Motivations for retention and mobility: Pathways of skilled migrants in regional Victoria, Australia

Since the 1990s, programmes designed to attract international skilled migrants to work and live in regional areas have been a major theme of Australian immigration policy. The success of these programmes depends not only on attracting skilled migrants to regional areas, but also on retaining them within the regions into the longer term. This article argues that residential satisfaction, and specifically economic opportunity, is important in retaining skilled migrants in regional Australia. The research is based on surveys with skilled migrants to regional Victoria who were subject to the State Specific Regional Migration scheme. The satisfaction levels of these immigrants were tested for three satisfaction indices: Community attachment and satisfaction, lifestyle satisfaction and economic and workplace satisfaction. Economic and workplace satisfaction were revealed as being a significant influence on the settlement decision-making process of this study sample. In addition, the opportunities for fulfilling lifestyle and cultural practices and perceptions of secondary and tertiary education facilities emerged as key concerns of the respondents. Finally, this article discusses some policy implications in relation to this programme successfully retaining skilled immigrants.