ECONOMICS

Skilled Immigration and Its effects on wages of Unskilled Employees



Skilled Immigration and Its effects on wages of Unskilled Employees

Introduction

The migration of people to other countries - as volunteer legal or illegal immigrants, or on their own as refugees - has become one of the most complex and highly controversial issues era that followed the end of the "Cold War." Labour migration has reached unprecedented proportions today - is not only a feature of modern labour market, but also some features of the world economy. State of Australia, like the U.S. or Canada, was created by the labour of immigrants. Today, according to statistics, nearly one in four Australian residents is born abroad (Addison & Worswick, 2002, pp.68-78). Despite the significant changes in the Australian community and the Australian position in the world, immigration and related events are still one of the foundations of society. The economic sectors with greater job opportunities are linked to the mining and energy industries in Australia. This need for labour will force companies to recruit local and transnational migrant workers from sponsoring foreign personnel trained and experienced work. This paper will first provide a brief account about the stages in which labour immigration had been conducted in Australia for decades. Further it will talk about how Australia encouraged immigration of skilled labours to the country. Next section will discuss whether the immigration of skilled workers has affected the wages of unskilled workers of Australia or not?

Discussion

Labour immigration to Australia

A distinctive feature of modern Australian immigration is increasing diversity of immigrants out. There are three stages of the migration process in Australia. The first lasted until the end of the 1940s. The second stage of immigration began in the late 1940s, when the Australian government was forced to begin a large-scale immigration program. Originally had two purposes - to increase the population of the country to ensure its reliable protection (in the memory was still fresh in the threat of Japanese invasion) and to attract low-skilled and unskilled workers, which requires a growing manufacturing industry. Over the next 25 years, immigration to Australia has increased dramatically. In the 1969-1970-ies in Australia moved 185 thousand people (record high). The third stage began with a review of immigration quotas in the late 1970s and continues to the present day. Demand for cheap labour in this period, much faster than the immigration quota. Australian authorities have cancelled the ethnic, racial and national criteria for selection of immigrants (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2004).

Import of Skilled Labour

For Australia, characterized as the migration of labour from developing countries (Asia and South America) and the former socialist countries (many of the immigrants from Russia, the Czech Republic and Poland), and from the industrialized countries.  In Australia, the proportion of foreigners in the total labour force is 24%. That is according to the territorial coverage is more prevalent intercontinental immigration (2001 Census of Population and Housing). In addition, in mid-2008, more than 800 000 people on a temporary basis (equivalent to 3.8% of the population) and a million Australians living permanently or for an extended ...