Skilled labors from India are increasing in number

According to the new data released on Tuesday by the minister of Immigration and Citizenship Chris Evans, the immigrants form India consists of the second largest group of skilled migrants arriving in Australia under the temporary skilled migration programme in the period between years 2007-2008. The report mentioned that although almost a quarter of these temporary workers came from the UK, the Indian migrants were at the second position with 14 percent followed by the Philippines with six percent and the South Africans with six percent of the total migrants.

In order to meet the huge national skills shortages especially in professional occupations and highly skilled jobs, there was a 27 percent increase in the issuing of the visas. Last year as many as 111,000 visas were issued under the temporary skilled migration programme, whereas the year before, only 87,310visas were granted. Among the 457 work visa holders, almost 81 percent were employed in professional occupations and highly skilled jobs. These jobs consisted of computing professionals, registered nurses and business and information professional as the top three listed occupations for temporary foreign workers.

After not increasing for over two consecutive years, the minimum salary levels for the 457 work visa holders will be increased by 3.8 percent from August 1st. Evans said that this programme is not meant for acquiring cheap labor and emphasized that the government would not tolerate the exploitation of workers in any way. Evans said in a statement that the government is trying hard to improve the protections of the workers in order to prevent their exploitation.