The federal government has announced a new Premium Investor Visa (PIV), which offers a 12-month pathway to permanent residency “for those meeting a $15 million threshold”. The new visa will build on the existing Significant Investor Visa (SIV) program. Currently, SIVs are available for those with an eligible investment of $5 million.
Immigration minister Scott Morrison’s office announced on 14 October that the government wants to “encourage more high net worth individuals to make Australia home”, particularly those from China. Contrast that to the racist “No way. You will not make Australia home” advertising campaign targeting poor people from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran and Sudan.
The new scheme again illustrates that the Australian immigration regime is class conscious as well as race conscious. “Border protection” here, as in other countries, severely restricts the movement of the labouring classes in particular. This is not predominantly for “security”, as we are told constantly. It is in order that the bosses can better control and regulate the labour market.
On one level, that simply means locking out poor people and rolling out the welcome mat for the rich. More precisely, it means selecting only the most “economically viable” entrants. The 457 skilled visa program is an example: its aim is not simply to “fill skills shortages” but to provide a source of bonded labour, often employed to undercut wages and conditions or to keep unions out of particular projects.
Those hired on such visas are used up and sent packing once they have made an economic return for the boss. If they prove particularly profitable and pliant, they might find a pathway to permanent residency. The pressure is to keep their head down and not make a fuss, which is just what employers want.
This scheme too, the minister’s office has announced, is to be streamlined in order that companies can fast track the bonded-labour approval process.
With both these schemes – Premium Investor and 457 visas – race, ethnicity or religion are secondary considerations to the amount of money that can be generated or brought in by the applicant.
