In March last year, there were over 1.7 million people in Australia on temporary visas.
The Migrant Workers Centre's Chief Executive is Matt Kunkel.
"Many of those who've been here for several years, and are in this permanently temporary class, if you will. And many of those, we count as temporary visa holders are actually people who really have a desire to settle down and build a family and build a community here in Australia. So we really do need to shift our thinking on migration to provide more opportunities for permanent settlement as opposed to a continual churn of people on temporary visas."
Research by the Migrant Workers Centre late last year found that on average, people must wait at least five years to achieve permanent residency, while for some, it takes up to 13 years.
It also found that temporary visa holders were likely to have experienced worker exploitation, including wage theft and other abuses.
Matt Kunkel says constant changes to Australia's visa system have created an underclass of eternally temporary visa holders, who keep the economy going, but have few rights.
"This idea of temporary visa holders, is a bit of a misnomer, because what we've got is we've got people who are forced to hop from temporary visa, the temporary visa just to maintain their residency in, in the country, and it would be a lot better for them, it'd be a lot more, you know, provide a lot more stability and security for, for everybody, if those folks that really want to settle down and build their lives here, have that opportunity to do so."
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