Valuable labour

Denham Sadler’s report (“Refugee payments cut”, September 24-30) is yet another episode in the long suffering of Australian refugee

Safe Haven Enterprise Visa (SHEV) holders. The five-year SHEV was designed to provide genuine refugee protection needs in exchange for three-and-a-half years’ work or study in a designated regional area. Many SHEV holders work in regions that are not designated for SHEV. Many others face the outcome of poor employment opportunities in designated areas, with the real possibility of employee exploitation. Refugees also compete for regional work with international backpackers and students, plus Pacific seasonal workers. There are already well-documented reports of exploitation of these latter groups, who are in a much better negotiating position than refugees. So, three-and-a-half years of regional work will not be an easy task, nor guaranteed, and is a very good reason as to why not many have aspired to nonhumanitarian visas. In 2011, Professor Graeme Hugo, a leading Australian demographer, completed a report for the minister of Immigration on the high level of economic, social and humanitarian integrity of refugees. Why, then, is Australia not making better use of this valuable labour cohort under permanent residence conditions?

– David Wilson, Newport, Qld