Department invokes its ludicrous ‘stockpiling theory’, whereby skilled migrants (or the Australian professionals they displace from the workforce) are presumed to be available to fill jobs this far into the future, even if they are unable to find employment in their occupation in the intervening period. The bizarre nature of the logic of the ‘stockpiling theory’ is apparent for occupations which are currently severely oversupplied (such as engineering occupations). Individuals who cannot find employment in their skilled occupation now due to the intense competition for a limited number of jobs, will not be selected by employers in the event of a market upturn in 5-10 years' time. At that future time, employers will demand candidates with much more recent experience and professional development. And where will they find them? At least partly in the subsequent annual skilled migration intake, of course. The extent of the corruption of the skilled migration program is detailed on the ‘Corruption’ page on this website. The corruption reflects the contempt the Federal Government has for Australian skilled jobseekers, and the desperate desire it has to jam as many skilled migrants as it can into a subdued and limited Australian jobs market. This attitude has in turn emboldened the vested interests to push even harder for more skilled migration, from which they source either lucrative revenue streams or cheaper labour. The use of immigration policy to deliberately oversupply the labour markets for engineers, ICT professionals and accountants has caused enormous harm to jobseekers in these professions. Experienced professionals, graduates and recent migrants who have been trying to find suitable positions in their profession have to compete with wave after wave of new jobseekers admitted through each annual migration intake. In engineering, where job vacancies are relatively few and the number of applicants for each vacancy is at a record high, migrant engineers continue to be granted visas in resource-boom numbers. This has entrenched unemployment, underemployment and displacement from the profession for Australian and migrant engineers alike. For the tens of thousands of professionals affected in this way, the financial and career consequences are serious. Those who cannot find work in their occupation frequently end up in lower-skilled, lower-paid jobs. Their ability to fund their financial obligations and save for the future is diminished. For those who are unemployed, normal participation in society is often curtailed through lack of finances and, eventually, lack of confidence and hope. For Australian professionals struggling to find work in oversupplied labour markets where there are limited job opportunities (such as engineering), the harm caused by the Government is more than financial or career-related. The Government has devalued and degraded the citizenship of these professionals by deliberately curtailing their chances of success in the crucial task of finding appropriate work in their own country. The Government does this by allowing large numbers of new migrants – who are not citizens of this country – to have equal access to the labour market, even when the labour market is in a dire condition. This is not in any way the fault of migrants, who have done nothing wrong. This is the fault of the Federal Government’s corrupt skilled migration policies. In seeking to impose its unethical immigration agenda on the Australian skilled labour market, the Government has wielded immigration policy in the same way as a cave troll wields a bludgeon. It clears the path to its objectives without regard to the harm it causes, and with no consideration for the people it harms. In this way the Federal Government has used, and continues to use, skilled migration policy as a weapon against a group of its own citizens.
0 Comments
|
AuthorThe posts on this blog represent the opinions and perspectives of report author and webmaster, ArchivesCategories |