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Report: Immigrants taking local IT jobs
by TomN
Friday July 02, 2004 at 06:05 PM
A report by the Australian Computer Society has found that immigrant IT workers are depriving Australian IT workers of jobs. The report has been suppressed because the Australian Computer Society makes money from training immigrants.
Thousands of low-cost workers are entering the country and undermining the job prospects of new computer science graduates, according to a report commissioned for the federal government that calls for drastic changes to skilled migration.
Visa requirements should be tightened to end a "serious oversupply" of young overseas workers which is driving down salaries and contributing to
high unemployment among information and communication technology (ICT) workers under 30, the report says.
It also likens the easy entry of temporary workers to a subsidy that gives offshore outsourcers such as Indian computer companies an unfair advantage over Australian rivals.
The findings are certain to trigger fresh debate over migration just two months after federal Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone raised the skilled migrant intake to a record 77,000 in 2004-05.
Although Senator Vanstone imposed new barriers for some skilled visas, the report suggests those measures are not enough to stem the flow of cheap labour.
The controversial report, commissioned by the Australian Computer Society and written by immigration specialist Bob Kinnaird, has been suppressed by
the ACS, which cannot agree on a policy response.
A copy has been passed to the office of Communications Minister Daryl Williams and distributed to several departments, angering some within the ACS.
Using unpublished census data and government migration figures, the report concludes that in 2003 the stock of ICT migrants reached an unsustainable
level of 13,000, or about 7 per cent of the sector's workforce.
Younger workers are hit especially hard, the report says, because 76 per cent of the migrants were under 30 and being paid salaries comparable to or below those for recent graduates.
The report rejects the notion of a local shortage of key skills, citing immigration figures showing 96 per cent of successful ICT applicants for permanent residency had skills that were not in short supply.
"The overall ICT intake should stay at reduced levels until the Australian ICT labour market can absorb increased inflows of ICT migrants without
disadvantaging Australian graduates and without jeopardising the level and quality of student demand for ICT university courses," says the report, a
copy of which has been obtained by The Australian Financial Review.
The ACS could not be contacted yesterday. Mr Kinnaird would not comment on the report.
The findings come as the federal government tries to crack down on abuses of category 457 and 456 visas by agents in India and Australia who charge thousands of dollars to bring in workers. In some cases, the migrants
failed to find ICT employment and took cleaning jobs instead.
There are signs that prospects for ICT graduates are improving.
Bob Olivier, director of the Olivier Group, yesterday said the number of online job ads for ICT graduates was up 80 per cent last month from a year ago, though he said skilled migrants could make conditions tougher.
"If you've got a low-cost alternative with the same skill set, then the local market is vulnerable," he said.
The Kinnaird report directly links migration to the contentious issue of offshore outsourcing and urges changes to make it harder for Indian outsourcing companies with subsidiaries in Australia to bring employees from their home country to work on projects here.
by David Crowe
Australian Financial Review, June 7, 2004
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