The son of an Indian engineer, a young man with a master's degree in engineering, now drives an Uber in Melbourne, a job he took out of necessity after struggling to find work in his field. His story, shared with author Julianne Schultz, highlights the emotional toll of Australia's increasingly transactional visa regime, where belonging is bought, not earned.
A tale of two realities
Schultz, a professor and author of "The Idea of Australia," met the driver on a rainy Melbourne day. He had studied engineering at vast expense, but now, like many international graduates, he was driving to make ends meet. "While I was studying, I had a well-paying job in aged care – now this," he told her. "I'd have to do a master's to get to that level and even then, I don't know if I'd get a job here. I really like Australia but might just go back to India."
His heartache was palpable, a stark contrast to the dispassionate policy discussions Schultz had just left. At a seminar on immigration, scholars and analysts debated the issue, but the young driver's experience put flesh on the bones of their analysis. He wanted to belong, but like many visa holders, felt his presence was conditional – buy the visa, pay the fees, do the shitty jobs, don't get above your station.
The bipartisan roots of a broken system
The seminar room was politically diverse, with views ranging from calls for a more discriminatory policy – banning people on the grounds of religion or country of birth, prohibiting international students, and massively reducing visas for low-paying jobs – to arguments for easier citizenship pathways for temporary visa holders, not counting spouses of Australian citizens as "immigrants," and respecting data showing immigration is a net economic positive.
Schultz argues that the problems ascribed to immigration are not all the fault of the Albanese government. Immigration policy and the lived reality of multiculturalism have been a bipartisan construct since Australia became a nation. White Australia and its demise, postwar migration, multiculturalism, and dual citizenship were supported by both major parties. Over the past three decades, the replacement of primarily unskilled and family reunion migration with a skills-based system, buttressed by stronger character tests, greater ministerial discretion, deportations, and offshore detention, has been the work of both parties.
The transactional ethos
The shortcomings of this system are clear: dependence on temporary visa holders for essential low-paid jobs, rent-seeking exploitation by some employers and universities, and reliance on the market to provide housing and infrastructure without a clear population policy. The cost of visas for students, backpackers, partners, and others jumped by 25% in July. Australia now has the most expensive partner visas, costing at least $11,710 – up to 10 times more than comparable visas in Canada, the UK, and the US.
"Belonging is hard when it is so expensive," Schultz writes. The nostalgia for the "good old" migration system under the white Australia policy ignores this structural change embraced on economic grounds by both parties. Each new skilled arrival has a positive impact on the budget, but when the target number is cut, the loss must be offset by increased fees or cuts elsewhere.
A call for honesty
John Howard disliked multiculturalism as a policy, but his immigration minister, Philip Ruddock, consulted widely and oversaw the transition to a more skilled and diverse intake. Last year, as anti-immigration rallies disrupted cities, Ruddock wrote of his despair at the "failure of political leadership to restore honesty, transparency and discipline to migration policy."
Ruddock warned: "Australia risks squandering one of its greatest assets: an immigration program that has built prosperity, enriched our society and renewed our nation for generations." Schultz echoes this, arguing that blame is not a solution, nor is policy timidity. Honesty is crucial. The young Uber driver's story is a reminder that behind the policy debates are real people whose lives are shaped by the system's design.
