PHOTO: Migrant workers might be choosing New Zealand and Canada over Australia. Image: Griffith University.
Many backpackers and other migrant workers are reluctant to come to Australia after their treatment during the COVID pandemic, a University study has found.
The ineligibility of working visa holders to receive any financial aid during the pandemic, lack of access to healthcare, coupled with often strict pandemic rules has meant many of those who were here won’t be coming back, and word has spread about this treatment.
“Backpackers and seasonal farm workers suffered a lot hardship during the pandemic because of a lack of government support compared with what people on working visas were provided for in New Zealand, Canada and the UK,” said Research fellow at the Griffith Centre for Social Cultural Research, and co-author of the report Turbulent Times: The State of Backpacking and Seasonal Farm Work Dr Kaya Barry…