The Forum > General Discussion > Immigration - whose business is it?
Immigration - whose business is it?
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Decisions about immigration should be made in the national interest, which means taking a longer-term look at immigration and ensuring that it serves the interests of Australia and its people. But as CFMEU national secretary John Sutton pointed out, “Individual employers are not focused on the national interest. They are driven by short-term profit considerations and their decisions on immigration, as on everything else, are shaped by their immediate self-interest.” If they can get easy access to cheap, compliant foreign labour, “then they will do so. That is the nature of the beast.” ("Workforce ripe for the picking", SMH, 31/08/09 - http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/workforce-ripe-for-the-picking-20090830-f3vg.html)
Giving employer groups on-demand access to cheap foreign labour amounts to a form of industry subsidy and cannot possibly be defended as being in the public interest. If the business community want skilled workers, they ought to actually invest in the education and training of our existing labour force, or persuade governments to do this (and thereby give skilled jobs to Australians). Instead, the Federal Government seems intent on providing business with the gift of an unfettered stream of immigrants, at a considerable cost to the wider Australian public.
It is common knowledge that immigration serves to drive down domestic wage levels. It is also clear that it acts as a major disincentive to recruiting and training our own people. After all, why bother wasting time and money training native-born Australians when you can simply opt for the quicker and cheaper option of importing foreign labour?
Gone, it seems, are the days when immigration policy was designed to protect the wages and job opportunities of Australian workers.