A landmark study by the University of New South Wales and the University of Technology Sydney of over 4,300 unskilled temporary migrant workers in Australia (https://static1.squarespace.com/static/593f6d9fe4fcb5c458624206/t/5a11ff31ec212df525ad231d/1511128887089/Wage+theft+in+Australia+Report_final_web.pdf) confirms what Vdare has long argued – mass Third Wold immigration is all about the cheap labour for employers.
The study showed that, of the 350,000 working ‘backpackers’ and international students temporarily in Australia, two in three are illegally paid below the legislated minimum wage (A$18 per hour). The most extreme wage underpayment was for fruit and vegetable pickers where one in six were paid less than A$5 per hour.
These figures understate the wage savings to employers because, in industries in which unskilled temporary migrants typically work (agriculture, food and hospitality, petrol stations, cleaning, etc.), wage top-ups such as weekend penalty rates usually apply and a casual worker in these sectors should expect to be paid at least A$22 per hour.
To this “wage theft” can be added tax theft – the income tax (levied on workers) and payroll tax (levied on employers) foregone on the wage savings, or dodged altogether through off-the-books payment of wages in cash (reported by almost half [44%] of backpackers and international students) and which are therefore entirely untraceable by the taxman.
The study authors note that the undercutting of migrant wages also has the “knock-on effect of driving wages below the lawful minimum for other workers in industries in which temporary migrants work”.
All these employer goodies accrue from just two classes of legal immigration (‘Working Holiday-Maker’ and overseas student visa-holders). Illegal immigration is an additional cause of job displacement and ratcheting down of wages for Australian workers, and tax robbery of all Australians.
The authors, as might be inferred from their academic cubby-hole (the ‘Migrant Worker Justice Initiative’), however, are ‘Diversity’ junkies who want to raid taxpayer and worker pockets for yet more “resourcing of legal services, community organisations and unions to provide far greater levels of support to underpaid temporary migrants”. Alas, there are still no confirmed sightings of an ‘Australian Worker Justice Initiative’ in multiculturalist-compliant academia.