When Skilled Immigrants Aren't So Skilled

From The Independent Australian, Issue No. 13 (Spring 2007):

When Skilled Migrants Aren't So Skilled

Australia last year granted almost 150,000 permanent visas to migrants, of which about 100,000 were allocated to the "skilled migrant" category. While the definition of "skilled" is very broad, reaching down to hairdressers, the professional skills of many migrants are not necessarily what they seem, writes Alan Fitzgerald.

The top 10 industry classifications for 457 visa skilled workers in 2006-07 were health and community services (17%); property and business services (10%); communication services (10%); construction (9%); mining (8%); personal and other services (6%); accommodation, cafes and restaurants (6%); finance and insurance (4%) and education (4%).

These applications were approved to fill 'gaps' in the skilled workforce with the employers sponsoring the workers.

Yet, you hear stories of earlier migrants - accountants, IT specialists and engineers - reduced to driving taxis because of Australian employers' prejudice against employing them but it is their skill levels, not their ethnic origins, that is the problem.

Anthony Parsons, first assistant secretary of the temporary migrant division of the Department of Immigration and Citizenship, told a parliamentary inquiry that increased evidence of "fraudulent documentation" had slowed the processing time for lower skilled workers under the 457 visa scheme. The average for higher skilled workers was 27 days.

The mining industry isn't happy about the delays. It is urging the Government to "fast track" its 457 sponsored workers by cutting red tape and bureaucracy that comes with importing overseas workers on a temporary basis.

However, there are security concerns about bringing in thousands of workers from developing countries with scant background checks. Apart from falsification of qualifications, fake degrees and diplomas, there is also the problem that many of these skilled workers' homelands have second rate educational institutions.

A McKinsey study in the U.S. in 2005 found that only 25 per cent of Indian-trained engineers have the skills required to work for an international company. It was just as bad in the finance and accounting professions, where only 15 per cent of Indian graduates had the required skills.

Arts and humanities graduates were even lower down the scale, with 10 per cent being employable by an international company. If anything, the proportions for Chinese graduates are worse.

Recently, as both India and China have enjoyed prosperity, an expanding young "middle class" of professionals have emerged who are eager to acquire a Western lifestyle and salary to match. To underline this change, much emphasis has been placed on the huge turnout of graduates from their universities.

This pool of allegedly well qualified graduates and post-graduates is seen as the answer to the skills shortages in such fast growing countries as Australia, or to the ageing population of Europe.

A study by two academics at Duke University (Gary Gereffi and Viek Wadhwa) suggests otherwise. The study has found that the numbers of professional graduates in both India and China has been grossly exaggerated because all types of diplomas and informal certificates were counted.

The real number emerging with the full engineering degrees in India (112,000) and China is 351,000. The figure to compare these with in the U.S. is 137,000. While the totals appear significant, the Duke University study finds that apart from a handful of elite institutions in China and India, the quality of tertiary education is poor.

Another study by MeriTrac, quoted by Sanjeev Sanyal, Deutsche Bank's chief Asian economist, found that in the field of post-graduate degrees, the Asian giants left much to be desired. Only 23 per cent of Indians holding a Masters of Business Administation were employable, even by local Indian companies.

As the economies of both India and China expand, they are facing a skills shortage that will only compound the global skills shortage.

Australia has only itself to blame for the skills shortage here caused by under-investment in education and a belief that "buying in" migrant skills is a quicker and cheaper solution than producing our own professionals.

Take the doctor shortage. The Australian public health system is now heavily reliant on overseas trained doctors because the Federal Government set out to save money by cutting back on the number of university places for domestic medical students. The result is a shortage of doctors.

The quality and training of some of these overseas trained doctors is questionable. Apart from the notorious case in Queensland of medical incompetence leading to the deaths of 40 patients by an Indian doctor who fled to the U.S. to avoid prosecution, there are other cases that emerge from time to time when inquests are held.

Even worse, the State Health Departments are accepting into hospitals doctors trained, for example, in Saudi Arabia and paid by Saudi Arabia while they acquire additional expertise practising on Australian patients in Australia. This extraordinary situation came to light when the competence of a Saudi specialist at Westmead Children's Hospital in NSW was raised following the death of a teenager who had been struck by a golf ball. The patient had been given the wrong treatment and dosage of medication.

Of course, State Health Departments, trying to manage their budgets, will accept doctors whose wages are paid by someone else. But isn't this getting a bit too thrifty when it is the patients who may have to pay the ultimate price? The bureaucrats aren't held to account.

We may be concerned about the competence of imported professionals but our own universities' standards appear to be lower than they used to be since they now depend on income generated by foreign students. Despite protestations by indignant vice-chancellors, every fee-paying student gets to pass. That's what they are paying for - a piece of paper that says they are qualified.

The University of New England admitted in August that an audit of 210 overseas students enrolled in postgraduate IT studies had uncovered substantial evidence of plagiarism. The plagiarism involved the lifting of material from the internet.

This is only the latest case of plagiarism to emerge. In recent years there have been allegations of plagiarism in Australian universities around the country, most involving full fee paying foreign students. Tutors have alleged that pressure is applied to overlook the students' transgressions because too high a failure rate could only affect the flow of overseas students.

Somewhat disingenuously the National Union of Students president Michael Nguyen said foreign students were more likely to plagiarise material because they were not familiar with academic standards required by Australian universities. He said simply stripping the UNE students of their degrees would not solve the systemic issue.

Frankly, cheating is cheating. If a student who aspires to be a professional, particularly one aspiring to work in a Western country such as Australia, and can't recognise the difference between submitting his own original work or plagiarising slabs of text and passing it off as his own, then he shouldn't be rewarded by entry into the profession of his choice. A post-graduate student could hardly be unaware of the ethical difference.

The universities talk of counselling students, marking-down their contributions or failing a subject but it is doubtful if few or any students have been stripped of their degrees no matter how blatant their plagiarism. It's all about money rather than academic standards.

Even the Federal Education Minister, Julie Bishop, has belatedly got around to warning of the damage plagiarism could do to the reputation of Australian universities.

However, if the Federal Government invested more in tertiary education, there would be less reason for our universities to prostitute themselves for the income stream that overseas students provide. But as successful foreign students can now apply for permanent residency and look for a job on graduation, some of these poor students may enter the professions in this country with dubious ability, no matter what formal degrees they possess from an Australian university.

Australia appears to lose in both ways - importing sub-standard overseas professionals and in diluting the quality of our domestic degrees.

Peter Taylor, chief executive of Engineers Australia, warned the Government against using large numbers of skilled migrants as an easier alternative to overcoming skills shortages than by educating and developing the skills of Australians.

Speaking at an International Public Works Conference, Mr. Taylor said: "Engineers Australia believes that individuals should not be eligible for a 457 visa unless they have successfully undergone a skills assessment to confirm the level of their engineering qualifications and experience."

"Skilled migration must not become a replacement for a reliable and valued Australian skill base."

"The basis for enhancing and expanding Australia's engineering skills base needs to start in primary schools. Australia's children are losing interest in maths and science mid-way through primary school and at the end of secondary school fewer than 15 per cent are studying advanced maths and science that would lead to the oppportunity to take up careers like engineering."

Mr. Taylor said solutions to the underlying problems had to be found now if Australia was not to become simply a source of raw materials for the value-adding, productive world.

See also:

Immigrants worsening, not easing, skills crisis