[LINK] immigration of skilled workers

[Kim Holburn]

<http://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/backscratching-at-a-national- 
level/2007/06/12/1181414298095.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1>

> Back-scratching at a national level
>
> Ross Gittins
> June 13, 2007
>
> There's a saying among journalists that news is anything someone  
> doesn't want you to know. So let me tell you all about John  
> Howard's immigration program. It's a key part of the Government's  
> economic policy, but one it rarely talks about.
>
> Why? Because Howard wants his Battlers to think he shares their  
> dislike and distrust of foreigners, especially boat people. And it  
> wouldn't help his image for people to know he's running the biggest  
> immigration program we've ever had.
>
> The fact is, however, that immigration is playing a big part in  
> keeping the economy growing strongly, preventing shortages of  
> skilled labour from causing a wages blowout, keeping inflation  
> under control, limiting the rise in interest rates and keeping  
> house prices rising rather than falling.
>
> When Howard was elected in 1996 he cut the planned immigrant intake  
> to 68,000, but by last financial year he'd more than doubled it.  
> His planned intake for next financial year is almost 153,000 - plus  
> 13,000 under the humanitarian program. To that you can add about  
> 24,000 New Zealanders - who don't need visas and will be arriving  
> to join the 470,000 of their fellow countrypersons who are here.
>
> Last calendar year was the eighth straight year of net immigration  
> (that is, net of permanent departures) in excess of 100,000.
>
> Actually, thanks to a burst of high migration in the late 1980s,  
> net immigration has exceeded 100,000 a year in 12 of the past 20  
> years, having exceeded 100,000 only 12 times in the previous two  
> centuries. Another way to put it is that the program is running at  
> a lot more than a million immigrants a decade.
>
> It turns out that immigration now accounts for a bit more than half  
> the overall growth in the population. In NSW and South Australia it  
> accounts for about three-quarters of the population growth.


> The Howard Government has made several changes to make it easier  
> for overseas students to stay on after they graduate. And then, of  
> course, there are the 80,000 people in Australia on working  
> holidays at any time.
>
> It's important to understand the way the Government has changed the  
> nature of immigration, reducing the role of family reunion and  
> emphasising the possession of skills that are in short supply. Next  
> financial year's planned intake involves almost 103,000 places in  
> the skill stream compared with 50,000 in the family stream.

!!!!!!!!!!

> The skills possessed by these permanent migrants tend to be in the  
> computing, medical and engineering fields, as well as a range of  
> trades. So these people are a lot more highly trained than the  
> average in our workforce.

....

> The recent emphasis on picking migrants with skills that are in  
> short supply locally - and on favouring those who speak English -  
> means that more of them go straight into jobs, thus reducing the  
> force of that argument.

....

> There are drawbacks, of course. One is that using immigration to  
> let employers off the hook risks encouraging them to continue  
> neglecting to invest in the training of locals.
>
> The other is that immigrants need housing, so increased immigration  
> keeps upward pressure on house prices - particularly in cities such  
> as Sydney - to the detriment of first home buyers.


--
Kim Holburn
IT Network & Security Consultant
Ph: +39 06 855 4294  M: +39 3494957443
mailto:kim at holburn.net  aim://kimholburn
skype://kholburn - PGP Public Key on request

Democracy imposed from without is the severest form of tyranny.
                           -- Lloyd Biggle, Jr. Analog, Apr 1961