The Pacific Engagement Visa is something Australia 'can offer that China can't’ and ‘is here to stay’

Australia's new access category for aspiring migrants from Pacific Island countries appears to be off to a great start.

The first stage of the Pacific Engagement Visa (PEV) is over, with more than 50,000 people applying through a ballot for the 2700 places available.

The new visa would allow Pacific Islanders to move permanently to Australia, with their families, once they have completed satisfactory health tests and found work for the first year after the move.

RNZ Pacific spoke with the director of the Development Policy Centre at the Australian National University, Stephen Howes.

(The transcript has been edited for brevity and clarity.)

Stephen Howes: The Australian government's now released data. Now that the ballot has closed, they've released data on how many people actually applied for the PEV across the Pacific. And the total number, or the bottom line, is 56,127. That's for 2700 visas. So, on average, we had 21 people apply for each visa. Then you've got to remember that they're just the primary applicants - they can also register their family.

We don't know exactly how many family members were registered, but if you think, on average, each person registered one or two family members, then it's probably about 50 people applying for each visa. Now that ranges a lot from country to country. We do have a country specific numbers, but overall, you'd have to say, especially [as] this is the first time that this ballot has been run, I think [the] Australian government would be very happy with the response.

Don Wiseman: A lot of very unhappy people, though.

SH: That's right. But you're giving away permanent residency to Australia. It's a great prize, and there's not a lot of cost involved in registering. It's a pretty simple online application. It only costs $25, and of course people will apply next year. I think overall, it's a very positive experience.

It also underlines why you need the ballot, because it does show how valuable this permanent residency is, and if you didn't have a ballot, you'd have to have some other criterion, it would be much more biased towards skilled applicants, whereas even now, we're already hearing stories about people. I know that one security guard got an offer in PNG. We are seeing successful applications coming in across the socio-economic spectrum.

DW: Do the people applying need guaranteed employment?

SH: This is only the first stage, and at the moment, all they've done is select people who are now in a position to apply for the actual visa. The ballot is a pre-application process. So you've now got to cross a few hurdles, and the biggest one is that one you mentioned - that you need to get a job offer for at least a year.

A number of these applicants, we don't know how many, would already be in Australia, because there was nothing to stop you applying if you were already in Australia, say, on the PALM scheme. So, they've already got a job, they need to convert their contract from a sort of PALM type contract to a PEV type contract. But they're in a better position.

Others who are overseas, it will be more difficult for them to find a job. But the Australian government has put in place an employment service, a matching service, and there'll be a company that you can get in touch with, and they'll help match you with employers who are looking for workers.

DW: And what is the motivation for Australia doing this, doing it now?

SH: I think the motivation, the way it's articulated, is to build up the Pacific diaspora in Australia. This is a visa that New Zealand has. New Zealand has the Pacific Access Category and the Samoa Quota. We're putting in place something New Zealand's had for a long time. There are a lot of demands from the Pacific for easier access to Australia and we've put in place in response to those, the labour mobility schemes, the PALM scheme.

But this is sort of a natural next step to this, where you actually are providing opportunities for permanent residency and to build the diaspora. There are a number of factors, I think, that have all come together. Of course, climate change is one underlying factor. There's a sense in countries, not that they should all leave, but it's good for countries to have options, and then the geopolitical competition is important.

This is something we can offer the Pacific that China can't. So, a number of factors have come together to lead to this PEV. It did become controversial last year when the opposition decided to oppose the ballot. But I think the fact that the ballots been so successful in its very first year, indicates that this new visa is here to stay.

DW: Now, just to go back to some of those figures you mentioned before. Among them, Tuvalu. You've estimated that 20 percent of the people on Tuvalu applied.

SH: That's right. That is an estimate because, as I said, they've only released data on the primary applicants, so we have to estimate how many family members were put on the application. But we've made I think what's a reasonable guess, and you do get this number of 20 percent for Tuvalu.

