Australian government to offer permanent residence to skilled Indian workers

NEW DELHI: The skills that are essential for the Australian economy in the long term are available in India, and the Australian government is

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looking to tap the young Indian base in a big way in the coming years.

The Australian minister for immigration and citizenship Chris Evans, who is in New Delhi, in the wake of widespread violent attacks against Indian students in Australia, told ET that in view of the ageing workforce in Australia, the government was increasingly looking to attract Indian IT, engineering and medical professionals as permanent residents under the skilled stream migration programme (SSMP).

“Our medical system is already dependent in a big way on Indian healthcare professionals and the important message that we’d like to send out in India is that we’re looking for Indians with the right kind of skills for our economy. The Indians are a sizeable community in Australia and very well settled there. In fact, they are the second largest community of immigrants after people from Great Britain,” Mr Evans said.

Even though the ministry of immigration in Australia has recently cutback the size of the skilled stream migrant programme, Mr Evans said that there was no reason for potential skilled immigrants from India to worry. “We have gone in for a small cutback in the numbers in view of the global slowdown this year. However, we are still running one of the biggest skilled immigration programmes in recent years. Young Indian professionals as well as Indian students who graduate out of Australian colleges with the right skillsets are most welcome to come as permanent residents. Besides, the programme is likely to be scaled up again soon as the economy improves in perhaps a year or so,” Mr Evans said.

The Australian government is also planning to introduce more stringent quality assurance norms for education providers there-specially those in the vocational education and training segment-so that international students are not duped.

“We have already introduced an English language test for international students who apply for permanent residence and will launch the skills test for the same category early next year. This will help ensure that only those students who are suitable for jobs in Australia apply for permanent residence. By ensuring that education service providers maintain strict quality rules, we hope to ensure that international students are given the best quality of services,” the minister said.