Future Glimpse – recovery induced immigration policy

There have been some fascinating immigration policy developments introduced in Australia which I believe are a window to the future pathway to cross-border talent economic recovery.

For over 20 years, the Australian Government has been widely regarded as innovative and forward thinking in its development and deployment of immigration policy. Many of the initiatives introduced by the Australian Government have been adopted by other larger economies including Singapore, United Kingdom, United States of America and Canada.

Some of the immigration initiatives pioneered by the Australian Government which have been adopted elsewhere include the use of people movement concessions in free trade agreements, data matching legislation, online visa lodgements, points based skilled migration and investor and entrepreneur immigration programs.

Which is why I noted with some interest two recent immigration initiatives introduced by the Australian Government, which I believe are a window to the future as global economies recover from COVID-19.

 'Strike team' to recruit exceptional talent for Team Australia

I have stated previously that in the years ahead the new “oil” is global talent, particularly in skills which are critical to economic recovery.

In September 2020, the Australian Government established a taskforce combining government and private sector experts as part of efforts to drive investment and job creation in the post-COVID-19 economy. The new "strike team" is charged with luring international businesses to Australia and will target exceptional talent in advanced manufacturing, financial services, FinTech and health.

The group was being established as talented workers and business leaders overseas looked to Australia and would target talent in countries including the United States, United Kingdom, Hong Kong and Singapore.

The team would leverage existing Australian networks abroad, including the Australian diaspora, to help identify opportunities. The Australian Government hopes to also leverage from Australia’s relative success economically, as well as from Australia’s successes in dealing with COVID both in terms of a health perspective and socially.

The plan follows moves by the Australian Government to develop incentives to attract export-orientated Hong Kong-based businesses to relocate to Australia.

Improving the ROI on Investor Immigration

The second announcement which caught my attention was the announcement by the Australian Government that it was releasing visa allocations for wealthy foreign investors with an interim allocation for investors willing to relocate to Victoria, Australia.

Why is this significant? Well, there are two caveats attached to this decision which make this a newsworthy announcement.

The first is that the allocation is for applicants to Victoria only and for a very limited period up to 6 October 2020. The reason for this is that Victoria is the one state in Australia which is battling to contain a second outbreak of COVID-19 and in doing so is in the midst of a significant lockdown of its economy, which will need measures to stimulate growth and recovery.

The second interesting element of this announcement is that the Australian Government requires each applicant under this interim allocation to demonstrate how they will contribute to Victoria’s economic recovery or health response to be approved for the visa.

This is therefore a very targeted use of immigration policy for a finite period and for very specific policy objectives. It is also an attempt to increase the return on investment (ROI) which the Australian Government is seeking to garner from foreign investors who have traditionally been able to use passive investments to obtain their valuable residency in Australia.

At a time when the Australian Government is examining ways to improve the economic and community benefits of the Investor Immigration program, I think this development is a noteworthy window to what the future of the program may look like.

In Summary

I predict that we will see more of this type of multi-faceted regulatory immigration policy development which incorporates economic, social and wellbeing elements in multiple locations worldwide as we gradually open our borders to the movement of talent.

This in turn will require an adjustment to workforce planning and management strategies by businesses as they balance the need to drive growth in key foreign markets, whilst balancing their duty of care responsibilities to their global workforce.  

Importantly, it will also require business to adopt a collaborative approach with government to co-design cross-border talent policy which support business growth, without the burden of over-regulation.