Putting Migrant Workers First
Click here to download the submission
On behalf of the Human Rights Law Centre and the Migrant Workers Centre, we welcome the opportunity to make a submission to this historic review of Australia’ migration program.
Together with other partners, our organisations have made a separate submission to the review, offering solutions to the forms of ‘permanent temporariness’ created by the migration regime. Our partners in that submission include the leading organisations working on migrant and refugee rights across the country – we commend it to the review panel.
This submission focuses more squarely on the deficiencies of the international education, skilled and employer-sponsored migration schemes and offers a framework for them to be fundamentally re-made.
In summary, we recommend that the Federal Government:
- Fix international education, starting by substantially increasing contributions to the Tuition Protection Service, which would allow for greater compensation to be paid to students adversely impacted by the conduct of their college or university.
- Overhaul skilled and employer-sponsored migration, replacing it with an accessible, self-nominated system of temporary migration in areas of skills shortage, with permanent residency available after two years. An independent and publicly accountable tripartite body, including representatives of unions and labour experts, should be established to certify areas of shortage, set minimum wages for migrant workers and keep data about the extent of reliance on migrant workers in particular industries.
- Protect migrant workers by creating a single set of employer obligations, applicable to all employers of migrant workers, and introducing robust ‘whistle blower’ protections for migrant workers who take action against their employers.
Restoring the ‘social license’ for the migration program must start with putting the rights and interests of migrant workers first.
