Intertwined Mobilities of Education, Tourism and Labour: The Consequences of 417 and 485 Visas in Australia

Abstract

This chapter focuses on some of the consequences of recent expansions to skilled temporary graduate (subclass 485) and working holiday (subclass 417) visa programs in Australia. These visa categories allow for extended periods of work and residence, primarily among young people who are seeking an overseas work/life experience or a pathway to more permanent migration. Using data from a pilot study into the life and work experiences of 485 and 417 workers in Australia, the chapter explores the consequences of these migration pathways to understandings of social relations and belonging. Finally, it argues that neoliberalised systems of immigration governance intersect with the intentions, desires, and social practices of 485 and 417 workers to produce two main effects. First, significant flows of precarious foreign workers into diverse segments of the labour market are effectively hidden from public view. Second, complex migration trajectories and identities are constructed within which the boundaries between skilled/unskilled, legal/illegal, and temporary/permanent become increasingly blurred. These effects serve specific political and economic agendas yet also have broader and often unintended impacts on migration as a process of social transformation in Australia. complex and heterogeneous kinds of migrant subjectivities and trajectories created by these visa schemes, and the intersections of labour, education, and tourism policies in which they are embedded. It addresses the kinds of labour market experiences that result from these intersections, and also explores the