Migrant Healthcare Workers

I was reading the Sydney Morning Herald online recently and came across an article from Dec 2011 regarding “benefits of health worker migration flow one way – to us”.

I found this article quite interesting in that it raises questions about the negative effects of migration on the countries where the migrants are coming from. We often only look at the benefits that migration will have on Australia. The Department of Immigration and Citizenships (DIAC) migration program is designed to look out for the best interests of Australians and Australian business. This is obviously up for debate depending on who you speak to and who is in government. However when the Minister for Immigration and his department heads are planning DIAC’s yearly migration program and what quota’s they expect to meet and the types of skills that Australia needs, do they stop to think what impact it will have on the countries where these highly skilled migrants are coming from? In particular this story highlights the impact this has on our pacific neighbours. I would tend to agree that our government needs to take a more balanced approach and look at the bigger picture when it comes highly skilled migrants coming from countries close by.

I feel it is a worrying trend that Australia relies on bringing overseas trained medical professionals from developing countries where they are needed most and you would think need to be retained. I am all for medical staff from these countries coming to Australia for short periods to develop their skills and then take them back to their home country. Australia should be investing into the education of our own citizens to be trained in these important jobs. As Australians we all take it for granted that we can see a Doctor the same day or within a short period of time, I doubt this can be said for the developing countries where we happy accept these highly skilled migrants. However I dare say that these highly skilled migrants are happy to leave there countries and move to Australia which has higher wages, better standards of living and better opportunities for their children.

Also recent news articles depict the large number of migrants fleeing New Zealand especially around the hard hit earthquake zone in Christchurch. Figures from the Department of Labour show New Zealanders departing for Australia for the year up to November 2011 were 44,900 this is an increase of 31,300 from the year before which is a 43.8% increase which was an record high net loss. How these figures will affect NZ only time will tell. However with NZ still an appealing destination for international migrants one can assume that their migration program will be increased to cope with the skills they are losing to Australia.

Healthcare Workers – what’s your next step?

Visa Australia would be more than happy to help Healthcare Workers (Doctors, Nurses, Medical Staff etc). If you would like to begin your visa application, please don’t hesitate to contact us.