The Federal Government has been urged to increase migration to Australia, and particularly skilled migration, as a key part of the nation’s economic recovery in the wake of COVID-19.

A new report from the Committee for the Economic Development of Australia (CEDA) calls on the Federal Government to extend the JobKeeper and JobSeeker payments to temporary migrants such as students and those on skilled work visas, as other countries have done with their own pandemic payments.

And it found that Australia could benefit from expected tighter restrictions on migration in other countries, by encouraging migration by highly skilled workers.

The report brings together expert views on the critical issues shaping the post COVID-19 jobs market, including for women, the long-term unemployed and young people, and the role of wage subsidies, immigration, training and industrial relations.

CEDA Chief Economist, Jarrod Ball said in the report that economic crisis trigger by COVID-19 will have long-lasting impacts on migration policy across the world as well as in Australia.

He said that while many countries will try to impose permanent migration restrictions in the wake of COVID-19, Australia should resist such policies and promote migration as part of the national economic recovery.

“Migration has been a key driver of Australia’s economic development and will continue to

be so in the decades ahead,” Mr Ball said.

The paper also urges the Federal Government to introduce an intra-company transfer visa to help multinational businesses looking to invest and expand their operations in Australia.

“Australia has been relatively successful in controlling the spread of the virus; this sets us up

to be an attractive destination for the world’s best and brightest,” Mr Ball said.

“We should use this period to improve on our skilled migration system to ensure that when

the borders open up again, Australia is the destination of choice for the best and brightest.”

The paper also urges state governments to do more to help international students, particularly in Victoria.

“As soon as it is safe to do so, Australia should restart the flow of international students into

the country in carefully controlled circumstances,” Mr Ball said.

The paper also warns the Federal Government of the risks threatening Australia’s economic

growth and prosperity if it pursues a “gender blind” approach to the COVID-19 economic recovery.

Contributor to the report Associate Professor Elizabeth Hill, from the University of Sydney, says a gender-blind approach to the COVID recovery will compromise the efficiency of our labour markets, constrain productivity and limit wellbeing, while increasing economic insecurity and reducing labour force participation for women.

In her paper on fiscal policy and gender, Associate Professor Hill says that the government

will have many opportunities to adopt gender-responsive measures in the care sectors.

She says this could be through an overhaul of public funding for childcare and more investment in social infrastructure such as education, health and care services, rather than the current focus on large infrastructure projects that disproportionately employ men.

See the full paper: Migration-must-be-central-to-Australias-post-COVID-economic-recovery.pdf