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Will Australia introduce backpacker visas for people aged over 35?
Thousands of young people flock to Australia each year on the Working Holiday Maker program. Now, there's a push to increase the age limit to 50 to help fill worker shortages.
Published 9 January 2023 6:52am
By Isabelle Lane
Source: SBS News
Image: Elin Holm first came to Australia as a 23-year-old and has returned a decade later. (Supplied by Danyal Syed / Elin Holm)
Elin Holm first fell in love with Australia while on a university student exchange from Sweden as a 23-year-old several years ago.
“I always felt that I wanted to come back. But then I started working in Sweden, I started to create a career,” she said.
“I was still in touch with old friends in Australia who were asking when I was coming back.”
In 2020, aged 30, Ms Holm decided she needed a career break. “That's when I realised that, whoa, I'm reaching that age limit, I better do it now otherwise or I will lose my chance,” she said.
But shortly after she submitted her application, the world was turned upside down by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Elin Holm (right) plans to work, study, and explore Australia for the next year. Credit: Supplied
Last month, age 33, Ms Holm finally returned to Australia, and now plans to spend the year exploring the country, working, and following a teenage dream of becoming a life coach after being accepted to study an online course.
But she's only allowed to for one year, and she's older than most others on the scheme.
Working Holiday visas - often referred to as 'backpacker visas' - are currently restricted to citizens of eligible countries aged 18-30, and up to age 35 for a small handful including Canada, Denmark, Ireland, Italy and soon . The age restriction for Swedish nationals is 30.
The was established in 1975 to allow young adults to have an extended holiday and support themselves by working in temporary jobs. The program is reciprocal in nature, with similar arrangements for Australian citizens wishing to work and holiday abroad in partner countries.
But as industries including tourism and hospitality grapple with worker shortages as they struggle to bounce back from the pandemic, the Tourism and Transport Forum Australia (TTFA) has been leading calls to expand working holiday visas, suggesting that the age limit be raised.
Source: SBS News
“This would open up a whole new market of workers from overseas with a wider range of skills and experience that could benefit our industry.”
At 33, and after narrowly just qualifying, Ms Holm thinks it's a great idea.
Elin arrived in Australia on a working holiday visa in December, after applying just before she hit the age deadline. Credit: Supplied
“We might start with something and then if we realise that, no, this company, or this role, or this life that I'm doing right now, it's not according to what I want from life, we might not realise that when we are 20, we might realise that when we are 28, or 35, and then to still have the chance to kind of go and explore something else, another country and maybe explore a different kind of job.”
“I know as well that Australia is short on workers at the moment. So to open up for more people who want to make a change, or simply just have a break and come and help out, I think that would be a great opportunity.”
There are now 47 countries participating in Australia's program, and applicants can apply at a cost of $510. The program includes visa and and allows them to work and holiday in Australia for a year, with opportunities to return for a second and third year if certain requirements are met.
“Originally, the vision was to set up a program where you'd see that cultural exchange between like-minded countries, and so it was geared more at young people,” said Associate Professor Pierre Benckendorff, a tourism expert from the University of Queensland.
“It combines the right to do certain types of work with the right to be on a holiday, but the visa timelines are quite generous ... so generally, people are able to get a longer period of time in Australia than what they would if they were just on a tourist visa.”
The scheme has “worked really well for Australia” as visa holders typically take up work in seasonal industries such as hospitality and agriculture, Associate Professor Benckendorff said.
“We can't always provide that kind of work for locals and locals aren't interested so much in that seasonal work. So it's been really good.”
“You see that a lot in places like the Gold Coast or Cairns, where often you'll get served by somebody from France or Germany or from Asia. And of course, they work in agriculture as well, in fruit picking.”
“Many Australians who were working in tourism have since found jobs in other sectors, while international students and working holidaymakers who left Australia during COVID have been slow to return,” Ms Osmond said.
Additionally, “even in tourism hotspots with high customer demand,” she notes, a lack of affordable housing in regional areas is making it harder to attract staff.
“There are jobs vacant ... from airports to attractions, accommodation providers, cruising, destination management, hospitality, tour operators and travel agencies, ranging from unskilled positions to senior management roles.”
Raising the age limit for working holiday visas “might give us access to a more skilled group of visa holders to fill more senior positions,” Ms Osmond said.
“While the staff who serve coffee or help park cars are incredibly vital, we are still missing a whole raft of professional and management skills from the industry as well,”
Associate Professor Benckendorff said raising the age limit on working holiday visas could also help ease a “massive labour shortage” in the hospitality industry with a “fairly cheap workforce”.
“Minimum award wages are quite attractive to industry, for working holiday makers, and so [businesses] have a larger labour pool to dip into.”
Sheila Woods is a registered migration agent at Perth-based firm Interstaff who has assisted Working Holiday visa applicants from overseas. People who exceed the age limit before getting to use it to its full extent - including taking up the option of doing regional work in order to return for a second or third working holiday - have been disappointed, she said.
“We've had a few clients over the recent years who've wanted to extend for one reason or another and are eligible to get their second year except for their age.”
“Generally, they're often already employed or they've got some useful thing they're doing in the economy and they want to stay and finish it.”
The age restriction can lead people in those situations to have to find another more expensive pathway like getting an employer to sponsor them or leaving the country and returning on another visa stream, she said
“People coming out like engineers, or geologists, or nurses or people who are on the list for migration, who come on the Working Holiday program, can easily find employment here and then have opportunities to get sponsored for a temporary visa or go on to permanent, then citizenship.”
But it's not always possible.
If the age limit for the working holiday program was raised, Ms Woods said people in their mid to late 30s and 40s could “take up the opportunity of a visa like that for a sabbatical or a career break”.
She said she doesn't know how popular it would be with people in their 30s and 40s compared to those in their 20s and noted that if it was lifted to age 50, the government would need to specify that those at the upper ends have limited options in pursuing permanent migration. The age limit for applying for skilled work visas in Australia is currently 45.
In 2021-22, 95,901 visa applications were lodged for the Working Holiday Maker program, Australian government show. As at 16 December 2022, nearly 129,300 working holiday makers had arrived in Australia since borders reopened to them a year earlier.
The federal government is currently conducting a review of Australia’s migration system in light of current labour shortages, with an interim report due next month.
Ms Osmond said that “any worthy recommendations which can increase the tourism workforce must be acted on swiftly to help our sector”.
A spokesperson for the Department of Home Affairs told SBS News that working holiday makers provide “an important cultural and economic contribution to Australia, including through their contribution to skills and labour gaps and job creation in associated industries and businesses".
“The government also recognises the importance of WHMs to Australia’s economic recovery during and after the COVID-19 pandemic,” they said.
The Albanese government has been working to address a it inherited upon winning the federal election in May, with the median processing time for Working Holiday visas now estimated at less than a day.
It has also announced an extension of the suspension of the six-month work limitation for Working Holiday visa holders, allowing them to work for one employer for their entire trip until 30 June 2023.
“This measure is designed to provide immediate assistance to Australian businesses currently facing critical workforce shortages and enables them to keep delivering goods and services to the Australian community,” the spokesperson said.
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