Adelaide’s Reducing Skilled Immigrant Population

Although after so much of skilled immigration to South Australia, the positions under skilled immigration programmes are still lying vacant in Adelaide. It has been observed that people who are taking immigration under state sponsorship to Adelaide are first arriving in Adelaide on those visas and then they are relocating to other metropolitan places like Melbourne or Sydney. In order to grow in line with forecasted labour demands, South Australia depends heavily on immigrant workers but Business analysts have raised concerns that not enough are settling in the state after arriving in Australia on their work visas. Many people are obtaining their work permits or skilled immigration for Australia under regional categories as they are easier to obtain. After acquiring a permit, people are leaving for bigger and better states to look out for more opportunities.

A recent study by PKF Australia and Access Economics, states that 18,500 people were settled in South Australia in 2008, 16,000 of those were from overseas and on an Australian visa. This correlates to roughly 86.5% of the newly settled citizens coming from overseas. Many of these immigrants have moved out of Adelaide to bigger and better cities leaving Adelaide’s population of skilled workers less than sufficient to fill up the vacant positions. The South Australian business leaders or employers are concerned that Australian immigration is seeing a trend of migrants that arrive in Adelaide but after a short period of time, they choose to move to other larger Australian cities, such as Melbourne or Sydney. This trend has left South Australia lacking of the necessary skilled professionals.

Speaking about the same, the National Chairman of Enterprise Advisers, Mr. Chris Allen said, “Skilled migrants are a necessary and important contribution to Australia's economy and growth. Because highly skilled migrants in Australia earn a relatively high income in relation to the size they represent, in the overall workforce, they spend more of their income, and spending, creates demand for more workers." He further quoted that "Put in Lehman’s terms more immigration to Adelaide equals more customers, and also more jobs."

Business SA chief executive Peter Vaughan said SA was an attractive starting point for international migrants but many were unable to get a job and were forced to move interstate for work and to secure permanent residency. Mr Vaughan emphasised the need for employers to take on qualified graduates from overseas. "The future of this state will be based on skilled migrants from other cultures who are going to settle in SA looking for job opportunities, careers, advancement and reward," he said. "If we don't provide those things that precious commodity will go elsewhere."

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written by Varsha Negi

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