Skilled Migration: A Proposal for Policy Transfer from Japan to Australia

----S M Mehedi Hasan

Introduction:

There is general recognition that skilled migrants play significant role in the socio-economic development of Australia. But acceptance of foreign workers in place of native labour is still a question for some groups of the Australian people. As such, there persist challenges for policy makers to make sure that new skilled migrants are able to fruitfully ‘adapt and integrate with Australian society now and into the future’ (DIBP 2014, 7).

A number of programs have been undertaken by Australian governments to ensure a smooth flow of skilled workers to Australia including the Occupational Trainee Visa (OTV), designed to attract overseas students to fill skills gap. This particular program resulted in utter failure and degraded the quality of Australia’s education sector internationally.

External students’ enrolment is high as a policy topic in Australia and increasing ‘student mobility is seen as an important element in a broader strategy to promote skills development’ (Xing et al 2014, iii). But the in-built flaws of the OTV must be apparent to policy actors, and replaced by a more effective approach. Though there is possibility of the resistance from some policy agents and stakeholders, we can ponder the prospect of overcoming Australian policy inertia by transferring the ‘300000 International Students Plan’ from Japan to Australia to initiate positive reforms.

Politics of transferring “300000 International Students Plan’ to Australia:

Many developed countries are experiencing a gradual drop in the working-age population. They are in competition for attracting highly skilled migrant workers (Chaloff and Lemaître2009,4). As part of this ‘global talent war’, recruiting international students has been integrated into their policies as a way of collecting highly skilled migrant employees (OECD 2008, cited in She &Wotherspoon 2013, 2).

Against the backdrop of ‘demographic change and economic reconfiguration’(She &Wotherspoon 2013, 2) recruiting international students should be an issue of national response in Australia. Since the international economy is a ‘post-industrial knowledge economy’(She &Wotherspoon 2013, 2), an educated and skilled labour should be acknowledged as a critical factor to advantage Australia in terms of economic development.

The Australian government is determined to pull foreign workers by ensuring equal payments for both overseas workers and the Australian workers. As Assistant Immigration Minister Michaelia Cash declared, ‘the overseas workers would have to be paid at least the same as Australian staff’ (Crowe 2014, 1).

For instance, to draw skilled student migrants, recentlythe Graduate Work Stream and the Post-Study Work Stream have been initiated (485 Temporary Graduate Visa) to compete in the ‘global talent war’ and equal payment is ensured for students with required skills (DIBP 2015). This program matches closely to the Japanese program, which deserves to be tied into Australian Jurisdiction.

Major Differences between Australia and Japan

Australia’s cultural ideology is customarily distinct from that of Japan. Initially established as a prisoner colony, Australia has converted gradually to multiculturalism since the White Australia Policy was rejected in 1973. Yet, diversity has certainly come at a cost, because cultural conflict can be perceived on both macro and micro levels. The Sydney riots, for instance, against a comparatively large gathering of Lebanese migrants might suggest why Japan is cautious about ‘opening up its gates to immigration’ (Wellington 2014, 1).

Before going to contrast Australian national beliefs with those of Japan, we must first examine the history from which the Japan’s system has developed.The Meiji Restoration is still regarded as an important period while studying the present Japanese ideology, even though it took place nearly 150 years ago. The Meiji government ended the feudal system and carried out different reforms under the motto of “fukokukyohei” or “enrich the country and strengthen the military” (Wellington 2014, 2).

These reforms also seized the idea of sending undergraduates off to learn science and technology at foreign universities and press forward industrialization. In due course, the objective was to combine ‘Western’ developments with customary ‘Eastern’ beliefs and morals, and therefore make a stronger Japan to endure against the’ colonial powers of the day’ (Wellington 2014, 2).

Domestic harmony and unity emanated hand in hand with attaining such an objective. Much of this idea is replicated through the Japanese system of today, with solid nationalism being at its centre. This nationalism is replicated by homogenisation of the population. Accordingly, Japan has taken this measure making it difficult to give citizenship to overseas students, and clearly ‘continues to resist Western influence’ (Wellington 2014, 2).

Whereas multiculturalism in Australia is virtually at the central of its mechanisms, the Japanese have successfully restricted immigration and this appears to be effective to their benefit. So opening up Japan for permanent settlement with citizenship would certainly disturb this homogeneity. Again, ‘collective nationalism’ is achieved more easily by making the nation culturally homogeneous, since it is easy to direct the masses towards common objectives, unlike Australia (Wellington2014, 3).

In Australia, the political structure plays a key role in the decision making processes. The main political parties (Labour and Liberal) command whether resolutions are prepared through either ‘a centre left or a centre right lens’. The ruling party is commonly in control of excessive power, within the limited controls of the Senate (Wellington2014, 3).

