By Melissa Westwood April 12 2011
Changes to the immigration act have dashed the hopes of many international students of gaining permanent residency in Australia upon completion of their studies.
Introduced in 2010, these changes were designed to limit the number of students staying on in Australia and to refocus immigration policy onto filling the gaps in the labour force which has seen the Commonwealth Skilled Occupation List (SOL) reduced from 400 to 130.
For many students the numbers of job opportunities have disappeared including that of University of Notre Dame communications student, David Lough.
“I came here thinking I was going to have a lot more opportunities than I have,” said Mr Lough.
“It’s a little disheartening that mid-way the rules of the game have changed, especially considering I pay $1000 a term to go here.”
Earlier this year Immigration Minister, Chris Bowen, conducted an interview on ABC Radio National talking about the issue of international students gaining permanent residency.
“...they came to Australia to study, frankly, courses which were designed to maximise their chance for permanent residency – courses such as hairdressing and cookery and others – and when they were removed from the Skilled Occupation List because there wasn’t a view that they were needed, skilled migration in those particular areas, then it did become harder for those people to become permanent residents,” he said.
“I think it’s very important to the nation on a whole range of levels that we have a very strong international student presence in Australia, but I’m also of the view that our skilled migration should be driven by the needs of the economy.”
While some changes to the Immigration Act have made it more difficult for some students to get a visa this is not always the case, said Elda Rizk, the International Student Coordinator at the University of Notre Dame.
“Old regulations emphasised that students had to have full-time work experience that was related to their degree, casual work at Woolworths or Coles didn’t count,” she said.
“Now new changes to regulations allow students who have no work experience to apply for permanent residency.”
Applicants for permanent residency and work or students' visas must prove their competence under the International English Testing System (IELTS), which is relied upon by the Department of Immigration.
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