Change and Continuity in Australian International Migration Policy

Almost half Australia's population are an immigrant or the child of an immigrant. This paper traces changes in Australia's immigration policy over the postwar period and relates them to changing global and national developments. While Australian postwar immigration policy changes are similar in many ways to those in other “traditional” migration countries there are a number of distinctive elements. The effectiveness of those policies in achieving government goals is assessed and it is concluded that most objectives of policy have been successfully achieved. Nevertheless there are a number of challenges which Australian policy makers face over the next decade.     

Immigration Policy in Australia,Canada, New Zealand,and the United States: An Overview of Recent Trends

Immigration policies in most host nations of the west have undergone significant changes in recent years. Based on the four country‐specific papers that appear in this section of the journal, and also on our own research, we present an overview of these changes and their context. In all countries, economic considerations play a central role in shaping immigration policy and greater importance is given to scientific research. Several common policy changes are noted in Australia, Canada and New Zealand which include: a shift away from a human capital focus toward more targeted selection based on labor market demand for specific skills, increased emphasis on temporary foreign worker programs, attraction of international students, an overhauling of the refugee system, and regionalization of immigration. In the U.S., while adoption of some of these changes has often surfaced in public policy and academic discussions, legalization of unauthorized migrants remains an important policy debate, with recent arguments focusing on the economic benefits of legalization.     

“Infiltrators” or Refugees? An Analysis of Israel's Policy Towards African Asylum-Seekers

This article adopts a genealogical approach in examining Israeli immigration policy by focusing on the situation confronting African asylum seekers who have been forced back into Egypt, detained and deported but who have not had their asylum claims properly assessed. Based on immigration policies formulated at the time of Israeli independence, whose principle objective was to secure a Jewish majority state, we argue that Israel's treatment of African asylum seekers as ‘infiltrators’/economic migrants stems from an insistence on maintaining immigration as a sovereign issue formally isolated from other policy domains. Such an approach is not only in violation of Israel's commitment to the Refugee Convention, it directly contributes to policies which are ineffective and unduly harsh.     

A Closed Immigration Country: Revisiting Japan as a Negative Case

The Japanese government maintains that the country admits only skilled economic migrants. Its statistics tell a different story. Skilled and low‐skilled economic migrants are admitted in equal measure. The aim of this article is to explain the dissonance between the government's policy rhetoric and policy outcome by turning to policy output. To this end, I quantitatively analyse immigration admission channels for economic migrants, using Ruhs' Openness and Rights Indicators (2013). The main findings not only go against much of what we believe about Japan but helps us reach a more nuanced understanding of its immigration policies. I demonstrate that Japanese immigration admission policies have become more open towards de facto low‐skilled economic migrants over time and are more open to de facto low‐skilled economic migrants than to de jure skilled economic migrants. Instead of openness, the gains made by certain groups of de jure skilled economic migrants have been exclusive immigration privileges related to permanent residence and family sponsorship.     

A Global Labor Market: Factors Motivating the Sponsorship and Temporary Migration of Skilled Workers to Australia1

The recruitment of skilled foreign workers is becoming increasingly important to many industrialized countries. This paper examines the factors motivating the sponsorship and temporary migration of skilled workers to Australia under the temporary business entry program, a new development in Australia's migration policy. The importance of labor demand in the destination country in stimulating skilled temporary migration is clearly demonstrated by the reasons given by employers in the study while the reasons indicated by skilled temporary migrants for coming to work in Australia show the importance of both economic and non‐economic factors in motivating skilled labor migration.     

Policy Streams and Immigration to Russia: Competing and Complementary Interests at the Federal and Local Levels

This article uses Kingdon's Multiple Streams Framework to explain forms of national‐ and region‐level governance used in the Russian Federation to manage unprecedented levels of international immigration. First, we identify the ways that the Russian federal government has legislated and governed international migration from 1991 through 2010. We then compare the federal level to the case of the Krasnodar region, an ethnically diverse region in the North Caucasus. We find that that migration policy adoption in Russia at the federal level is relatively immune to economic trends or labour needs but more sensitive to foreign and domestic political objectives. At the regional level, local socio‐political and economic concerns predominate and political objectives are secondary. Finally, we argue that migration policy changes or adopted policy at the regional level may be explained by an interaction effect between changes in political leadership, federal level policy adoption, and regional level context.     

