Too many cooks spoil Australia?s skilled migration programme

Australia’s much vaunted highly skilled migration programme is being called into question after cooks and hairdressers were awarded more visas than workers in any other group.

The programme is supposedly intended to target the most essential skills for the nation as a whole, but two of the top five categories for visa numbers aren’t considered essential by many. Over 8,000 cooks received the most visas, with hairdressers taking the number five slot with 1500, and accountants, software engineers and business analysts took slots two, three and four.

Expert in migration at Monash University Bob Birrel believes it’s ridiculous to suggest Australia has a skilled migrant programme. He explains the high number of secondary skills resulting in visas as being due to changes to the scheme’s rules followed by immigration’s decision that their applications could continue.

Birrel adds that the number of highly skilled applicants wishing to enter the country is now falling, causing immigration officials to fill their quotas with ‘warehoused applicants’. The department’s Migration Programme Report for 2012-2013, he says, states that the system focuses on migrants offering critical skills able to fill equally critical regional job market needs.

During the last year, 50,000 such places were put forward by employers in all regions as well as by territory and state government offices. The skilled independent category showed 44,000 places and, by June 2013, 114,000 skilled migration applicants were awaiting processing.