Three-and-a-half years ago, Shravan Nagesh relocated to Australia looking for better prospects and opportunities.
But now the 30-year-old commercial pilot is heading back to India.
“I’ve been a pilot for about three years. It’s a beautiful career,” he told 7.30.
“The long-term goal is to get into airlines. [But] there just isn’t enough jobs for everyone out there.
“I thought it would be better if I look for opportunities overseas than here.”
Global war for talent
Australia is attempting to attract skilled migrants from countries like India to address economy-wide skills shortages.
However, many are leaving after failing to realise their dreams.
Some migrants 7.30 spoke to cited racism, inability to find a job in their own field and a strict parental reunion policy as some of the reasons — and experts like Fethi Mansouri agree.
The director of the Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation said Australia was lagging behind other comparable countries in migrant intake.
“For roughly the same period, 2021, for Australia, we had 145,000 new migrants. Germany, in particular, attracted 1.3 million new migrants … and the UK more than 600,000 migrants,” he said.
“Focusing on Indian migrants, which used to be one of the key source groups for Australia, Canada has attracted … 100,000 more Indian migrants.
“It cannot simply be explained because of the pandemic lockdown because that would have impacted other countries in the same manner.”
The latest Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) data shows that net migration from India has rebounded after the depths of COVID, but the numbers are almost half of what they were three years ago.
Compared to June 2019, fewer Indians arrived in the year ending June 2022, and more have left too.
In September, the federal government lifted Australia’s permanent migration cap by 35,000 for 2022/23.
Speaking at the two-day jobs and skills summit in Canberra, Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil announced the cap would increase to 195,000 this financial year.
Professor Mansouri said the government’s target of lifting the number of skilled migrants by more than 20 per cent would not be an “easy task” unless more was done to help migrants thrive.
“We are definitely, post-pandemic, not doing … as well as other competitors who are really aggressively trying to attract migrants,” he said.
“And, I think part of it is … because we haven’t really simplified processes as quickly as we should.
“And we also take for granted that migrants want to come to Australia when they have so much choice they can actually pick and choose right now.”
Professor Mansouri said an inability to attract skilled migrants could be dire for Australia’s future.
“If at a time when we are facing an ageing population, the migration programs and systems do not keep up … our economic prosperity, our social fabric … will absolutely come under pressure,” he said.
“And we will see that the living standards will reduce, productivity will wane. And that’s not a very good outcome for anyone.”
Ms O’Neil said to build a migration program for the future, Australia needed to make a “big switch”.
“That switch is moving away from a system focused almost entirely on keeping people out, to one that recognises that we are in a global competition for talent,” she said.
“Because for the first time in our history, Australia is not the destination of choice for many of the world’s skilled migrants.
“Those best and brightest minds on the move are instead looking to live in countries like Canada, Germany and the UK. And those countries are rolling out the red carpet.”
The government is also reviewing Australia’s immigration system, with three prominent Australians overseeing the process.
For Mr Nagesh, at least, the government’s move has come too late.
The roadblocks to keeping him in the country started long before he even trained to be a pilot.
In 2019, Mr Nagesh moved to Australia to advance his career as an engineer.
Yet, despite working for four years in India at a global firm, he was unable to find a job.
“Almost every job I applied to, I used to get a standard template response from them,” he said.
“So they always used to tell me, either I don’t have local experience, or I don’t have local qualification.”
Mr Nagesh said he changed his name to “Sandy”, which got him a few interviews but did not result in a job.
After looking for a year, he decided to change professions and train as a pilot, only to have COVID decimate the aviation industry.
This is a story that Professor Mansouri has heard too often.
“Many of [the migrants] feel that their skills and qualifications are not really properly recognised in the system,” Professor Mansouri said.
“And therefore, then transitioning into the jobs that they want to do in Australia is not happening quickly enough or smoothly enough.”
He said the lack of broader support schemes like child care and parent reunion was also problematic.
“In many cultures globally, the idea of family is not just … the two parents and the kids,” Professor Mansouri said.
