Dr Stephen Kirchner, Research Fellow at The Centre for Independent Studies, has published a paper on a revolutionary concept that would scrap the Australian Government’s current method for identifying skilled migrants from overseas, and replace it with a radically different approach.
The monograph entitled Hands, Mouths and Minds: Three perspectives on Population Growth and Living Standards lays out the arguments for putting the onus squarely on individuals, confident in their professional abilities, being able to bid for skilled-migration visas.
Dr Kirchner says that the relationship between population growth and living standards has been a source of debate among Australian economists and the public for some time. “There’s never been any argument that population growth is good for the Australian economy,” Dr Kirchner told Neos Kosmos, “but there’s a lot of ambiguity as to whether population growth actually raises living standards in the long run.” Kirchner argues that the current system is a lottery, with Australia’s skilled migration policy targeting only short-term objectives.
“At the moment government bureaucrats are essentially picking winners as to who’s going to be successful, but potential migrants are best equipped to value what their prospects are economically and socially,” says Kirchner. “You could argue that under the existing scheme, there’s no way that a Frank Lowy or Peter Abeles [the Hungarian refugee who became one of the most powerful business figures in Australia] would have been chosen.”
Kirchner believes an auction scheme, as opposed to the existing bureaucratically determined criteria for filling short-term skills shortages, is the only tool, that could effectively encourage a new generation of self-starters to head to Australia. “The skilled migration program as it stands is run to fill skills gaps, targeting short-term imbalances, whereas a prospective migrant is looking for a much longer-term perspective and this is a better basis upon which to select people. The idea would be the temporary migration program would be left uncapped.”
Dr Kirchner says that finding the cash to enable a potential migrant to bid, would not necessarily need to be solely down to the bidder. “This is about permanent migration rights and people wouldn’t be limited to their own resources. Family, prospective employers, NGOs and community groups could assist the bidder. If you’re confident in your ability to make it in Australia, it’ll be reflected in your willingness to bid in the auction”.
The Sydney lecturer rejects that it would be rich individuals who would benefit from an auction process. “The wealthy are already very internationally mobile and have options under the existing business migration program. Those likely to take part in an auction are going to be middle to low income people, for who migration would mean big changes to their life circumstances.” Kirchener’s concept is based on an idea of symmetry between what he refers to as “brain gain rather than brain drain”.
“If you think that it’s a bad thing Australians leave the country, and take their skills and knowledge with them, we should think it’s a good thing when migrants bring their skills and knowledge. We’re not using the same judgements.” “We need to look at this symmetrically. We think of migrants as a source of labour, but we don’t look at the idea of new ideas and innovation coming from people with different cultural backgrounds.”