Recently in Australia there has been a movement towards greater restrictions on the holders of 457 visas and those making an application for these visas. The changes have not yet been set to to impact the Business Innovation and Investment (Provisional) (subclass 188) visa, but there are some disturbing assumptions underlying the impetus for the changes. The trend is unlikely to result in any future benefit to Australia because it is clear that migration has dramatically stimulative effect on the economy and in particular innovation dependent aspects of the economy. There are a number of indications that this is the case.
Innovation Benefits To the Australian Economy
Firstly, migrants and more likely that the general population to hold a degree in science or engineering. Also, a high proportion of 457 visas are granted to people in IT related industries. In fact, in 2011-2012, over 5,000 out of 7,200 business skills visas were granted for people in IT related occupations such as software engineering, developers and programmers. Australian employers are also very welcoming of workers coming on 457 visas and business skills innovation visas because it gives them a much wider pool of talent to draw from when it is possible to source staff from the population of the entire globe rather than being limited to Australia’s national borders. It is not only the IT industry that benefits from policies which are more supportive of migration, it is also the biotech industry and many other fields which require staff with high level technical skills in science, technology and engineering.
Here is a list of the some of the most prominent Australians that were born in another country and migrated here:
Julia Gillard (First Female Australian Prime Minister, Born in England)
Tony Abbott (Australian Opposition Leader, Born in England)
The Bee Gees (Musical Group, Migrants from England)
Frank Lowy (Co-founder of Westfield, Refugee from Czechoslovakia)
The Honourable James Spigelman (Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of New South Wales, Polish-born refugee)
Ahn Do (Actor and Comedian, Vietnamese Refugee)
Dr Karl Kruszelnicki (Science Communicator, Born to Polish Refugee Parents)
A Common Experience in the United States
Comparing Australia to its larger cousin in political and economic terms, the United States, research there indicates that migrants are 6% more likely to hold a patent than the general population. The majority of PhDs in engineering in the United States are now granted to people born overseas. The list of notable migrants to the United States is also impressive and their contribution to the scientific and technological development of that nation cannot be under estimated, here are some of the many who have made a great contribution:
Albert Einstein (Discoverer Theory of Relativity)
Nicola Tesla (Discoverer of AC Current)
Sergey Brin (Co-founder of Google, Inc.)
Madeleine Albright (Secretary of State, Born in Czechoslovakia 1937)
Felix Frankfurter (Supreme Court Justice, born in Austria in 1882)
Subranhmanyan Chandrasekhar (1983 Nobel laureate for Physics, born in India in 1910)
The benefits which obviously flow from migration are also evident in the advocacy conducted by the IT industry on migration issues there. In a bid to address the problems being created as a result of having am estimated 10 million people in the United States illegally Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook created the political advocacy group FWD.us.
It has obviously been a common experience in the US and in Australia that migration is beneficial to the industries which are dependent on innovation, science and technology. If you would like more information please do not hesitate to contact us using the contact form to the right.
