Dr Chris F Wright, a senior lecturer in Work and Organisational Studies, has conducted research into how the benefits of immigration can be harnessed, while addressing the emerging issues of exploitation and reduced investment in employee training.
Although Australia has been shielded from much of the anti-immigration sentiment evident in other parts of the world, these attitudes are starting to have an influence, Dr Wright says.
Policies around the labour market, education and training, and immigration are the three key areas that can address how Australia meets workforce needs, he says. Businesses now have the opportunity to work with government to ensure Australia remains a leading source of global skills and ideas.
Rather than being treated as two separate policy areas, governments have got to look at immigration and education and training as complementary arrangements for meeting workforce needs and to think about how those arrangements work together more effectively.
Wright CF 2017 Forthcoming 'Employer Organizations and Labour Immigration Policy in Australia and the United Kingdom: The Power of Political Salience and Social Institutional Legacies', British Journal of Industrial Relations
Wright CF, Groutsis D and van den Broek D 2017 Forthcoming 'Employer-sponsored temporary labour migration schemes in Australia, Canada and Sweden: enhancing efficiency, compromising fairness?', Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies
Wright CF, Clibborn S, Piper N and Cini N 2016 'Economic Migration and Australia in the 21st Century', Lowy Institute for International Policy