The exploitation of migrant workers in Australia continues. No protection for migrant workers by the government.
After the end of the Covid pandemic, many businesses and policymakers have been working on reviews to faithfully guide government decision-making, which will make significant changes in the Australian Immigration system in decades.
In most reviews submitted by these policymakers and businesses, all have the same opinion to make reforms in the migration system to attract more skilled and capable talents to Australia to fill the gaps in the workforce.
All focused on these migrants to make a solid and sustainable workforce for the Australian industry.
All focused on the new migrants, forgetting the future of 2 million migrants already in Australia on temporary visas.
But this is not a solution, and government can not view migration as an extension of economic policy. Decades of planning on the same basis lead to the current conditions, where the number of temporary workers is more than the number of permanent workers.
Migrant workers are facing exploitation in every industry. Wage theft is something which is very common for migrant workers. And on top of that migration system does not provide any protection to these migrants.
In a research conducted by the Migrant Justice Institute in 2018, it was found that among 4332 migrants surveyed, three-quarters were paid less than the actual minimum wages set by the authorities, and among them, only 9% have raised a complaint against the employer.
Only a few immigrants take action against their employers to recover their wages, as most of the time, the employer does not agree with the claims of the migrant workers and finds loopholes in the system.
With no permanent residency pathways for these temporary migrant workers, these figures have built insecurity and equality among these migrant workers.
Will the Australian migration system look at the difficulties these migrant workers are facing at work, or they continue to ignore their exploitation for their economic gains?
