Fiji Employers welcome Australian skilled migrant cuts

[Stacey King]

ABC RADIO AUSTRALIA
Updated Mon Mar 30, 2009 4:15pm AEST
Fiji's Employers Federation says the cuts announced to Australia's skilled migration intake earlier this month, are good news for Fiji as it will slow the country's "brain drain". With the international financial crisis biting, Australia's skilled migration intake for the year to the end of June has been cut by 14%, with building and manufacturing trade jobs removed from the critical skills list and job opportunities in other industries are drying up.

Presenter Jemima Garrett
Speaker: Fiji Employers Federation President Dixon Seeto

Listen: Windows Media

SEETO: Obviously, if it's a 14% cut you would probably see that a larger number of the people will not be able to migrate or migrate later which will give us some respite to our staffing and our personnel issue that we had before.

GARRETT: So which industries in Fiji are likely to benefit most?

SEETO: I think across the board, because the service industries and the tourism industry I think will benefit, because I do know that the tourism industry in particular, there are a lot of these skilled people, including chefs, middle management and top management people and technical people have left for greener pastures and I think also in the service industries in the banking, accounting, legal profession, they also have suffered, because you find that the better qualified people tend to migrate, because they earn much more, and also the technical people, people with technical skills. They have been able to migrate and I think this also is a function of the immigration policy of the different countries, that whenever there is a shortage in a particular country, the points actually go up for people applying with that particular skill, which makes it easier. So in actual fact, some of the shortages I think in these different countries are made up by I think migration, from the different countries, including countries like Fiji.

GARRETT: Remittances from Fiji nationals working abroad are an important part of Fiji's economy, Is the loss of remittances worth what you might save by keeping people at home now Australia is cutting its migration intake?

SEETO: The remittances admittedly were very high may be three years ago, but they have been falling rapidly. I think this is perhaps due to two things. One, the global recession, and also I think as time goes on, ties with your motherland sort of gets a bit weaker so to speak.

GARRETT: A lot of the cutbacks in Australia's immigration intake are in the building trades and manufacturing, things like bricklaying, plumbing, carpentry, that sort of stuff. Will there be enough building projects in Fiji to keep the skilled workers that are staying home in jobs?

SEETO: Well, there has been a downturn in the industries that you have mentioned, in particular the building trade, which flourished on the back of a buoyant tourism industry, and I would think there is a fair amount of slack there already, so I think in the short to medium term, I think there would be jobs for them I would think,

GARRETT: What will the cut to Australia's migration intake mean to Fiji's ability to keep its economy afloat as the international financial crisis continues to take its toll?

SEETO: By retaining skilled people, I think that always as I guess a positive outcome in terms of having people to do the job locally and not having to I guess rely on expatriates to do the job for you. And it would certainly help in terms of production and efficiency and training local people to do the work better. And I think that is important. Training is a never ending process and if we get people developed and trained by some of these people that are not going to go away. And I guess we are better positioned when the good times come back again.