Australia conducts dramatic migration changes
Updated
Australia's skilled migration program is undergoing a dramatic overhaul and will affect thousands of overseas students hoping to study their way to permanent residency.
Effective from today, the government will revoke the list of jobs where skilled migrants were most needed. The list, known as the Migration Occupations in Demand List, will be shortened and re-issued later this year.
And the points test used to assess migrants for permanent residency will also be revamped.
Presenter: Sabra Lane
Speaker: Chris Evans, Australia's immigration minister
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SABRA LANE: The Immigration Minister Senator Chris Evans says he's making a number of major changes to reset the bar for the Australia's independent skilled migration scheme. He says the program hasn't been focussed enough on filling skill shortages.
CHRIS EVANS: I think they're a very major reform, it's about changing the system from one which is supply driven, that is people choosing to come, to us getting the people that the economy demands. So it's taking back control of immigration program in my view.
SABRA LANE: Effective from today, he's revoking the Migration Occupations in Demand List, known as MODL. That list previously set 106 occupations as the priority areas where skilled migrants were needed.
CHRIS EVANS: The list had become wieldy and outdated. There are far too many occupations on it and it wasn't reflecting the needs of the economy. So we are going to get a much smaller list, a skilled occupation list. It will be devised by Skills Australia and they will plan the sort of people we need, the skills we need and the economy to match the local training and education efforts. So we think we will target in on the people whose skills we need much better than we are currently.
SABRA LANE: Is one of the problems that you have had too many international students studying here for occupations on that list but once they have gained their permanent residency they have left that particular occupation?
CHRIS EVANS: Look, there is no doubt that MODL is distorting the choices international students were making. That it was driving what they studied so we had thousands of, tens of thousands of students studying cookery and accounting and hairdressing because that was on the list, those subjects were on the list and that got them through to permanent residency. The MODL was distorting what was occurring both in terms of the education system and the migration system and this will hopefully fix that.
SABRA LANE: The Minister says the changes won't affect international students coming to Australia to gain qualifications, who then return home. Overseas students who are training now for a job that's not on the revised list and who want to become permanent residents, will have until the end of next year, to find an employer to sponsor them. The international education sector in Australia has gone through a rough trot. Are you anticipating that other colleges may close as a result of these changes?
CHRIS EVANS: Look, I think there will be some adjustment. I think though the point I have always tried to make is, we don't run the migration program to meet the educational industry's needs. I think quality education providers will still be able to sell an education product.
SABRA LANE: The points test used to assess migrants for permanent residency will also be revamped and reissued later this year, and the Minister wants new laws to give him the power to cap visas for particular jobs. The Government's also announced today that it's rejected the applications of 20,000 would-be general skilled migrants, who'd lodged their applications before September 2007. Senators Evans says the rules have changed and the Government will refund their application fees, costing $14 million.
