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Why is Immigration is important to Innovation in the IT and Biotech Industries?

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.

How Has Australia Benefited From Migration?

Australia has a long history of migration. Indeed, you could say that the first settlers to walk off the tall ships in Sydney Cove in 1788 were the first migrants to the land which eventually became Australia. Booms in migration also occurred when the wool industry became the country’s major source of income in the early 1800s and during the late nineteenth century when gold was discovered in Australia. However, in modern times there is also a substantial history of migration to Australia which has grown the population, stimulated the economy and enriched the culture of the country shaping and moulding it into the vibrant, diverse and cosmopolitan culture which is found in its major cities today. Approximately one in four people living in Australia today were born overseas.

Soon after World War Two, Australia introduced a substantial immigration program. There was a serious lack of available labourers and the doctrine of ‘populate or perish’ had become the political orthodoxy of the times. This was coupled with the fact that Europe had been left shattered by World War Two and had thousands if not millions of people looking to start again in the new world. In these times people from the UK could travel free or with assistance to this country and large numbers of people came to Australia from all of the European countries. Various conflicts in the late 20th century also spurred waves of migration from Vietnam, Chile, Hungary and Yugoslavia. In contemporary times, Australia’s immigration policies remain aimed at assisting people to migrate to this country and the countries where most migrants come from include the United Kingdom, India and China.

In economic terms migration has stimulated demand for goods and services in the economy with each successive wave. It has precipitated the expansion of business and government services. Also migrants have brought a new supply of labour, skills and capital to Australia as well as new types of developments and business ventures. A number of the technological inventions made in Australia have also been made by migrants and consistently it has been shown that migrants pay more in tax than they consume in services, therefore generating surpluses for the society as a whole.

It is anticipated that future migration to Australia will continue to result in the benefits of previous migration which have been shown to be significant.

Migration to Australia Increasing

In the 2011 budget speech, the Australian Government announced that it would allocate 16 000 skilled migration places to regional areas of Australia. This initiative will be complemented by Regional Migration Agreements for communities with skill shortages, and the introduction of Enterprise Migration Agreements to enable large resource projects to gain readier access to temporary overseas labour to meet skilled vacancies that cannot be met locally.

In addition to this, Perth (the capital of Western Australia and a city of 1.7 million people) will, for the purposes of skilled migration, be considered a regional city. This action was taken because of widespread skill shortages in Western Australia. This provides employers in Western Australia an easier avenue to recruit skilled workers from overseas and gives skilled temporary visa holders in Perth a more streamlined pathway to permanent migration.

A new points test for General Skilled Migration applicants came into effect on 1 July 2011. The points test is a mechanism used to select skilled migrants expected to offer the greatest economic benefit to Australia. Points are awarded to applicants who have certain skills, attributes and qualifications. Compared with the previous test, the new points test does not give undue weight to any one factor and recognises a broader range of skills and attributes, focussing on:

 better English levels
 more extensive skilled employment
 higher level qualifications obtained in Australia and overseas
 better targeted age ranges.

The new points test will continue to award points for study in Australia, including regional study, community languages, partner skills and completing an approved Professional Year. Points will no longer be awarded for specific occupations, although all applicants must still nominate an occupation on the

In 2011, the Australian Government announced that a new skilled migrant selection register, SkillSelect, will be introduced from 1 July 2012. It is designed to ensure Australia can select the best and brightest skilled migrants from a pool of prospective migrants. It will be based on an electronic two-stage process whereby prospective
migrants first submit an expression of interest and may then be invited by the department to make a skilled migration visa application.

Minister Announces Rise in 457 visa applications

Latest figures show that the number of 457 visa applications jumped by 9.5 per cent this year, while the number of 457 visas granted grew by 6.6 per cent.

The figures back the Gillard Government’s decision to take action to close loopholes in the 457 program to ensure that local jobseekers are not disadvantaged by unscrupulous employers bringing in temporary workers from overseas.

“These January figures show that after the traditional December lull, 457s have continued to increase,” Minister for Immigration and Citizenship Brendan O’Connor said.

“At January 31, there were more than 105,000 people in Australia working on temporary 457 visas. That is an increase of 22.4 per cent compared to January 2012.

“The overall trend is clear – more people are coming in on temporary skilled worker visas. This comes at a time when the unemployment rate is flat, not dropping.

“We know that in the IT industry, for example, 457 visas have increased by 68 per cent while vacancies for local IT workers are decreasing.

“The Gillard Government will not sit idly by while Australian citizens and permanent skilled migrants lose out to unscrupulous employers.

“That’s why we are reforming the 457 program to:

Make business sponsors declare that they will commit to employing Australian citizens
Make training Australian citizens an enforceable requirement of 457 applications
Make employers show that the position is genuine
Restrict the number of workers that a business can sponsor
Tighten the definitions of eligible positions
Strengthen the market rate provision to stop undercutting of local conditions
Tighten on-hiring arrangements so that sponsors cannot bring someone in and then let them work for an unrelated company at a different salary.