Many people assume Australia’s skilled migration system is designed to match workers with jobs as efficiently as possible. New Kaldor Centre research suggests the reality is more complex, especially in regional Australia.
The research examines what happens when highly skilled refugees are connected with employers facing critical workforce shortages, including through the Skilled Refugee Labour Agreement Pilot, which enables Australian employers to recruit displaced talent for hard-to-fill roles.
Based on a multi‑year study across regional towns and cities in all states and territories, this policy provides the most detailed insights to date into how refugee labour-mobility works in practice. It scopes the potential, challenges and experiences of refugee workers and other regional stakeholders. The evidence shows that:
- Skilled refugee workers can make a valuable, lasting contribution to regional workforces; and
- Employers often report strong retention outcomes, with flow‑on benefits for local communities when displaced families settle long‑term; but
- Current policy settings mean these pathways are hard to access, especially for smaller employers.
At the heart of this independent policy brief is a simple but often overlooked insight: there is a global pool of displaced people with valuable skills and experience, but getting their talent to areas with critical shortages is harder than it needs to be in Australia.
The policy identifies barriers – such as awareness, cost, risk, and settlement support – that limit participation in this pilot skilled migration pathway, which complements rather than supplants humanitarian places in Australia’s system. The policy brief also highlights practical policy adjustments that would enable this pathway to operate more consistently and reliably.
As Australia considers the future of its skilled migration program – and our role in providing durable solutions for displaced people – the research points to a clear conclusion:
Pathways for displaced talent have real potential to respond to protection needs and persistent workforce shortages, particularly in regional Australia.