By news bureau
Melbourne: The Rudd government has decided to crackdown on “back door” skilled migrants who use the system to become “permanent residents”. The move which is likely to inflame passions fuelled by attacks on Indian students is expected to get about 20,000 offshore visa applications cancelled.
The cancelled applications apply to all offshore general skilled migration claims lodged before September 2007. Refunding 20,000 visa applications will cost taxpayers about $14 million. Given the changes could have a significant impact on many foreign students already in Australia; the government will introduce transitional arrangements to apply until 2012.
Media reports say foreign students who have a qualification for an occupation no longer considered in demand will get to apply for a temporary 18-month visa, allowing them to gain work experience. The 18 months will also give a foreign graduate time in which to find an employer willing to sponsor their application as a skilled migrant. If they are unsuccessful in that attempt, they will have to return to their country of origin. A new set of list of occupations will be set.
The new rules are expected to favour skilled workers including nurses,general medical practitioners, mechanical engineers and teachers instead of groups such as cooks and hairdressers.
In a frank speech to be delivered this morning at the Australian National University, Immigration Minister Chris Evans argued that the skilled migration program has not been working in Australia’s economic or demographic interests.
He said the current tensions and misunderstandings have been made worse by unscrupulous migration agents.
”These agents have been misleading many international students into believing that a course in Australia gave them an automatic entitlement to permanent residence,” Senator Evans said. ”It does not, and it will not.”
