Coming Soon: Australia’s Pacific Engagement Visa

Despite the close relationships Australia has with Pacific Island countries, increased strategic competition in the South Pacific has led Canberra to seek further pathways to integration. The latest device is the Pacific Engagement Visa, which gained approval from the Australian Parliament in mid-October. The new visa will be accessible early next year.

The Pacific Engagement Visa will allow up to 3,000 nationals of Pacific Island countries and Timor-Leste to migrate to Australia as permanent residents each year. The idea is to strengthen the diaspora communities that are already present in Australia, while encouraging greater linkages – cultural, economic, and educational – between Australia and their countries of origin.

A ballot system, similar to the United States’s “green card lottery,” will be used to select applicants.

The applicants must be between 18 and 45 years old and will be required to have secured a job offer before migrating. The criteria of securing a job offer may undermine the purpose of the ballot process. The ballot process is designed to ensure equal access to applicants regardless of their skill level and occupation. Yet those with the skills to be able to secure a job without actually being present in Australia will find this criteria easier to negotiate.

The new visa is built on the success of the Pacific Australia Labor Mobility scheme, which has provided temporary work for Pacific Islanders, mostly in rural settings. According to the World Bank, for several months of work within Australia these temporary workers have typically been able to send around $5,700 to their families in their respective countries. This can be as much as three years’ worth of the wages that they would have earned at home. This has made temporary work visas highly sought after, as they provide a huge boost to livelihoods and opportunities.

Viewed as a development tool, remittances are often far more effective than aid. Families have the best knowledge of their own circumstances, and remittances give them greater freedom to make decisions that are right for them. Remittances also provide a far stronger sense of dignity – an awareness that increased living standards and greater opportunities are due to the fruits of people’s labor.

As a developed country in a developing region, the economic uplift of the Pacific and Timor-Leste is of critical importance to Australia. There is a significant security and economic dividend to be obtained from having more prosperous neighbors. Finding new tools to improve regional conditions is therefore a strategic imperative.

In terms of the region’s strategic competition, migration and the resulting remittances are a tool of engagement that China cannot match. This perspective brings into question whether Australia is actually authentic about its engagement with the Pacific and the proposed advantages of this visa. However, initiatives like this can be both a response to strategic competition and an enterprise driven by a genuine desire to strengthen regional bonds. The former doesn’t necessarily sully the latter.

While access to Australian labor markets – and to permanent residency – may create a significant amount of goodwill in the region, there is also the risk that this new visa may undermine one of its key purposes. Despite the lottery system, the visa will still advantage those with higher skill sets and there is the potential for it to become a major drain on vital skills within Pacific Island countries and Timor-Leste.

While remittances are a critical development tool, the development of skills is of greater importance. The migration of the most capable people from these developing states will not only limit governments’ ability to address current needs, but also make it more difficult to pass essential skills on to subsequent generations. Permanent migration – as a opposed to temporary migration – weakens the process of skills transfer among populations.

Once the visa is operational it will become apparent how these potential problems will actually play out. The hope from both Canberra and the Pacific will be that the positives of greater regional integration will far outweigh any negatives. Australia’s pursuing new initiatives to make good on its claim that the Pacific is part of its “family” is welcomed, although it is essential that families don’t weaken their members.