Skill, Migration and Gender in Australia and Canada: The Case of Gender-based Analysis

Abstract

The shift away from family immigration and towards skilled immigration is one of the most important changes over the past decade in Australian immigration policy. Yet the implications of this shift for female applicants have remained largely unexplored. Skilled immigration has slipped by as a genderless story in which the androgynous skilled migrant is the central character and economists do most of the storytelling. This paper discusses the gender equality concerns raised by the policy shift towards skilled immigration. It argues that Australia's skilled immigration scheme disadvantages female applicants through its construction both of economic independence and ‘skill.’ A comparison with Canada's skilled migration law and regulations, which are audited by gender mainstreaming tools, is considered to ascertain what role, if any, gender-based analysis plays in identifying and rectifying the potential gender inequalities produced by skilled immigration selection.

Notes

¹The Australian Citizenship Act 2007, which was passed on 26 February 2007, extends the residence requirement from 2 to 4 years of ‘lawful residence’ in Australia prior to the point of application: ss21-2. In Canada, it is 3 years (CIC 2005b).

²I refer to the primary applicant as ‘he’ given the statistical probability that this is the case.

³Unpublished data given to author by the Statistics Unit, DIAC, 12 May 2004.

⁴I note the heterosexualist reasoning here. Although Australia does allow for gay and lesbian couples to migrate as primary and secondary applicants (through an interdependent provision), few have (Dauvergne 2000, 296). The pertinent issue of how skilled immigration policy impacts upon lesbian and homosexual couples is beyond the scope of this paper. For further discussion in the British context, see Simmons (2004).

⁵This states the law at January 2007.

⁶There is an exemption from meeting this requirement for international students who have studied in Australia for at least 2 years, who otherwise meet the points test and who lodge their application onshore in the 6-month period immediately preceding completion of their Australian degree (DIAC 2007d, 9).

⁷Personal correspondence, DIAC, Adelaide Processing Centre, 7 July 2005.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Anna Boucher

Anna Boucher is a doctoral candidate within the Department of Government at the London School of Economics and Political Science and an Australian Commonwealth Scholar to the United Kingdom. Her dissertation is a cross-national comparison of the gender implications of skilled immigration regulation. This paper was awarded the Australasian Political Science Association Women's Caucus prize for the best essay on Women and Politics in 2006.