How to bring in more migrants

If you donate to Amnesty International, or Oxfam, or Save the Children then you should be a friend of allowing more migrants into Australia. The same if you support the escape attempts by Afghans, Ukrainians, Syrians, and those from Hong Kong. Not living under a dictatorship is the best way to avoid living under a dictatorship. One of the best ways to lift people out of poverty is by people moving from developing countries to developed countries.

What should immigration overhaul then look like in Australia? Expanding the number of people who can come on working holidays, not just those living in a relatively small number of rich countries. Allowing those on visitor visas to stay indefinitely if they follow rules, and can self-fund. Making it an automatic process to go from visitor to working visa. Allowing companies to sponsor employees from overseas, on a part-time basis, not just full-time. Making it easier for those employers to sponsor. And making it easier for those employees to switch employers to avoid being exploited

It means lifting the refugee intake up from less than 19,000 to 40,000 per year. If we can issue 160,000 skilled migrant and family visas a year, in addition to temporary visas, we can take in more refugees.

Making education more affordable for international students so more can come here.

Government departments, who are not subjected to the same visa rules to bring people into the country, should recruit more from overseas.

And providing more guest worker visas, and visas for unskilled migrants. Policies that only allow the brightest in or the richest in are not right. .

At the very least, these changes would mean more money for Australia. There is the essay by Nathan Smith, published by the Cato Institute. That points out that providing a visa to basically anyone that wanted to come to the US, who cleared health and security checks, deposited money into an account {that may have gone to people smugglers instead}, and paid special taxes, could result in 180 billion a year in revenue for America. This number would be much less in Australia of course, but still significant, but are any of these policy changes mentioned really doable?

The Australian Government recently announced that it is going to allow young people in India access to a working visa for the first time. As part of the Free Trade Agreement. They announced in 2020 that Hong Kong students could extend their stay in Australia, with the possibility of permanent residency. So, there are already moves to bring more people in, especially people we like.

If the survey commissioned by the Human Rights Council is correct, 78% of those surveyed believe that migrants already in Australia on temporary visas should have the option to stay longer. So, this makes the decision to expand visas to migrants politically more doable for the government of the day. .

Many people in the survey understood the benefits that come from migrants. Helping with skilled shortages, doing jobs Australians don't want to do, and countering the ageing population, among other things.

It could be how it is done that matters. If all the policies are announced as part of a commitment to full-employment and boosts to infrastructure. To reassure locals that increased migration is not going to negatively affect them, it could help get public support. Yet It could be something more basic that gets the public to support more migration, profit.

Infrastructure payments to absorb more migrants for States or even suburbs. The profit could even go directly to Australians. The Cato Institute's 12 new immigration ideas for the 21st Century, included transferable citizenship. A way to make money, by transferring one's citizenship over to someone else, for a fee, when one leaves their country of birth. In the same way that one may sell their home, or business to someone else.

Robin Hanson, the essayist, also notes that one would not have to even transfer citizenship. The other options include merely renting it out. Someone may benefit even without selling or renting their citizenship. Hanson points out that the valuable asset that is transferable citizenship could be used to underwrite personal loans.

Hanson notes an idea pushed by others, transferring working rights. An idea he did not like, but may have potential.

Providing an income to an unemployed Australian, who temporarily transfers their working rights because they can't find work, or can't work due to illness or family commitments.This could be a help to long-term unemployed Australians, who could see a boost to their income. As the government deposits the money paid by the migrant into their accounts. If they can't work, why should someone else, who could, miss out.

These ideas are not without issues, but they do make the case that direct benefits to Australians could mean more support for more migrants.