The ‘broad utility’ and exploitation that temporary migrants provide and receive in Australia’s job markets are the focus of a new report from the Scanlon Institute on the “spectacular” rise in temporary work visas.

The report says temporary migrants have been utilised by both sides of politics as scapegoats recently on issues like congestion and youth unemployment.

But the report says no efforts have been made to explain the state of temporary migration in Australia, only to blame it on other issues. And it is this lack of critical analysis the report, titled ‘Off the scale but out of sight’, seeks to address.

It claims that since June 2006, the number of temporary migrants in Australia has more than doubled from 350,000 to almost 840,000 in 2018.

If the definition is further broadened from international students, working holiday makers and temporary skilled workers, to include bridging visa holders and New Zealanders, the report posits that temporary migration has added 72,000 people per year to the Australian population.

The Morrison government has experimented somewhat with policy of late in an effort to better harness the positive impacts of this influx while mitigating its potential impact upon local jobseekers, the report says.

In March 2018 the government changed the visa conditions of temporary migrants, shifts which also require companies to pay levies for hiring temporary workers. This was done to encourage companies to hire locals where possible, it says.

The argument has been made here that Australia’s migration skills list includes industries that do not exhibit domestic graduate shortages, the counter-argument being that these workers make up less than 1 percent of the workforce, making their impact negligible.

Any attempt to change the skills list, the report says, would likely be met with strong opposition by universities, which benefit greatly from the prospect international students have to become permanent residents if their profession is included.

Victoria’s largest export, for instance, is education, making protecting the situation a political imperative.

Temporary migration’s role in rural areas comes with its own complications, the report says.

These individuals, while falling into various categories, are viewed as fulfilling short-term skill shortages in undesirable roles, for instance fulfilling the lowest-paid roles on farms.

The report draws attention to the case of such workers in the context of seasonal fruit picking.

It is often cited that these roles could be filled by Australian youth, of which a growing number are unemployed. However, in 2017 a Morrison government initiative sought to draw jobseekers to these roles by declaring that any payments up to $5000 would not affect their welfare payments.

Three months later, only 14 people had signed up to the plan, arguably demonstrating a lack of want among Australian workers for this particular form of work, the report said.

The National Farmers Federation criticised the idea on the basis that the nature of the work meant it was only attractive to migrants.

Alongside these concerns, however, is the severe record of exploitation that such individuals have been subject to. Allen Fels, chair of the Federal Government’s Migrant Workers Taskforce, has said “There is enough evidence to say that is systematic.”

While instances of exploitation range a broad variety of businesses, the worst paid jobs have been shown to be the aforementioned farm and fruit-vegetable picking roles.

In this area, one in three survey participants claimed to have been paid $10 or less, while one in seven earnt under $5, the report says.

It cites various causes for this. Businesses caught withholding payments entirely in exchange for provided food and accommodation say downward pressures on produce prices have forced them into the exercise.

It also claims that policies such as requiring long-term visitors to engage in 3-months of farm work to receive a second-year visa creates a power-imbalance between employer and employee that leads to exploitation.

Finally, it argues that the government has created and overseen the dramatic rise in such workers without providing the necessary oversight to preclude what is an inevitable level of exploitation without its intervention.

The full report can be found at (“Off the scale but out of sight”).