Aussie skilled migrant list to shrink; cooks, journalists axed

When I read this media report on Australia's minor revision to their immigration classification, I was somehow reminded of Douglas Adams and his seminal work, The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy.

pix from here

Hitherto, cooks and hairdressers acupuncturists, private dance teachers, illustrators, piano tuners, journalists and naturopaths are some of the occupations under the category of valued vocations under Australia's skill migration programme.

It appears to have dawned on the Aussie government that Australia actually needs to attract skilled migrants of the highest calibre and deliver people with "real skills" to meet "real need" in their economy. Hence the removal of 219 occupations including the cooks and hairdressers acupuncturists, private dance teachers, illustrators, piano tuners, journalists and naturopaths mentioned.

There is a chapter in The Hitchhiker's Guide where a supposedly dying planet of a highly advanced civilization organised a mass migration in three arks. The three arks were classified as Arks "A", "B" and "C" respectively.

The "A Ark" was supposed to contain leaders, the "C Ark" to contain workers, and the "B Ark" to contain middle-men. The "B Ark" was filled with bodies, such as frozen telephone sanitizers, hairdressers, and advertising account executives.

It becomes apparent that the stories of impending doom were nonsense, and the A Ark and C Ark were never launched.

This leads me to wonder how many Malaysian emigres to Oz were Ark B-types...