Make immigration to SA easier: SACES

Overseas migrants to South Australia should be enticed by offering an easier path to citizenship and opening up job visas for more occupations, a recent report by the SA Centre for Economic Studies (SACES) has recommended.

The think-tank has proposed that SA must boost the population in the country towns and small cities with foreigners who want the jobs that locals refuse.

More South Australians have moved interstate than people from other states have moved to SA since at least 1981. Keeping this in mind, the SACES report altogether made 14 recommendations to create a regionally focused migration program to boost the population across the state.

Some of the most important recommendations were:

1. removing caveats from skill lists for employers in regional areas;
2. improving post-study work rights for vocational education and training graduates working in regional areas;
3. creating a start-up visa for those in the country temporarily on other grounds such as student visas, 457 visas, or working holiday; and
4. targeting Business Innovation and Investment visas; among others.