Record numbers issued as UK backpackers take advantage of new rules
It’s a dynamic that makes Australia’s annual temporary migrant intake increasingly unpredictable. As the Coalition challenges Labor over its continued failure to meet immigration forecasts, Home Secretary Tony Burke is hitting back by demanding an outline from Opposition Leader Sussan Ley of where she will make the cuts.
“You haven’t had a proper policy conversation until you start saying, ‘OK, which visa class? Which category? Because everything you change has an impact,'” Burke said this week.
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Ley has pledged to reduce immigration – former Coalition leader Peter Dutton had also pledged to cut net migration by 100,000 more than Labor – and cited holidaymakers as an area he should consider.
“There are many streams representing different migrants coming here… working holidaymakers, skilled visas, family reunions, humanitarian reception and of course international students. They all play a part,” Ley said when pressed about his plans this week.
Restricting the work of holidaymakers will not go down well with the Nationals whose regional seats rely on their labour.
Matthew Heyes, founder of employment site Backpacker Job Board, said that there has been a significant increase in visa classes this year due to global economic conditions being the driving force.
“Australia has set a new record for visa issuance and the first quarter shows we will go even higher,” he said. “We are seeing issues like the cost of living and stagnant wages motivating young people to embark on this journey.”
Former Immigration Department deputy secretary Abul Rizvi said the holiday worker program had gone from strength to strength, particularly since the introduction of the third-year visa by the Morrison government.
Almost 34,000 third-year visas were issued to working holidaymakers from all countries in the last financial year; the previous year this figure was approximately 7,500.
“Once we made it more generous, demand would inevitably be strong. Australia is popular with Brits and this is the first year we’ve seen the full impact of the deal originally negotiated by Scott Morrison,” Rizvi said.
“It will have to peak at some stage and that depends very much on our labor market – our labor market is certainly strong, but the UK’s is not as strong.”
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Rizvi said that as long as visa-related policies are facilitating, working holidaymakers will continue to make a high contribution to net migration.
“Both sides of politics should take this into account when setting and setting targets for net migration,” he said.
Rizvi said any changes to holidaymakers’ working arrangements with 50 separate countries would need to be negotiated with the relevant governments and this was unlikely.
“Major tightening change [would be] “Withdrawing the third non-British visa will force them to go home earlier and reduce the impact on net overseas migration,” Rizvi said.
“The third visa was imposed unilaterally without negotiation by the Coalition, so it could have been withdrawn. It would be the easiest visa to implement and would have an immediate impact on net overseas migration.”
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