Australia is increasingly squandering the benefits of temporary skilled migration. Temporary skilled migration is unpopular, and politicians have responded to this by restricting sponsorship to fewer, often lower-skilled jobs.

Employers can sponsor fewer high-wage migrants than they could in the past, and sponsorship is now both more costly and less certain.

Today, more than half of sponsored workers earn less than the typical full-time Australian worker, up from 38 per cent in 2005. The freezing of the minimum salary threshold at $53,900 a year since mid-2013 means employers are sponsoring a growing number of low-wage workers with few skills. Exploitation of sponsored workers abounds, which further undermines public confidence in the program. Australia has been left with the worst of both worlds.