This deficit flows on to Australian business – less than half of 380 businesses surveyed by Asialink and the Australian Industry Group reported having any board members or senior executives with Asian experience or language ability. Taking Australia’s “best and brightest to our region” requires policy and business engagement to develop the necessary cultural and linguistic capacity of Australians to properly engage the region.
The role of business and NGOs is seen to be an important base of support for the revitalised Colombo Plan, for example, through internships. This is a good idea which needs to fully acknowledge that relations with Asia must be a two-way street based on a strong, long-term commitment to language education, the development of cultural competencies, in-country study and other hands-on experience.
Other recent research from Monash University highlights another challenge to the government: temporary migrant workers who may be taking away jobs from young Australians. The authors, Bob Birrell and Ernest Healy, point out that in the year to May 2013, there was a rise of 168,000 recently-arrived overseas born migrants aged over 15 in Australia – 108,200 of whom were employed. This is almost as large as the increase in employment during that period (126,000).
In 2012-13, the number of Working Holiday Maker (WHM) visas issued was roughly equivalent to the number of school leavers who enter the workforce each year (around 250,000). These WHMs are aged 30 or less and seeking work in Australia, rather than a holiday supplemented by work. As a consequence, many young Australians “are seeking refuge in low-level training courses because of lack of employment opportunities”.
Even so, migration will play a major role in sustaining the Australian labour force. Given the ageing of the population, young adults make up a smaller proportion overall than previously. The workforce arguably has to come from somewhere, unless either fertility rates change significantly or sustainable alternatives can be proactively developed.
Other considerations, such as better meeting the needs of the international students already in Australia, have also been raised.
With the Coalition government’s focus on Asia through education, a fresh opportunity arises to engage the region beyond the “business as usual” and pilot project-based funding to approaches that have too often been the case in the past. Responses need to be adequately resourced and deeply embedded in our education curricula and workplace practices.
They should join the dots between Australia’s existing cultural fabric and challenges to cement our pathways to and from the region, and demonstrate that Australia means business.
Lucas Walsh is an Associate Professor and Associate Dean (Berwick), Faculty of Education at Monash University.
This article was originally published at The Conversation. Read the original article.