Migrants and asylum seekers: policy responses in the United States to immigrants and refugees from Central America and the Caribbean

This article analyzes the complex political environment of US immigration and refugee policies in which tensions exist, especially with regard to Central America and the Caribbean. Recommendations for managing it more effectively in the future are discussed. Several western countries, including the US, have implemented stricter restriction policies as a result of the perceived threats to their economies and cultural homogeneity. In general, US immigration policy has addressed both economic concerns and domestic pressures, whereas US refugee policy has reflected foreign policy concerns. As a result of these policies, there has been an increasing number of immigrants from Mexico, as well as huge numbers of refugees from Cuba and Nicaragua. Yet, there has been limited acceptance of asylum seekers from Haiti, El Salvador and Guatemala. Among the policies passed by the US Congress to reduce illegal immigration and limit assistance to legal immigrants were the Welfare Reform Act, Illegal Immigration Reform, Immigration Responsibility Act of 1996, and the Proposition 187 movement. Revisions in the procedures of the Immigration and Naturalization Service were also made.     

The Impermanence of Permanence: The Rise of Probationary Immigration in Canada

This article engages with arguments that contemporary immigration politics is defined by a “loss of settlement” by examining recent developments in Canadian immigration and refugee policy that have made permanent residence less permanent. We suggest that the rise of probationary immigration has been facilitated by horizontal status stratification within groups that were historically marked by relative status equality. In order to examine this claim empirically in the Canadian context, we analyze the rise of temporary foreign worker recruitment, the move from “one-step” to “two-step” immigration, and changes to refugee policy that, for the first time, linked loss of refugee status to the loss of permanent resident status.     

Labour Migration Policy in Russia: Considerations on Governmentality

The authors argue that Russian migration policy reflects the functioning of contemporary Russia's entire bureaucratic machine. The bureaucracy's Soviet‐era governance techniques on the one hand and the material interests of particular pressure groups on the other, shape the manipulation of immigration regulation that has occurred since the early 2000s. Therefore, attempts to liberalize migration regulation, i.e., to simplify the legalization of foreign workers, have always been incoherent, accompanied by reservations and limitations. Additionally, Russian actions are riddled with conflict between ‘geopolitical’ and domestic policy rationales. The authorities’ occasional attempts to use immigration regulation as a foreign policy tool acquire primarily symbolic value in the ‘domestic political market’ rather than serving any instrumental purpose. The effort to enhance Russian influence in the post‐Soviet space through the ‘reintegration project’ (Eurasian Economic Union) collides with the goal of national labour market protection, since integration entails the removal of barriers to labour movement.     

Latin American Migration to Spain: Main Reasons and Future Perspectives

Over the last two decades, Spain has evolved rapidly from a classic labour exporter to a labour importer. Until the 1930s Spain's migration history was predominantly marked by emigration to the Americas, and from the end of World War II until the early 1970s by emigration to some industrialized countries in Western Europe. For the first time in modern times, Spain is now the second country in the world with large‐scale immigration. Its strategic location, a relatively permissive immigration policy and economic opportunities derived from Spain's entry into the European Community have positioned this country as a major destination for immigrants. Additionally, since the mid‐1990s international migration in Spain has dramatically changed in origin composition. Despite the common perception of Africa as the most important source of immigration, some Latin American countries, in a very short time, have become some of the major sources of immigration to Spain; indeed, the term “Latin‐Americanization” has been coined to describe this process. This being so, the aim of this article is twofold. First, we examine the main reasons behind the extremely rapid increase of Latin American migration to Spain during the last decade. Then we briefly discuss some future perspectives.     

