To foster positive impacts of migration by bridging the gap between humanitarian/ skilled visa pathways

Conclusions and Recommendations Australia’s migration program is globally enviable because it is well-structured, well-managed and predictable; with an ability to reflect and respond directly to political and social will. Compared to the American and German migration programs, the skills and employment focused framework of Australia’s migration program is simple. Given it’s standing as a fair and progressive developed country, there is an opportunity for the word ‘compassionate’ to be re-introduced in Australia’s migration program settings. Based on the experiences of comparable countries, the realities of displacement and key public policy settings, I propound the following recommendations: 1. Creation of a new visa program to give effect to labour mobility as a complementary pathway to humanitarian resettlement. This visa can be considered as a hybrid visa combining key features of the skilled and employment visa programs together with humanitarian visa programs, specifically resettlement and ‘wrap around’ supports. 2. Revision of government funded resettlement programs to respond to the changing profile of ‘humanitarian entrants’ with skills and employment offers. 3. Implementation of programs to re-educate and re-think displaced populations within government, the private sector and the broader public to shift discourse of displaced people, from being burden on a host community; to being a benefit to a host community. 4. Investment in further research into complementary pathways in the new visa program, including for student scholarship and entrepreneurs.