“One of the key considerations for [migrants] will be the extent to which they can bring a parent.
“So, all of those things would mean that a number of Indian migrants would be looking at alternative options in terms of where they would like to settle.”
A 2021 Committee for Economic Development of Australia (CEDA)’s report found nearly a quarter of permanent skilled migrants in Australia were working in a job beneath their skill level.
The study found this skills mismatch cost at least $1.25 billion in foregone wages between 2013 and 2018.
Former CEDA senior economist Gabriela D’ Souza, who wrote the report, said one of the reasons why migrants in the survey said they were having difficulty getting jobs was because of a lack of local experience.
“For me, that screams … red flag,” she said.
“What is it about doing a job in Australia that is so different to doing it in another country?
“And what is it about that job that you can’t learn in three months? I think there’s some kind of selection that’s happening … we know racism is an issue.”
Ms D’Souza said Australia really needed to grapple with its attitudes towards migrants if it wanted to stand a chance against other countries.
‘Subtle racism’ hinders career growth
Indrakshi Sreeram moved here 12 years ago with her parents, but her experience has been vastly different to theirs.
“Since I was so young, I was able to adapt pretty quickly,” Indrakshi said.
“I went to a pretty multicultural school as well. So all my friends were from different backgrounds. Over time, I feel like this is my home now.”
However, the 23-year-old’s mother, Radha Sreeram, said she faced micro-aggressions and found it difficult to advance her career.
“So, definitely, there is subtle racism,” Ms Sreeram said.
“Though, they do not openly tell you that you are an Indian … because code of conduct does not permit to discriminate people within the organisation.
“But when it comes to career growth or identifying the right candidate for promotion or increment, I will not be the one they opt for.”
Ms Sreeram, who works in supply chain management, said she also faced comments about her Indian accent and clothing.
“Once I wore a kurti [a round-collar short Indian shirt] on a Friday … with normal jeans,” she said.
“Mr boss said, ‘Why are you wearing this kind of kurti to office? You need to wear only T-shirt. When you are in Rome, be a Roman.'”
In 2020, Ms Sreeram took up a job in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
Last year, her husband, who works in the information technology (IT) industry, also left.
Parent reunion policy deciding factor
Shweta and Naimish Dobariya came to Australia in 2015.
Ms Dobariya is a business analyst and on a state-sponsored skilled migrant permanent visa.
But the family, too, is planning to move back to India.
“My husband is the only son,” she said.
“He wants to look after his parents, and I also agree with that.”
The mother-of-one said they had looked at bringing them over permanently.
But the process was either too long or too expensive.
“Parents visa is one of the most expensive visa, I will say, in Australia right now,” Ms Dobariya said.
“Bringing them over here, it will cost us at least $100,000 for the application fee.
“No-one has that kind of cash.”
According to the Department of Home Affairs, new parent and aged parent visa applications may take at least 29 years to process.
A new contributory visa can take at least 12 years.
A department spokesperson said in the October 2022 budget, the government increased the number of parent visas from 4,500 in 2021–22 to 8,500 in 2022–23, and that clearing the backlog remained a priority for the government.
For the Dobariyas, starting again — even back in their homeland — is daunting.
“Going back to India is, I would believe, one of the most toughest decisions we need to take,” she said.
“But we don’t have choice right now because we don’t want to stay apart from our family.”
Better prospects overseas
Struggling to find his dream job in Australia, Mr Nagesh has also made some hard decisions, including leaving a country he has come to love.
“Initially, it was a bit of a change coming from India,” he said.
“It’s a different lifestyle, different culture.
“Before moving to Australia, I didn’t know what rugby was. Now I love it more than cricket, to be honest.
Now the slate has been wiped clean once again — this time in India.
“It was a pretty tough decision … having settled here, adjusted to the place,” Mr Nagesh said.
“[I have] made a lot of friends and [have a] great social circle.
“But considering the opportunities, career prospects, and progression, I thought it would be better to go overseas and get out of my comfort zone.”
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