Nurses and engineers in, cooks and hairdressers out as migration changes begin to bite

While this month’s migration reforms grabbed the headlines, changes made over a year ago had already transformed the occupational profile of skilled migrants – and the colleges that train them. Cooks, accountants and hairdressers have given way to engineers, nurses, IT professionals and doctors, as year-old changes to the skilled migration program begin to take effect. Figures released last week by immigration minister Chris Evans show that the number of cooks and hairdressers accepted as skilled migrants has more than halved since the government introduced the critical skills list (CSL) at the beginning of last year. Around 1800 cooks, chefs and pastry cooks obtained permanent skilled visas in 2009 compared to over 3900 the previous year, while visas for hairdressers plunged from almost 1200 to just over 400. The number of successful accountants also plummeted, from around 8700 to 6800. But visas for mechanical, civil and electronics engineers almost doubled, from 2700 to 4400. Visa grants for nurses rose from 2700 to 3900, for specified computing specialists from 4000 to 4800, and for GPs from 450 to 1000. Evans said the figures showed that the skilled migration program was delivering more of the workers that Australia needed. Before the changes early last year, education and training for would-be migrants had been skewed by the bonus migration points awarded to the 106 occupations – including 47 trades – listed on the migration occupations in demand list (MODL). But after its introduction at the beginning of last year, the CSL became the de facto determiner of occupations favoured for skilled migration. It gave processing priority to a much smaller list of 54 occupations, including just three trades. Applicants with occupations excluded from the CSL are put towards the back of the visa queue, which is at record levels. Their applications roll over to the next year once the year’s quota of visas is exhausted. Cooking and hairdressing are among the trades excluded from the CSL, while accountants qualify for priority treatment only if they can demonstrate ‘proficient’ English language skills by passing the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) at level 7. Colleges oriented towards these three disciplines have already felt the impact of the new arrangements. At least six of the international colleges that have closed their doors in Victoria alone in the last seven or eight months – including the giant Meridian group – offered courses in cooking, hairdressing or accountancy, or a combination of them. Last year’s changes also gave priority to visa applicants with sponsors. Evans said that over the last two financial years the proportion of employer-sponsored skilled migrants had risen from 29 to 45 per cent of the skilled migration program. He said the trend was expected to continue this financial year, with sponsored migrants expected to comprise 54 per cent of the skilled program. Sponsorship appears to be the only way cooks and hairdressers are likely to be able to secure permanent visas under the current arrangements. Among cooks, the proportion of successful applicants who were sponsored increased from 15 per cent in 2008 to 81 per cent in 2009. For hairdressers, the sponsored proportion rose from 4 to 55 per cent. Over 97 per cent of the 1600 general managers who were granted visas in 2009 were also sponsored, along with 90 per cent of successful welders and between 60 and 75 per cent of registered nurses, motor mechanics, fitters and electricians. However, more than three quarters of the successful engineers and IT professionals and 60 to 70 per cent of the successful accountants, teachers and doctors managed to secure visas without sponsors. But sponsorship – along with English language skills and high-level academic qualifications – is expected to play an even greater role in migration after the latest reforms, which were announced earlier this month, take full force later this year.