The federal government has announced a major overhaul of the permanent residency skilled migration program and scrapped the current eligibility list of more than 100 occupations.
A new skilled occupation list will be developed. It will narrow the list of "high skilled" occupations.
Lower skilled occupations such as cooking and hairdressing will be removed from the migration priority list for Australia.
The past allocation of extra permanent migration eligibility points for these occupations led to an explosion in demand to study such courses in Australia.
Between 2004 and 2008 overseas student enrolments in training courses to become hairdressers, cooks, and hospitality workers grew from less than 5000 in 2004, to more than 40,000 in 2008.
An entire industry of government accredited training organisations flourished with the huge overseas student demand created by the points system. The sector has become notorious for its low standards of education and for promising students a guaranteed pathway to permanent residency in exchange for exorbitant fees.
The changes will undoubtedly shut down a large part of this industry, but it will also remove a way for people from poorer countries to migrate to Australia.
Employer sponsorship is now the only path to permanent residency for many, which presents the potential for a workers rights disaster as dodgy bosses take advantage of desperate students.
Absent from the migration reforms are any changes to the humanitarian, refugee and family reunion programs.
The Rudd government accepts fewer refugees as a proportion of total immigration intake than at any time under the previous Coalition government.
Today, the humanitarian quota is half the size of the quota during the Keating government in 1995 (7.5% in 2009/10, compared with 15.3% in 1995/96).
Employers have always sought to ensure shortages in skills and labour are alleviated. Labour supply pressure has the potential to push wages up as workers shop around and unions find it easier to win wage rises. This is precisely what has occurred in particular skilled trade occupations during the resources boom, in Western Australia and Queensland.
Fiscal policy designed to manipulate the rate of economic growth and subsequent unemployment levels is one mechanism used to manage labour market pressure. Another highly effective method is migration.
Historically, Australian capital has supported large waves of permanent migration to provide a ready supply of workers. Temporary migration has become the new panacea for capital and comes with the "bonus" of access to workers with limited rights.
In the last decade, total migration has shifted away from permanent to temporary migration. In 2008-09, almost 700,000 visas were issued to people with work rights. Temporary migration work visas made up more than 80% of this total including 457 visas (77,000), working holiday visas (194,100) and student visas (304,500).
Permanent migration made up only 131,500 visa grants. About 1 million visa holders with work rights are currently living in Australia, including New Zealand citizens.
The recently announced changes will further drive employer sponsored migration. Australia's permanent migration program is capped at around 131,000, but the employer sponsored temporary skilled migration program (457 visas) remains uncapped.
When accessing 457 visas employers are not required to demonstrate any shortage of local labour. Because the worker's right to stay in Australia is directly linked to their sponsoring employer, they are vulnerable to exploitation.
This often unrecognised migration policy shift, spawned by employer warnings of economic catastrophe, has created a large sector of workers in Australia who are disenfranchised and have tenuous residency.
These workers pay tax but have no right to vote or access services such as Medicare. This trend will only worsen following the new migration announcements.
No matter what government-contrived visa status or label is invented to describe workers without permanent residency rights, at the end of day they are part of the community.
They should enjoy all the rights other workers have, including the fundamental right to tell their boss to "shove it" without fear of deportation.