Migration at a Time of Global Economic Crisis: The Situation in Spain

In this paper, we offer an initial assessment of the impact of the economic crisis on Spain's migration flows. After a period of intensive economic growth and the ensuing immigratory appeal (1995–2007), Spain has been hit hard by the recession. This has modified the trends that had so far characterized foreign immigration in Spain. The impact of the economic recession has been particularly severe in the case of immigrant workers and, consequently, from an institutional point of view, the Spanish government has adopted various measures to restrict the arrival of new immigrants: it has reduced work permit quotas and it has modified the Foreign Residents Law, toughening residence permit requirements. It has also tried to encourage voluntary returns with a programme devised to provide assistance to immigrants originating from countries with which Spain has social security agreements. The response to this programme has, however, been very limited. Immigration flows have continued and rates of return have stayed low, although new trends are also detectable, such as a decrease in the number of irregular arrivals and a rise in informal employment, as well as differences in the impact of unemployment according to nationality and gender. This reveals the complexity of migration processes beyond the supply and demand of labour and the political will to regulate human mobility. Consequently, immigration patterns in Spain reveal the degree of complexity reached by human mobility, which has increased beyond the logic of the labour market and the government's attempts at regulating migration flows by means of institutional measures. The immigrants' hope of raising their standard of living and the socio‐economic differences between source and receiving countries, even at a time of severe economic crisis, do still serve as explanations for current migration networks, one of the key points in the current debate on international migration.     

Being “top-ranked” without “causing troubles”: Comparing federal and provincial immigration pathways for Chinese international students in Canada

Canada's immigration selection regime uses a combination of human capital measures and direct employer involvement to select economic immigrants, emphasizing pre-arranged employment as critical to secure permanent resident status. This trend affects international students in unique ways. We interviewed 17 Chinese women international students residing in Canada about their decision to study and desire to stay in Canada. Participants faced difficulties in accumulating adequate employment records for immigration applications and employer-driven immigration pathways put them at considerable risk of deskilling and exploitation. When comparing available immigration pathways, we found that participants had more success with provincial programmes than federal ones because of the availability of flexible pathways, greater options and lower requirements for eligibility. We conclude with three policy recommendations to highlight the importance of periodic revisions to selection criteria to balance human capital measures and employer reliance to retain talented foreign workers in Canada.     

Lessons in Democracy: America's Tenuous History with Immigrants

Taking an uncompromising stance on immigration enforcement, the Trump administration has been sharply criticized for its policies and racially coded rhetoric of immigrants as criminals or undesirables. Despite this criticism, the administration's policies fall in line with historically widespread, exclusionary, nativist and xenophobic attitudes towards immigrants. Much of the American immigrant story has been a tortuous struggle for equality, integration and civil rights. This essay takes a critical look at the complicated history of immigration policy during the last century, focusing on the social, economic and political forces that helped shape legislation.     

Interests Aren’t Everything: An Exploration of Economic Explanations of Immigration Policy in a New Destination

Current debates around US immigration policy are playing out against a backdrop that has changed significantly in the past 20 years: immigrants have increasingly gravitated towards “new destinations”; a large and growing portion of immigrants are undocumented; and the federal vacuum in responding to the promise and problems of these new immigration trends has devolved policy to the states. As a result, we have seen innovation on the state level as policymakers seek to accommodate, welcome or resist immigration, with varying degrees of success. In this paper, we explore the case of Utah as a new immigration destination, seeking to understand its transformation from a state with very inclusive immigrant policies as late as 1999 to one currently adopting highly restrictive immigrant policies. To explain this trajectory, we test three prominent materialist theories of public policy: instrumentalism, structuralism and strategic-relational approaches. We draw on a decade’s worth of primary data – including data on state-level legislation, key economic indicators, public statements concerning immigration from the private business sector and the LDS Church, and the editorial content of the state’s two major newspapers regarding immigration – to examine the policy explanations that grow out of interest-based theories of the state. Whereas these theories provide robust explanations for a large and diverse array of public policies, we find that they fall short in explaining immigration policy. While conventional wisdom – and extensive scholarly research – suggests that economic interests drive policy, we find that the policies around immigrants challenge this economic reductionism, suggesting the need for more complex and ideational accounts of this important phenomenon.     

