Migrants and international students have been marginalised by the Australian government for years, particularly under the Liberal party who have gone to great lengths to appear tough against migration. How low the government truly reached is an unfortunate reality that many Australians are completely oblivious to, and any migrant works hard to forget and move on from. But with these marginalised communities proving critical to keep the Australian economy afloat during the post-pandemic recovery – how will Australia fare?

Currently, every major western economy is facing a huge shortage of workers, both blue and white collar. Post-pandemic, the developed world is preparing to compete for a huge amount of migrants in order to recover their economies – but how is this shift of power going to impact Australia?

The Average Australian Voter on Migration

The average Australian voter in the last 30 years has responded positively to any move against migrants or international students entering the country.

Many hold misconceptions such as international students living off welfare and taking away university spots for locals (when in reality they don’t receive any welfare, they work, pay taxes, and pay huge amounts of fees to subsidise university for local students). These misconceptions are further fuelled by politicians who have used the subject as a political lever for decades.

While claiming to be a multicultural nation, this is one of the realities we all choose to ignore – most Australians don’t want migrants here and prefer to remain in their echo chambers, truly oblivious to how badly the country needs them. Any political party that carry policies against migration or shockingly even discriminatory stances, have consistently been rewarded by the ‘true-blue Aussie’. Those like Pauline Hanson and Peter Dutton did not get to where they are, accidentally. Australians voted for them.

Interestingly, this anti-migration/”we are full” sentiment did not exist a few decades ago, when the majority of migrants coming to Australia were from Europe.

In some instances, Australia even chose to appease the conservative voter by changing migration laws retrospectively (unheard of in most democracies), completely derailing years of hard work by migrants. Even once a first-generation migrant achieves citizenship, they only need to try and have their own parents join their family to learn they are still second class citizens.

With the poor treatment accelerating since COVID-19, the community is now actively shifting its focus to other countries. Has Australia pushed it too far?

Post-Pandemic Global Labour Shortage

Over the next few years, the developed countries of the world will be engaging in a battle for skilled labour. Presently there are huge labour shortages across the world (US, Canada, UK and Australia included). The NSW State government recently stated that a massive 2 million migrants are needed to recover the Australian economy post-pandemic. After treating migrants like dirt for years, how is Australia going to fare at this?

While the government grapples with an approach to incentivize, other countries are a few steps ahead – Canada is already well on its way with a well-designed and consistently explained immigration policy to attract 1.2 million migrants.

Canada and the USA are among the countries benefiting the most from these developments. They have offered more transparent pathways to residency and have included migrants and international students in policy decisions (true inclusion). For example, these countries fared far better at supporting international students during the pandemic.

In contrast, they were ignored in Australia and Prime Minister Scott Morrison went to the extent of explicitly asking them all to leave the country in 2020, instead of offering any support. For many of them, Australia was their home throughout their adult lives.

In the chaos that was the pandemic, this insulting behaviour didn’t capture much attention in the media, but nearly 2 years later, the numbers suggest that the world has not forgotten. Studies show that a third of international students who previously considered Australia as a destination for study, no longer want to go there. And more than 500,000 temporary visa holders have left Australia since the beginning of the pandemic, according to government figures. Even more are considering moving when travel is more accessible.

On the same note, the numbers also suggest that Australia is going to need them desperately over the coming years, as the country struggles to recover the economy after the pandemic, coupled with a much changed trading landscape with their biggest trading partner, China.

Skilled Temporary Residents

The same can be said about temporary residents already in Australia, the vast majority of whom are skilled workers contributing to the economy (and paying their share of taxes). They are an essential yet widely misrepresented part of the economy – with most working in highly skilled areas, in contrast to how the media and politicians have portrayed them (as a burden on the economy who take jobs away from Australians).

Over the past decade, the path to permanent residency for this community has been made increasingly more difficult, despite them having followed the pathways in place for permanent residency for years (gaining the high English scores, earning degrees/jobs in an in-demand field) – it was common for the rug to be pulled under them with constant changes to rules. Since the pandemic struck, temporary residents of Australia have been left in limbo, with the government not even offering an indication of when they will be allowed to move forward with their migration path.

On top of all that, it doesn’t help when Australian workplaces in general look down upon foreign experience (let alone recognize it). Many of the new migrants working in supermarkets fuel stations are commonly engineers, accountants or those of a highly skilled profession – but Australian recruitment culture is notably different (i.e. discriminatory) than the rest of the developed world. The reality is that until many migrants become ‘Australian enough’ (lose the accent, start following local footy, dress/eat like the locals) – they will remain underemployed.

In the age of the internet, word spreads. This also keeps immensely talented people from ever setting foot here.

Many have given up and left after years of this discrimination (Supplementary: Temporary residents urge Australia to provide pathway for permanent residency – ABC News).

Australians have shot themselves in the foot. Only time will tell if this society will learn from these mistakes.