The Road To Recovery: What Australian Businesses Should Know About The Skilled Migrants Permanent Residency

Businesses in Australia stand to benefit from the influx of skilled migrants into the country. While much of the world is bracing for a second wave of coronavirus, Australia is returning to life as usual. The country, which boasts a population of approximately 24 million people, has reopened some of its internal borders and relaxed restrictions that were implemented as a result of the pandemic. This return to normal comes after weeks without any new diagnoses or deaths as a result of COVID-19. 

While Australia appears to be on the road to recovery, the economy is still in need of a boost. The Reserve Bank of Australia has already slashed interest rates to rock-bottom levels and launched an aggressive AUD 100 billion quantitative easing program designed to support economic recovery in the country, which should keep borrowing rates low. As it turns out, Australia is pulling out all the stops to facilitate its economic recovery. 

Migrants Offered Permanent Residency 

In addition to monetary stimulus, Australia is also looking to the migrant community to help dig the economy out of the doldrums. The country is offering permanent residency to certain migrants who are skilled in a number of specific sectors of the economy, some of which are on the front lines of the pandemic, where workers are hard to come by. 

The government has identified 17 occupations on a Priority Migration Skilled Occupation List (PMSOL) that could help the country recover from the crisis across the healthcare, construction and information technology (IT) industries. Among the occupations, nurses are in high demand, with half-a-dozen different specializations making the high-priority list for the so-called Skilled Migrant visas. A complete list provided by the Australian Government Department of Home Affairs includes the following careers: 

·       CEO/managing director

·       Construction project manager

·       Mechanical engineer

·       General practitioner

·       Resident medical officer

·       Psychiatrist

·       Medical practitioner nec 

·       Midwife

·       Registered nurse (RN) for aged care

·       RN for critical care and emergency

·       RN for medical

·       RN for mental health

·       Rn for perioperative 

·       RN nec 

·       Developer programmer

·       Software engineer

·       Maintenance planner 

The Aussie government points out that the list is temporary in nature and could change as the economic recovery gets underway. 

The visas fall under the umbrella of the 189 Skilled Independent Visa, which offers nearly 80,000 spots for the 2020-2021 period. Migrants who receive the coveted residency visa can live and work permanently anywhere of their choosing in Australia. There are some conditions, however. They must be invited to apply and must be under the age of 45. The processing time for applications is between 11 months and 21 months, but once granted, the recipient can stay in the country permanently.

While there are tens of thousands of visas available, only 6,500 spots in what’s known as the “skilled stream” have reportedly been filled for the 2020/2021 period, according to Migration agent, Ranbir Singh quoted in SBS News. This skilled stream is the most popular way for migrants to gain permanent residency in Australia. 

There is competition, as a rising unemployment rate, which currently hovers at 7% in the country, has led to a push for locals to gain the necessary skills to fill the high-demand occupations in areas such as healthcare. 

In a media release, Alan Tudge, Acting Minister for Immigration, Citizenship, Migrant Services and Multicultural Affairs, said that the priority is to both have citizens return to work with a focus on frontline healthcare workers to battle the pandemic as well as “skilled migrants who are going to be job multipliers to help the economy recover.” 

Australia still has border restrictions in place, but Visa holders that are sponsored by an Aussie business in one of the identified occupations can receive an exemption, though they will still have to undergo a two-week quarantine when they arrive in the country on their own dime. 

In addition to the usual channels, employers are required to advertise their job openings on the Australian government’s jobactive website. The selected occupations are the result of an analysis of fluctuations in the internet vacancy index as well as “changes in employment and longer-term stability in the labor market for individual occupations,” according to the media release. 

The Australian government said that while the existing migrant occupation lists remain intact, they will give priority to the jobs identified on the priority list.  

There are also other avenues that migrants could take. For instance, they could become sponsored by either an employer or a government agency through what’s known as the nominated visa, which also leads to skilled-based permanent residency in Australia.

Gig Economy Workers

Meanwhile, the fate of migrants who are filling gig economy work in Australia has been less secure. According to reports, there have been several deaths involving migrant food-delivery riders in the past few months who had fled to the country for a better life. 

Five years ago, then 31-year-old Chow Khai Shien migrated from Malaysia  and was working as a chef prior to the pandemic. Once COVID hit, he joined the gig economy via DoorDash as a food-delivery worker, making his deliveries with a motorized scooter. Khai Shien was the victim of a traffic accident that took his life only days before a lockdown in Melbourne was lifted. 

A similar fate awaited Dede Fredy, an UberEats rider who migrated from Indonesia, and Xiaojun Chen, who came from China and worked for Hungry Panda. Both workers died in road collisions in Sydney. 

Australia’s Migrant Community 

According to a survey conducted by Pew Research, more than two-thirds, or 68% of Australian locals believe that migrants strengthen the country’s economy. Australia is one of the world’s major migrant destinations alongside New Zealand, Canada and the United States. The latest data shows that more than 7.5 million people have settled in the country since 1945, with nearly 30% of the population comprising residents who were born overseas. 

With Australia’s economy finally showing green shoots of recovery after an extremely volatile year, the migrant community could be depended upon more than ever in 2021, as could the remittances they send back home via service providers such as Sharemoney and Xoom.

Gerelyn Terzo is a staff writer at Sharemoney, a money remittance service that is passionate about improving the lives of immigrants. The granddaughter of an Italian immigrant from the town of Teora whose first steps in the U.S. was on Ellis Island, Gerelyn resides in New Jersey.