But Japanese politicians hold a more ‘ceremonious’ posts because large corporate and civil servants yield much ‘influence over the politicians’. Hence the “Iron Triangle” government, businesses & bureaucracy) is so comprehensively referenced in readings of political culture (Wellington 2014, 4). Therefore, the Diet and the Prime Minister probably exercise less power than their Australian counterparts.

Possible benefits if ‘300000 Students Plan’ is transferred to Australia

There is common acknowledgment that ‘skills and human capital’ have come to be the pillars of socioeconomic development in the 21st century. In current knowledge-based economies , to develop sustainably Australia needs its ‘competitive edge’ by attracting and supporting a skilled labour force, maintaining an internationally competitive study base, and refining the ‘dissemination of knowledge’ for the benefit of society at large (OECD 2012,16).

In this context, transferring ‘300000 International Students Plan’ of Japan to Australia may provide Australia’s higher education with ‘innovation and human capital development’ and bring ‘success and sustainability of the knowledge economy’ (Dill and Van Vught, 2010 ,cited in Tremblay, Lalancette&Roseveare 2012,16).

Since higher education is central to the Australian policy agenda, the transferred program would help the nation to become more diversified and composed of greater numbers of the world population. The Japanese program holds out the promise of ‘expansion and wider participation’ of international students in programs offered by Australian Universities, more cohesive use of ‘educational technologies and more ‘internationalization, competition, quality and accountability’ (Tremblay, Lalancette & Roseveare 2012,16).

Higher education schemes have experienced a substantial rise worldwide and Post-Study Work stream for overseas students, who receive a higher education degree from an Australian educational institute (DIBP 2015), can bring important structural changes in Australian higher education sector. Since education is one of the rising sources of revenues, the Japanese plan can be helpful for Australia because it would help the ‘emergence of new types of institutions’ and ensure the ‘growth of a strongly employer-oriented non-university sector, closely integrated with the labour market needs’( OECD 2012,19) .

Political and institutional context and probable threats while transferring ‘300000 Plan’

The ‘300000 Plan’ is to be replicated under diverse socio- political and institutional context. For instance, it is subject to ‘different less favourable working conditions than other employees who are permanent residents or citizens of Australia’ (ARC 2015, 1). Though, according to Australian law, all employees including migrants have rights and safeguards from maltreatment or exploitation at work, there is evidence that some migrant workers experience ‘ unfair treatment in the workplace in the form of poor working conditions, low wages or more serious forms of exploitation’( ARC 2015,1).

Further, the Japanese program is likely to face severe criticism by the opposition in the Parliament. In the recent past a policy was supposed to take to ‘fill skill shortages’ in the Northern Territory with migrant workers to address a shortage of skilled workers in Darwin. But the ‘scheme was criticised by the Labour and the Greens who said it would lead to foreign workers undercutting local wage rates’ and demanded measurement of ‘genuine need and protections to ensure that local workers cannot be displaced or undercut’ ( Davidson 2014, 2) .

In addition, when Assistant Immigration Minister Michaelia Cash stated the foreign labours ‘would have to be paid at least the same as Australian staff’ and barred employers from ‘paying skilled immigrants anything less than equivalent Australian staff’ under new migration agreements , it also ‘sparked attacks’ among employers unions( Crowe 2014, 1).

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten said that jobless Australians must be given the highest priority because ‘many parts of regional Australia have high levels of youth unemployment, high levels of unemployment of mature-aged Australians, who’ve been dislocated by changes in the Australian economy” (Crowe 2014, 2). He further demanded explanation from the government ‘why it would exploit underpaid labor, exploit underpaid labor from overseas, in preference to finding jobs for unemployed Australians” (Crowe 2014, 2).

Another issue of concern before transferring the program is ‘racism’ which is ‘on the rise in Australia’ due to ‘cultural shift’ from migrants (Mariner 2014, 1). In a Sunday Herald report , Mariner( 2014,1) mentions, ‘ the latest Mapping Social Cohesion survey by the Scanlon Foundation found 19 per cent of Australians were discriminated against because of their skin colour, ethnic origin or religious beliefs last year - up from 12 per cent in 2012’, and it was the maximum level since the study began in 2007.

Path to ‘hook up’ the Japanese Program in Australian Jurisdiction

There are reasons to be optimistic to transfer the Japanese program to Australia overcoming those obstacles, because there are number of positive sides favoring skilled migration and options available to tie the program into Australian Jurisdiction. For instance, besides independent skilled migration, ‘sponsored’ skilled migration is being encouraged (Spinks 2010, 4).

