Stephen Clibborn and Chris F. Wright from the University of Sydney have attacked Josh Frydenberg’s decision to uncap international students’ work hours across hospitality and tourism, claiming that it will create a “guest worker state” that will push wages and working conditions lower:
Our research shows it [the decision] is consistent with a troubling 25-year trend.
This policy does nothing to address the glaring inadequacies of the current employment enforcement regime for temporary migrants, which are particularly stark in parts of hospitality. It effectively offers international students up as sacrificial lambs to these employers renowned for exploitation…
With this change, the government is supporting the hospitality and tourism industries by allowing restaurants, cafes and hotels to rely more heavily on international students in their secondary capacity as workers…
The new policy contradicts the 2019 Migrant Workers’ Taskforce recommendation, accepted in principle by the government, to maintain the 40-hour work restriction…
Department of Home Affairs emphasised the importance of not jeopardising international students’ primary purpose – to study – citing evidence that students working more than 40 hours per fortnight were more likely to fail coursework…
So why introduce a policy that contradicts the Department of Home Affairs and Migrant Workers’ Taskforce, and endangers international students’ primary role as students? Because the policy is consistent with Australia’s 25-year march towards becoming a guest-worker state. With this policy, we might just have reached that destination…
The government views temporary migrants primarily as disposable suppliers of low-wage labour to Australian businesses…
There is serious risk of deepening a low-wage, low-skill, poor job quality equilibrium in hospitality and tourism. These are not the types of jobs that will drive up wages, encourage skill investment and career development, and aid other stated intentions of the government’s post-COVID economic recovery plans.
Hilariously, in 2018 I debated one of the authors – Chris Wright – on the Today Show about immigration’s impact on wages (video below). I argued that Australia’s mass immigration policy was pushing down wages – a point vehemently opposed by Wright.
Ever since that debate, Chris Wright has penned numerous arguments decrying the low wages and exploitation across migrant-heavy industries (e.g. here, here, and here).
This report from December 2020 was particularly damning of Australia’s visa system:
Almost nine in 10 job ads written in foreign languages and targeting migrant workers are offering below the award rate, according to unions and researchers…
“This is a scandal,” [Chris Wright said].
“Previous research done on this issue indicates a very high proportion of workers on temporary visas in Australia are being paid below the minimum wage and by ‘very high proportion’, I mean the majority.”
Clearly, Chris Wright suffers from an acute case of cognitive dissonance. Australia’s mass immigration program has unambiguously undercut wages.
