Tuesday, February 09, 2010
CANBERRA: Australian immigration laws were changed to attract people working in higher-skilled jobs, the Australian Immigration Minister said.
Immigration Minister Chris Evans suggested that Australia had enough cooks and hairdressers and that the country needed immigrants with other skills.
"When we came into government, we were taking hairdressers from overseas in front of doctors and nurses, it didn't make any sense," he said
Evans said the ministry had cancelled some 20,000 applications that were filled in before 2007. The applicants would have their fees refunded, he added.
The new job list will focus on higher skilled jobs such as engineers, doctors and nurses, Evans said.
"We don't want people coming in and adding to the unemployed queue, we want people who will have the skills to get a job in the skilled area that we are looking for," he said.
Studying in Australia used to give an opportunity for many foreign students to apply for permanent residency.
With the new law put in place, those students will not be able to apply if their skills are not on the new job list.
Students who have had their application scrapped will temporarily be able to stay a further 18 months in the country after graduation in order the find a job and a sponsor, the ministry said.
The private education industry may suffer from these plans as some of them offer specific courses for foreign students.
Some say they may go out of business because their courses will not be relevant anymore.
"Students who are seeking to travel to Australia for an education need certainty and what we have at the moment is an absence of a list that can be used for people to plan," said Andrew Smith, chief executive officer of the Australian Council for Private education.
This adds to an already fragile situation with Indian students being targeted lately in a series of attacks.
"Spending thousands of dollars coming from a developing country, that's a lot of money, and contributing to the Australian economy, and now they will feel cheated obviously," said Gautam Gupta from the Federation For Indian Students.
The attacks over the past 18 months, including the fatal stabbing of a 21-year-old Indian graduate early this year, have hurt Australia's lucrative foreign student market, its third largest export earner, worth 13 billion Australian dollars (12 billion U.S. dollars) in 2007-08.
CANBERRA: Australian immigration laws were changed to attract people working in higher-skilled jobs, the Australian Immigration Minister said.
Immigration Minister Chris Evans suggested that Australia had enough cooks and hairdressers and that the country needed immigrants with other skills.
"When we came into government, we were taking hairdressers from overseas in front of doctors and nurses, it didn't make any sense," he said
Evans said the ministry had cancelled some 20,000 applications that were filled in before 2007. The applicants would have their fees refunded, he added.
The new job list will focus on higher skilled jobs such as engineers, doctors and nurses, Evans said.
"We don't want people coming in and adding to the unemployed queue, we want people who will have the skills to get a job in the skilled area that we are looking for," he said.
Studying in Australia used to give an opportunity for many foreign students to apply for permanent residency.
With the new law put in place, those students will not be able to apply if their skills are not on the new job list.
Students who have had their application scrapped will temporarily be able to stay a further 18 months in the country after graduation in order the find a job and a sponsor, the ministry said.
The private education industry may suffer from these plans as some of them offer specific courses for foreign students.
Some say they may go out of business because their courses will not be relevant anymore.
"Students who are seeking to travel to Australia for an education need certainty and what we have at the moment is an absence of a list that can be used for people to plan," said Andrew Smith, chief executive officer of the Australian Council for Private education.
This adds to an already fragile situation with Indian students being targeted lately in a series of attacks.
"Spending thousands of dollars coming from a developing country, that's a lot of money, and contributing to the Australian economy, and now they will feel cheated obviously," said Gautam Gupta from the Federation For Indian Students.
The attacks over the past 18 months, including the fatal stabbing of a 21-year-old Indian graduate early this year, have hurt Australia's lucrative foreign student market, its third largest export earner, worth 13 billion Australian dollars (12 billion U.S. dollars) in 2007-08.
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