Grattan Institute

Overview

In the wake of the pandemic, Australia faces several challenges, including a slowdown in productivity, skills shortages and an aging population. Australia’s Migration Opportunity: How Rethinking Skilled Migration Can Solve Some of our Biggest Problems explores how a re-focused skilled migration scheme may address these issues.

Supported by the Scanlon Foundation, the Grattan Institute has produced a series of reports on how to strengthen Australia’s immigration program. These include

• Migrants in the Australian Workforce: A Guidebook for Policy Makers
• Fixing Temporary Skilled Migration: A Better Deal for Australia
• Australia’s Migration Opportunity: How Rethinking Skilled Migration Can Solve Some of our Biggest Problems

The latest report makes a number of strategic recommendations for strengthening Australia’s skilled migration intake, including improving visa portability, making employer-sponsored visas available for workers in all occupations where employees are earning over $85,000 a year; limiting less-skilled economic migration and replacing existing point-tested visa streams with a single stream that targets younger, higher skilled workers.

Implementing these changes has the potential to attract more skilled workers to Australia, resulting in increased productivity and flow on economic benefits.