The Australian government always followed a bi-partisan policy with regards to migration policies where both the Governing political party as well as the opposition still stands favourable towards migration as an area that benefits the country's economy. Australia at present holds a one trillion dollar economy and has upheld a continuous migration programme that spans many decades. However with the world economic crisis which struck in early 2008 the government of Australia looked rather negatively towards migration. Therefore the government has cut down the numbers of migrants entering Australia whilst also being very selective by ensuring that only the best quality migrants enter the country. The Business Times spoke to Mr. Susantha Katugampala, an Australian Lawyer and Accredited Immigration Law Specialist of Fairfields Lawyers in Melbourne Australia to find out about the current situation with regards to Australia's migration policies.
Susantha Katugampala with Kevin Andrews |
Is it true that Australia has moved towards ceasing or capping migration?
Before the start of Australia's financial year the government has announced the quota for the financial year, which includes 113,850 individuals to Australia on skilled migration. These include the areas of skilled migration, employer nominated skilled migration, state nominated skilled migration and business migration. With Australia facing an election scheduled to take place on the 21st of August 2010, if there is a change of governments it will allow more skilled migrants to enter the country and there will be a reduction with regards to family migration as the opposition Liberal party is more favourable towards the concept of skilled migration. However with various political and non political parties in Australia having different views with regard to migrants the current status of the country is that migration laws have been tightened to reduce the number and improve the quality of migrants entering the country.
n What are the other skill opportunities available for prospective migrants to Australia?
There are many opportunities for Engineers in Australia which includes a wide category of specializations such as Civil, Structural, Electrical, Electronics, Mechanical, Chemical, Transport, Industrial, Production, Materials, Environmental, Agricultural, Biomedical, Aeronautical & Telecommunication Engineering etc. To qualify as an Engineer the applicant should posses a required degree level qualification and a good command in English and General Module IELTS result with 6 for each component.
Accountants and financial professionals should have an Academic Module IELTS result in 7 in each component making it very difficult for accountants to seek migration possibilities. Accountants having the CIMA Associate Membership, ACMA or bachelor degree qualification from a Sri Lankan university can qualify to migrate as accountants. Also there are opportunities for those that qualify in IT where many areas are open for migration which includes Systems Designers, Systems Engineers and Programmers etc. Also there are opportunities for science professionals, with research experience in particular. Also professionals such as biochemists, biomedical scientists, chemists, environmental and research scientists are those that have a high demand. Also there is a very good opportunity for agricultural professionals, such as agricultural advisors and agricultural consultants and researchers to migrate to Australia.
What is the most impending migration issue in Australia at present?
The biggest issue that Australia is faces with regard to migrants is the asylum seekers who arrive in boats. The unfortunate matter with regards to this is the fact that a major percentage of these arrivals are from Sri Lanka. However, the good news is that as Sri Lanka's 30 year old war is now finally over the Australian government feels that Sri Lankan asylum seekers should not seek refugee status or protection in Australia as Sri Lanka is no longer a war torn country and therefore denied most of the refugee claims.
Nevertheless, as Australia is a signatory to the UN Convention on refugees, each refugee claim will be processed on an individual basis before the final decisions are made on an individual basis. Australia is also not favourable towards certain parties' unlawfully funding and promoting boat people illegally and used them as a political football. This brings bad publicity to Sri Lanka which in turn will also limit the receiving of new opportunities and funds from the Western world to Sri Lanka towards its development especially as these are required to redevelop the North and East of the island. While we sympathize with the people arriving in boats, it is important to protect the image of Sri Lanka in order to achieve the development dream of all Sri Lankans.
What will be your final words of advice?
The Australian government and many other western countries are however reducing the migration numbers and cutting down on new skills entering these countries due to many economic and political trends. This will eventually reduce the foreign remittances coming to the country. Foreign remittances have been the most substantial foreign income earning source for Sri Lanka since Tsunami and it has grown in recent years. This helps Sri Lanka in the short term to maintain our dollar reserves.
Nevertheless, the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), the real investments coming to our country are most important to sustain out long term economic growth. While the Government has introduced many positive measures to attract FDIs to the island, Sri Lankan Government should look favourably towards opening up new avenues of foreign investment opportunities to the country. If you take Australia, historically we have had two major investments from Australia which include Ansell Australia and PNO Australia. Since then it has been Small & Medium Enterprises (SME) that came from Australia. Even the trend from countries like Japan and Europe is the same. However, many Australian and other foreign SME investments can be offered to Sri Lanka which will automatically open many job opportunities to Sri Lankans.
It is very important that Sri Lankans focus on investing in obtaining international level skills which will pave the way for many Sri Lankans to find suitable employment in Sri Lanka or overseas thereby enjoying better salaries and wages. Therefore as an expatriate lawyer it is not only my objective to take people out of Sri Lanka but also remeber my obligation and responsibility to bring in new opportunities for Sri Lanka. - Gayani Perera |
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