For citizens of some countries, it's now easier to become an Australian
To understand what has changed recently in the traditionally strict immigration policy of the Australian authorities, a BBC Capital correspondent decided to personally question several young people who have recently settled in Australia about their experience with visa formalities and which of their professional skills turned out to be most in demand here.
British woman Suzy Maggie Thorne lived in Australia for three months, volunteering on the Mango Place farm, a few miles from the town of Broome in the arid western part of the continent. She worked six hours a day – on the farm itself and in the restaurant attached to it. She mainly looked after chickens and tropical plants (at a comfortable temperature of +28 degrees), sometimes helped make mango wine. Nine other volunteers – from Asia, Europe, and North America – worked alongside her in harvesting and various chores at Mango Place.
Suzy came to Australia from Wales; she is one of tens of thousands of foreigners who annually flock to this quite unique continent with the intention of starting a new life. 'I had a great time there; it felt like being part of a big family,' she recalls her life at Mango Place. 'We had wonderful shared meals; the farm owners took us on group outings to the movies, beach barbecues... I'll never forget those 88 days.'
That Suzy still remembers the exact number of days she spent on the farm is not surprising. She was 23 at the time, and she had just applied to extend her one-year working holiday visa. Such a visa is available to applicants under 30 who are citizens of 19 countries on a special list. To extend it, one must spend three months (i.e., 88 days) in Australia doing physical work (the range of jobs is quite broad – from fruit picking to working in a mine).
Now, a year later, the young Welshwoman has a four-year visa and a full-time copywriter position at the telephone company Telstra. She says that in September 2017 she will be able to apply for permanent residency, and it is quite possible that Telstra, which acted as an employer guarantor for her current status, will support her in the future.
Like Suzy, tens of thousands of foreigners hope to get work and residency in Australia. At the end of 2014, about 161,000 visitors were in the country on a working holiday visa, and another 90-plus thousand people had a skilled worker visa, the same as Suzy now. Since then, the number of visas issued to students and young professionals has shown a trend toward growth.
At the end of 2014, there were 303,000 foreigners in Australia with student visas (more than a third from China and India). According to the Australian Department of Immigration and Border Protection, this figure was over 45,000 more than in 2013. In 2015, 190,000 residency permits were granted, including 128,550 for highly skilled professionals.
In a recent report, the immigration department said that 227,000 working holiday visas were issued between December 2014 and June 2015. For this visa type, there is currently – contrary to the overall trend – a 5% decrease compared to last year's figure. The downturn can be explained by several factors, including what stockbrokers call a correction (in this case, it manifested as a small compensatory drop after prolonged growth), as well as changes in the economic situation within Australia and in the countries it considers its partners.
Contrary to newspaper headlines that give the impression that Australia takes an extremely tough stance on all immigrants and refugees, the country often shows hospitality in its current immigration policy. And the number of visa applications it accepts per capita is now roughly the same as in Canada and New Zealand, says Tim Harcourt, a research fellow at the business school of the Australian University of New South Wales.
'Without immigrants, Australia as a country would not exist,' says Harcourt. 'Two-thirds of our entrepreneurs are newcomers. In some areas, policy has become stricter, while in others – such as with student visas – it has become easier.'
'Visitors who take up short-term seasonal work in Australia play an important role in supporting many industries in need of labor, especially agriculture,' noted a representative of the immigration department. Meanwhile, those with professional education have the opportunity to apply for a skilled worker visa. But to get it, they must prove their competence in one of several hundred occupations listed in the government's priority list (the list includes a wide range – from restaurant manager to furniture maker, tennis coach, and neurosurgeon). If an applicant cannot prove their professional skills (among those in demand), they will not be granted a visa.
However, as Harcourt believes, it is unfair to deny people the right to work simply because they have not mastered the set of competencies established by the state. Especially considering the history of Australian entrepreneurship, built by immigrants, many of whom did not even speak English well at first after arriving.
Those who do not have the right to a work-and-holiday visa and do not possess professional skills in areas of primary interest to the Australian state (medicine, technical specialties, farming, information technology) often come on a student visa. Australian authorities expect that the number of foreign students in the country will increase by approximately 40% over the next three years.
In 2010, Kirley Ferreira, who grew up in Florianópolis, Brazil, moved to Sydney, Australia. She was 25 at the time and came on a student visa to study English. But even then, she had more serious plans for Australia – she intended to open a hair salon here eventually. “Since I was 16, I planned to start my own business somewhere abroad and learn a foreign language,” says Kirley. Once in Australia, she first completed English courses and then enrolled in courses for hairdressing and salon management.
Holders of an Australian student visa are not prohibited from taking paid work, so while studying, Kirley simultaneously earned money doing haircuts at home and in salons that rent out spaces for outside hairdressers to practice. She saved part of her earnings, and when the time came, she used those savings and sponsorship help to start her own business.
Through the local government, Kirley applied for two subsidies – to have her business officially recognized and to have the necessary material base as a manager. Each subsidy amounted to 15,000 Australian dollars (or 10,800 US dollars). And so, two and a half years later, Kirley finally acquired her own hair salon in the Sydney neighborhood of Bondi Beach, investing over 30,000 Australian dollars (21,600 US dollars) in the venture.
In early November, she received permanent residency, which, she says, will allow her to freely experiment with her business without fear of losing her visa. “Now that I have permanent residency, I feel like a heavy weight has been lifted off my shoulders,” says Kirley.
Many people move to Australia for its otherworldly (literally) landscapes and beach culture; such people usually do not make any plans in advance, but decide everything spontaneously, on the fly.
Thirty-two-year-old Byron Mason from the US state of Michigan first came to Melbourne in 2012 on a “work and holiday” visa, which is issued to citizens of 13 countries from an additional list that includes the USA. This visa is almost identical to the work-and-holiday visa – with the only difference being that holders of the first type are not allowed to work in rural areas when renewing.
Having made the decision, Mason filled out an application for the embassy, paid 320 dollars, and 12 hours later he had a ticket to “the end of the world.” The American then lived in Australia for a year, traveling around the country in a campervan (he even named his home on wheels – Betty) and earning money through odd jobs. Once, he worked as a laborer on a pineapple plantation in Queensland. “It was hot, and we worked long hours in leather cowboy pants with socks on our hands to protect ourselves from the prickly stems and leaves,” he recalls.
After a year, Mason returned home to the USA, but his impressions of Australia were so strong that three years later they prompted him to return, this time on a student visa. Since then, he has worked several jobs and tried to get visa sponsorship from a small food service business, but without success. In the end, he decided to consult an immigration lawyer for help in obtaining permanent residency (the fee for such a service is 3,500 Australian dollars – 2,500 US dollars) together with his ex-girlfriend, who has professional skills listed as a priority in the state register.
If you are in a serious relationship (meaning marriage or cohabitation) with someone who can apply for a skilled work visa in Australia, then by proving your relationship, you will receive a so-called partner visa issued on the same terms. “In the end, the opportunities gained outweighed the lawyer’s costs,” says Mason. “Our application was approved, and now I can live and work in Australia indefinitely, with the prospect of obtaining citizenship.”
Mason has just moved to Byron Bay, a town on the north coast of New South Wales, where he plans to open a small business that would allow him to realize his creative potential. He is convinced that there is no better place on Earth than Australia to fulfill his dream.