This report seeks to future-proof the Australian vegetable industry from labour supply challenges — an industry of critical importance to Australia’s economic development and food security. The vegetable industry forms...
This report seeks to future-proof the Australian vegetable industry from labour supply challenges — an industry of critical importance to Australia’s economic development and food security. The vegetable industry forms a central part of Australian horticulture, with farms producing 93% of the total volume of food consumed and is part of an agriculture industry contributing $48.7 billion to GDP. It also supports an agricultural export market valued at $2.1 billion per annum.
The Australian Government introduced the Pacific Seasonal Worker Pilot Scheme (PSWPS) in 2008 to allow Pacific Islanders to fill seasonal labour shortages in the horticulture industry, and announced in December...
The Australian Government introduced the Pacific Seasonal Worker Pilot Scheme (PSWPS) in 2008 to allow Pacific Islanders to fill seasonal labour shortages in the horticulture industry, and announced in December 2011 that the scheme would be made permanent. Take-up of the scheme is increasing but has been very low.
As of the end of March 2012, only 1,100 PSWPS workers have arrived since the scheme’s commencement. This study tries to explain why the PSWPS has not employed more Pacific workers. It distinguishes between different hypotheses that could explain the poor outcome, and uses quantitative and qualitative analysis to test each hypothesis, including a survey of growers. The study finds a number of reasons for the low take-up. Growers are largely satisfied with their current labour supply, in terms of both quantity and quality: 93 percent of growers interviewed said they had no trouble finding labour, and 81 percent were satisfied with the quality of their existing labour force. The scheme is not well known: half the growers surveyed had simply not heard of the scheme, and most of those who had lacked information about it. The scheme also suffers from perceptions of high levels of risk and costs, including excessive red tape. Despite its slow start, PSWPS might still succeed on the basis of the productivity gains it has already shown it can deliver. But this is by no means assured: even growers who are unhappy with their current labour supply arrangements are reluctant to try the PSWPS. For the scheme to expand, the Australian Government will need to promote the scheme much more vigorously, and reduce the scheme’s financial and compliance costs. The Government also needs to attend to illegal horticultural labour practices, and tackle the booming working holiday visa category. Most growers now rely mainly on backpackers, and their numbers have increased rapidly in recent years: we estimate the number of backpackers working on farms increased from 13,000 in 2001-02 to 37,000 in 2007-08. In particular, the special preference which horticulture receives under the working holiday visa category should be removed. The policy challenges involved in making the PSWPS work should not be underestimated. Other avenues should also be explored for promoting Pacific migration, including adoption of New Zealand’s quota-based Pacific permanent migration schemes.
Many migration arrangements can be described as circular, repeat, seasonal or temporary, and these typically interact with other settlement based migration opportunities. The impact of circular migration on participants is...
Many migration arrangements can be described as circular, repeat, seasonal or temporary, and these typically interact with other settlement based migration opportunities. The impact of circular migration on participants is difficult to ascertain since it involves both a temporary source of new income and a temporary change in household composition and the location of household economic activities (the household becomes a transnational unit with members in two or more countries). The overall impact on the source country is even more difficult to determine because of the complex way that circular migration may interact with settlement migration. The recent opportunity for circular migration from Vanuatu under the Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE) Work Policy provides an opportunity to better understand these issues, since this scheme was introduced into a setting with very few settlement migration opportunities. This paper describes the effect of RSE participation, and the resulting increase in remitted and repatriated earnings on inter-household inequality in Vanuatu.
Seasonal worker programs are increasingly seen as offering the potential to be part of international development policy. New Zealand’s Recognised Seasonal Employer program is one of the first and most...
Seasonal worker programs are increasingly seen as offering the potential to be part of international development policy. New Zealand’s Recognised Seasonal Employer program is one of the first and most prominent of programs designed with this perspective. This paper provides a detailed examination of this policy through the first six seasons. This includes the important role of policy facilitation measures taken by governments and aid agencies. The evolution of the program in terms of worker numbers is discussed, along with new data on the (high) degree of circularity in worker movements, and new data on (very low) worker overstay rates. There appears to have been little displacement of New Zealand workers, and new data show Recognised Seasonal Employer workers to be more productive than local labor and that workers appear to gain productivity as they return for subsequent seasons. The program has also benefitted the migrants participating in the program, with increases in per capita incomes, expenditure, savings, and subjective well-being. Taken together, this evidence suggests that the program is largely living up to its promise of a “triple win” for migrants, their sending countries in the Pacific, and New Zealand.
International labour migration is a significant opportunity for Pacific Island countries. Increasing options for the movement of people to jobs provides a ‘triple win’ for the workers and their families;...
International labour migration is a significant opportunity for Pacific Island countries. Increasing options for the movement of people to jobs provides a ‘triple win’ for the workers and their families; the countries they come from; and the countries they work in. The Pacific Possible: Labour Mobility paper explores the potential benefits of labour mobility by 2040, providing a range of recommendations and policy reforms to achieve them.
From Background: The assumption that Australia is solely a country of permanent settlement is now outdated. Labour mobility is a key feature of globalisation and has led to a dramatic...
From Background: The assumption that Australia is solely a country of permanent settlement is now outdated. Labour mobility is a key feature of globalisation and has led to a dramatic increase in the global migration for work. Within Australia, the increasing reliance on temporary (as opposed to permanent) migration marks a transformation in the nature of Australia's migration program away from previous assumptions that migrants to Australia would become permanent residents and citizens.