When the State Becomes Part of the Exploitation: Migrants’ Agency within the Institutional Constraints in Australia

Studies have shown the unequal treatments temporary migrants face in the processes of immigration. In Australia for a short period of time and not citizens, they face conditions that allow for employer exploitation. This article is interested in exploring how institutional structures shape and normalize the choices that migrants make to work in the cash economy or other exploitative conditions. To do this, we take PRC‐Chinese, Taiwanese, and Hong Kongese temporary migrants who hold either a student or Working Holiday visa in Australia as an example. Focusing on the policymaking process, we argue that the policy outcomes produced by visa restrictions placed on international students and Working Holiday Makers sometimes do not reach an ideal outcome and at times even exacerbate problems identified in the input stage of the policy process. Such institutional effects result in a more vulnerable and exploitable situation for temporary migrants in Australia's labour market.     

Intra-company transfers: The government/corporate interface in the United Kingdom

This paper explores the role of intra-company transfers in the United Kingdom government's labour immigration policy over the last quarter century. It demonstrates their role in determining the number of non-European Economic Area foreigners working in the country and examines the way policy, both generally and specifically, has developed. It presents new statistical data and uses that evidence to examine the interplay between the government and multinational corporations in the determination of a significant element of foreign labour immigration. Its findings demonstrate that intra-company transfers have consistently played a major role in the management of UK labour immigration with a small number of occupations and countries of origin characterizing the system at various times. It concludes that the system has operated through a symbiotic relationship between government and major companies to the mutual benefit of both. However, ‘Brexit’ and the COVID-19 pandemic are leading to reassessment of political and corporate objectives.     

The effect of immigration on the earnings of native-born workers: Evidence from Australia

No consensus has been reached by previous studies on the impact of immigration on the earnings of natives. Using data from the Australia's 2001 Census of Population and Housing an individual-level earnings function is estimated by including the fraction of immigrants in a given skill group relative to total employment in that skill group as one of the independent variables. Using employees’ occupation and level of education as proxies for skill, the results indicate that generally immigrants have a significant positive effect on earnings of natives. The overall findings suggest that the increase in supply of labour due to immigration is offset by higher demand for labour and hence positive effect on native earnings.     

The quantity and quality of new immigrants to the US

Since immigration to the US began to accelerate in the 1970s, economic and social policy issues surrounding immigration frequently raise concern and generate debate. These policy debates often aim to mitigate the costs of immigration and augment the benefits. Key to this is understanding the characteristics of immigrants, especially those related to economic success and integration. A commonly accepted finding in the economic literature regards the declining economic “quality” of successive immigrant cohorts as measured by differences in entry wages across cohorts. In this paper, I refine our understanding of immigrant cohort quality. I show that increasing competition in the labor market among immigrants can explain a significant portion of declining “quality”. This result suggests that labor market interactions are as important to immigrant economic integration as their inherent “quality”.     

The role of immigration in Canada's demographic outlook

Canada's contemporary demographic profile has been profoundly influenced by the end of the baby boom, decline in the fertility rate, ageing of the population and prospects for an absolute decline in population shortly after the turn of the century.
These demographic characteristics necessitate an enhanced role for immigration and the need for a more proactive immigration policy in order to correct and fine-tune demographic trends and to come to grips with the social and economic challenges and opportunities of the next few decades.
The expanded role of multicultural immigration conveys a sense of urgency in terms of exploring and anticipating the economic and social costs and advantages related to immigration that are decidedly more multicultural and multiracial in composition.
Canada's immigration policy will require a realignment of economic and social policies as well as cultural and linguistic programmes in view of the multicultural composition of family dependents, business and entrepreneurial immigrants and refugee movements.     

Recent Developments in Aged Care Policy in Australia

Summary

A series of major reforms implemented through the mid 1980s sought to contain residential care and expand community care in Australia's long-term care system. While this goal has been maintained, a number of new policy initiatives followed the change of federal government in 1996. This article presents a systematic account of current policy objectives, implementation measures, and outcomes in three major policy areas: changing the balance between residential and community care, targeting in community care, and support for family caregivers. This analysis shows that while there have been shifts in emphasis from time to time, concerted policy efforts over the last 20 years have contained the growth of expenditure on long-term care and realized significant change in the service system.