Further, from 1 July 2009, most Australian workplaces are administered by a new process made by the Fair Work Act 2009.Under this act, the Fair Work Ombudsman supports employees, employers, contractors and the community to know and conform to the new method and help resolve workplace grievances, conduct inquiries, and impose relevant Commonwealth workplace rules ‘including the payment of minimum rates of pay and conditions’ (FWO 2015, 1).

In the recent past a new framework has been developed by the Australian government, called as Designated Area Migration Agreement (DAMA), which ‘offers flexibility for states, territories or regions to respond to their unique economic and labor market conditions’ (DIBP 2014, 4).Under these framework employers in particular regions facing skilled labor shortages are allowed to sponsor skilled and semi -skilled foreign workers. (Crowe 2014, 2).

This shift in policy attention is mirrored in an important set of reorganizations. However, opportunities are open for IT professionals, doctors, engineers and construction trade workers to guarantee that the skilled migration program meets the sectors of ‘most critical need in the Australian labor market’ and the ‘Japanese Plan’ can work much more smoothly within this setting ( Spinks 2010,4).

Further, On 1 July 2010 a fresh Skilled Occupation List (SOL) came into effect. The SOL identified 181 professions ‘as being in demand’, to confirm that the Skilled Migration Program is’ demand ‐ driven rather than supply ‐driven’ (Spinks 2010, 5).

There are two streams ( Graduate Workstream &Post-Study Workstream) to attract international student and they are given the Temporary Graduate Visa (subclass 485) letting them live, study and work in Australia temporarily after finishing their studies(DIBP 2015).

Graduate Work stream is for international students with an appropriate qualifications who graduate with skills and experiences that relate to professions on the Skilled Occupation List (SOL). Visa is granted for 18 months in this stream from the date of grant ( DIBP 2015).

Post-Study Work stream is also for international students who complete their higher degrees from an Australian institute irrespective of their field of study. A visa in this stream is granted for up to four years from the date the visa is granted, subject to the requirement of skills (DIBP 2015).

The Japanese ‘300000 International Students Plan’ is potential to be ‘hooked up’ to the above mentioned arrangements in Australia. For implementation of the transferred policy government must engage different state and non-state actors.

For instance, the government can form a high level policy monitoring committee including representatives from Ministry of Immigration and Border Protection, Ministry for Industry and Science, Ministry of Trade and Investment, Ministery of Employment, Ministry of Infrastructure and Regional Development, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Education and Training, Senate Standing Committees on Education and Employment.

For direct implementation government should develop TOR for implementing agencies Employers Unions, Business Organizations, Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC), Department of Immigration and Border Protection (DIBP), Diplomats working in home and abroad, Civil Society Members and Media, State and Territory Governments as well as local authorities.

Australia must a develop framework that would engage concerned ministries, departments, media, and local authorities. The framework should include – (a) campaign of recruiting international students after completion of study in Australia as permanent residents, b) offering students to study in Australia, (b) developing online admission test so that students can sit for the test living at their homeland (c) simplification of immigration process (d) avoiding too much requirements for visa processing , (e)advertising of world class medical colleges, universities, technical and research institutes, (f) ensure sponsorship from employers, federal or state/ territory governments under the condition that they would be employed for a certain period of time after completion of study (g) providing one-stop service to facilitate registration and entry into Australia and (h) ensuring suitable accommodation during the study and after completion of study .

The Ministry of Education and Training should be given the charge of coordination to support the foreign students and to work as point of One- stop Service Centre. It would supervise the whole process of bringing international students to Australia. For instance, it would pursue in favour of students to the relevant ministries, departments and employers at every stage of barriers.

Further, the Ministry of Education and Training must observe their performance at universities, think of job placements pursuing employers during and after completion of study, ensure equal wages under the Fair Work Act 2009, forward grievances to relevant authorities or Fair Work Ombudsman and, above all, whatever complexities arise in course of time. If it is done in favour of students, they will certainly mind to studies without mental pressure of earning more, and make them efficient workers in future.

Conclusion

Therefore, for a country like Australia, which welcome more people desiring to migrate to it than the seats it makes vacant, the proposed skilled migrant policy would be effective. It is likely to supply considerably superior labor forces with positive ‘market outcomes’ (Cully 2012, 7) that would accrue if the migrants are chosen following the path of ‘3000000 International Students Plan’ of Japan with proper integration of Australian culture and needs.

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2015

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It was a research work done at Macquarie University , Australia, in 2015 as an MPP student .

S M Mehedi Hasan

BCS ( Administration), 27th batch

Senior Assistant Secretary,

Ministry of Public Administration,

Bangladesh.

Presently works as ....

Upazila Nirbahi Officer

(Subdistrict Executive Officer),

Kishoreganj,Nilphamari, Bangladesh.

Policy Governance and Development

Wednesday, July 12, 2017

Skilled Migration: A Proposal for Policy Transfer from Japan to Australia