So it just shows how popular this visa is there, and perhaps also gives insight into why Tuvalu pursued this Falepili Treaty, because that treaty has its own migration mechanism to Australia in addition to the PEV, and you can see how important these migration options are for Tuvaluans, and that kind of explains why they pursued the union with Australia. But it's not only Tuvalu, we estimate 13 percent of Tongans applied for the PEV, and then 8 percent in Nauru and in Fiji. Fiji's a much bigger country, so that's a really striking result as well.

DW: In PNG, I think PNG was to get nearly half of all of the visas, is that right?

SH: Each country gets an allocation under the PEV, and PNG got the biggest allocation, which was 1,350 and there were some concerns that there just wouldn't be enough people applying for those visas in PNG, because PNG is very different to Fiji or Tonga doesn't have that tradition of migration. And just at a practical level, it's quite a complex process to get a passport in PNG if you don't already have one, and you had to have a passport if you wanted to enter this ballot. But in the end, there were six primary applicants.

And then you add on to that, all the family members, six primary applicants for every visa available, so many more applicants than visas, and the PEV is only going to become more popular in PNG. I think there is a case for increasing PNG's quota because it is such a big country and it's a very small proportion of the population that it's been allocated. Again, the first phase has gone well. The ballot, if people are then able to, most of them are able to find a job. And they follow through, they make their applications. All those visas are taken.

I think over time we'll see the total increase from 3000 [which] was the initial allocation across the Pacific. I'd expect some of that to go to PNG, and some of the other larger Pacific countries that don't have that tradition of migration, such as Solomon Islands, Timor Leste is also included, Vanuatu. These are the countries that really have a small diaspora in Australia because they haven't had that access to New Zealand. Samoans and Tongans even Cook Islanders come to Australia via New Zealand.

For the countries that haven't had that access, the larger countries, they've got the smaller diasporas in Australia. There's a strong case for increasing their quota, which could happen in future years provided this year [is] successful.

DW: There's 3000 allocated, but only 2700 went into this because 300 have been kept apart for the likes of Samoa and Kiribati. Has there been any progress in those countries?

SH: It's up to each country whether they want to participate in the PEV and most countries said they do, but Republic of Marshall Islands said they didn't. Then Samoa and Kiribati sort of said they wanted more time, but as far as I know, they're not going to be taking up their option for this year. It's just too late, so perhaps next year.

But that does mean there are 300 visas spare, relative to the initial allocation of 3000, and it's quite possible, or at least it would make a lot of sense, for those visas to be reallocated to the other countries that did participate and where there is a lot of excess demand. So that is a possibility. And no one's been informed that they haven't been successful in the ballot, only those who've been informed that they have been successful have been notified.

It's possible there'll be a small number of people who will down the road get a pleasant surprise if those 300 visas are reallocated.

DW: An oddity, there was an offer to countries like the Federated States of Micronesia, and it wasn't filled?

SH: That's right - both FSM and Palau. I'd say overall, the ballot was a great success. But there were two countries where you'd have to say it failed because it's very clear criterion of success. For the ballot to have succeeded, there should be more applicants than there are visas, right? Otherwise, you don't need the ballot.

Everyone will get one anD in Palau and FSM, in fact, there were far fewer applicants than visas. They were both allocated 50 visas, but FSM had only eight primary applicants, and Palau only six. So even if you add on their family members, you're not going to get to the total of 50. You'd have to say that it wasn't a success there and it's pretty obvious why. Because these are the Compact countries, like Marshall Islands, their citizens already have full access to the US labour market. They can go to the US anytime they want and look for any job they want. And they do that. They utilise that option.

Given that, there's not a lot of attraction for them coming to Australia because, of course, you go where your relatives are, where your friends are, where you know people, the existing diaspora makes a huge difference when you're making migration decisions. I had earlier expressed my doubts about the inclusion of Palau and FSM, and I think this just shows that next year we shouldn't be including them in the visa.

This visa is incredibly popular in other countries, so let's take their visas and make them available to other countries where we know there's high demand for migration to Australia.