Before Javed boarded the plane for Sydney she was told her profession was in great demand in Australia, and she assumed she would be able to find work quickly.
"I just arrived into a dark hole, I have applied through the paper, and through the yellow pages, I am looking in all the training sections but I do not know anyone here and that makes it almost impossible," Javed explained.
According to Merryn Jones, skilled migrant placement officer (SMPO) working with the May Murray Neighbourhood Centre in Marrickville, Javed's story is common to many IT skilled migrants arriving in Australia.
"Often people who arrive have high levels of experience and technical skills, however, they are unable to find work in their field essentially because they lack local experience," Jones explained.
While lack of experience is a problem also faced by many recent graduated from Australian universities, skilled migrants are significantly more vulnerable because they are not able to apply for any government assistance while they look for work, and have to rely either on savings or family members for financial support.
Many of the skilled migrants that Jones works with are forced into work significantly below their field of expertise, or into alternative industries, in order to survive.
Originally from Bangladesh, Anil Chakma arrived in Australia in January 2001. He comes with a four-year degree in electrical engineering, and graduate studies in IT from the Queensland University of Technology.
Unable to find work in his field he has been working as a kitchen hand to support his wife and daughter, while he attempts to maintain his IT skills in his spare time.
"I have had a couple of interviews since I arrived, but there are always more candidates with local experience," Chakma said. "It is always difficult because while you are out of the industry you are losing competence."
In January this year, the Federation of Australian Scientific and Technological Societies (FASTS) wrote to the Federal Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations, Tony Abbott, requesting a tracking study of the Federal Government’s skilled migration program.
According to FASTS executive director Toss Gascoigne, the government’s claims to have alleviated the widely-reported skills shortage through increasing levels of skilled migration are flawed. Gascoigne’s contention is, despite a sound skills base it is often difficult for skilled migrants to find work in their chosen field.
Thus far however, the Federal Government appears to be trying very hard to ignore the problem. Despite funding a series of disparate jobs skills programs through DEST (Department of Education Science and Training, formally DEET), it has yet to launch a tracking study of the fortunes of skilled migrants once they arrive in Australia.
Minister for immigration Phillip Ruddock has gone so far as to misrepresent research conducted in the area. In July 2001 he published a press release claiming a report prepared by Monash University's Centre for Population and Urban Research debunked the myth that Australia was suffering from an increasing talent deficit.
"The report goes beyond mere numbers and looks at the qualitative aspects of skilled migration," Ruddock said at the time.
In fact, the report titled Skilled Labour: Gains and Losses, stated clearly that despite registering a 3.2 percent gain in the area of computing professionals, it was unable to track the results of this intake due to a "lack of qualitative data".
Community workers and industry groups continue to tackle the problem regardless of the government’s stance.
Kimberly O'Sullivan, a project officer working with Specialist Migrant Placement Officers in Sydney is in the throws of organising an "Information Technology Skills Showcase", planned for March 20, 2001.
"When I look at the sorts of skills that are apparently in shortage in Australia, and the IT skilled-migrants we have coming into the centre, there is an almost one-to-one match, but many of these people still find it considerably difficult to find work," O'Sullivan said. "The Information Technology Skills Showcase represents an opportunity for IT employers to see for themselves what kinds of skills are on offer without having to fish throughout the market."
Having already gained the backing of Fujitsu Australia, the NSW Department of Information Technology, and a host of IT recruitment companies, O'Sullivan is still looking for participants from the private sector.
"We have created a showcase representing a cross section of the IT skills migrants bring into the country, and we are hoping to create links into the private sector so that the industry becomes aware of how to access that talent," O'Sullivan said.
Nothing has changed in the last 14 years.
When i came here in '88 it took me more than a year to get a job, although i had 15 years experience in a wide area of IT. But once i had that first job, all problems were over.
Also, if there is such a large number of IT jobs available (as Bruce Lin said: "we really need to be getting a lot more people in Australia into IT careers.”) then why do nearly all ads for IT personel require a minimum of 1 year of experience? How about some companies take on people with shorter experience and train them?