Foreign students boost unemployment among the young

By Geoff Maslen. Efforts by the Australian government to make studying in Australia more attractive to foreign students appear to have boosted unemployment rates among the nation’s young people, according to a new report. The report says tens of thousands of foreign students are successfully applying for different visas at the end of their courses so they can stay and work in Australia, in the hope of becoming permanent residents.
But the rapidly rising number of temporary migrants, including students, tourists and working holidaymakers, is causing increasing unemployment among young Australians. A study by Dr Bob Birrell and Dr Ernest Healy of the centre for population and urban research at Monash University in Melbourne has found that the Australian-born workforce grew by just 58,000 in the 12 months to August whereas at least 100,000 migrants arrived in the course of the year and found employment. More...