Australia is sitting on an untapped $9 billion economic boost — and the key to unlocking it, according to advocates, is fixing the nation’s broken overseas skills recognition system.
“Two years ago, I moved to Australia on my wife’s PR visa, thinking my experience and university degrees in the insurance sector would help me settle into a similar high-profile role,” Manish* (name changed) told The Australia Today.
“But it’s been tough — I now work in a call centre during the week and drive rideshare on weekends to contribute to the family.”
The Activate Australia’s Skills campaign, backed by over 100 businesses, unions, industry bodies and community organisations, is calling on the federal government to overhaul what it describes as a bureaucratic, expensive and disjointed process that keeps skilled migrants working far below their potential.
“There are 620,000 people already living in Australia right now working below their skill level because of the barriers they face in having their overseas skills and qualifications recognised,” Dane Moores, campaign director and Head of Strategic Relations at Settlement Services International, said in a statement.
“At the same time, we have skills shortages across almost every industry acting as a handbrake on productivity and economic growth.”
The call comes ahead of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s planned national productivity roundtable in August, where the government will consider ways to lift economic performance in the face of labour shortages and slowing productivity growth.
Speaking at the National Press Club Albanese’s big announcement was on economic issues, particularly productivity growth, “At Parliament House in August, we’ll bring together a group of leaders from the business community, the union movement and civil society.”
“Making our way forward depends on what all of us can work together to achieve, and that’s why I’ve asked the treasurer, Jim Chalmers, to convene a roundtable to support and shape our government’s growth and productivity agenda.”
He says the government wants to build the broadest base possible to support further economic reform.
Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry CEO Andrew McKellar also welcomed the news, “There are few more critical issues than productivity for the Australian economy. In the end, that’s the only way that we’re going to get sustainable increases in living standards going forward.
“So, from a business point of view, we’re keen to participate. We will come with constructive ideas, suggestions how to improve productivity going forward. We want to see an ambitious agenda from the government. “
“These reforms are already widely supported by businesses, unions, industry groups and community organisations, all of which see the huge upsides from better harnessing the skills and productivity of workers already here,” Moores said.
“What we are talking about is a common-sense productivity solution: fix the skills recognition system so qualified people can work at their full potential and do the jobs we desperately need them to fill.”
The campaign is being convened by Settlement Services International (SSI), which estimates there are about 37,000 refugees in Australia currently working well below their level of training and experience.
“There are around 37,000 refugees in Australia right now … working below their level of skill and qualification,” said Moores.
“Almost every industry at the moment in Australia is suffering from skills shortages. We’ve got stagnant productivity and yet here is this tremendous talent source of refugees working below their skill level, which if we tapped into, could help address all of these skill shortages.”
New data from the Australian Institute of Family Studies (AIFS) also reveals the scale of the problem. In a decade-long study tracking 2,400 humanitarian migrants, researchers found that before arriving in Australia, 30 per cent of women and 19 per cent of men had worked in managerial or professional roles. A decade later, just 17 per cent of women and 10 per cent of men had jobs at a similar level.
“What we observed in the study is ‘occupational downgrading’,” lead researcher Dr John van Kooy told the ABC.
“This means people had managerial or professional roles, white-collar jobs in business, human resources, marketing or IT — in their home countries, but they have been unable to reach that same occupational status or even a similar occupational status even after 10 years of permanent residency in Australia.”
Among refugee women, the downgrade was even more dramatic AS “those who had been managers or professionals in their home countries, more than two-thirds (67 per cent) were not in paid work after 10 years of living in Australia,” he said.
“The remainder were mostly working as carers, cleaners, education aides or sales assistants.”
Dr van Kooy’s study also pointed to the importance of social networks.
“We found that participants who had friends from a mix of ethnic backgrounds — diverse friendship groups — were more likely to be employed than those who only had friends from their own ethnic background, or no friends.”
Moores insists the reforms are ready to go. “These reforms are common sense. They’re shovel-ready and would have an immediate impact on productivity and economic growth,” he said.
“If the Government is serious about lifting productivity, it must get serious about activating skills. Skills recognition reform is the best way to kickstart Australia’s productivity project.”
The campaign’s push has attracted backing from prominent national figures including former Treasury Secretary Dr Martin Parkinson AC PSM, former Reserve Bank Governor Glenn Stevens AC, and CEDA CEO Melinda Cilento — all calling for a national, joined-up approach to help skilled migrants contribute at their full potential.
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