Young foreigners are being demonised, but your holiday needs them

Chances are, when you travel to Australia’s remote and not so remote regions, you’ll end up talking to an Italian. And I don’t necessarily mean a tourist, but someone who is taking your coffee order, cleaning your room or pouring you a drink at a bar.

Australian hospitality just wouldn’t function without the young, international workforce here on Working Holiday visas. It’s one of the nicest things about travelling in Australia.

Young travellers from around the world head to remote areas of Australia to fulfil their working visa obligations.Credit: Tourism and Events Queensland

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been to Far North Queensland and the Kimberley, and the entire time I’ve been greeted by cheery Italian, Irish, French, Spanish and British accents, with some South African and Belgian thrown in.

Most workers are under 30 and working long hours at the hotels and resorts I’ve stayed in. In fact, in some places management seems to have left them to run the place, they seem so much in charge.

These bright and energetic immigrants have made my visits so much happier. Even if their hospitality skills are sometimes a bit below par, they make up for it with enthusiasm and charm.

If you ask, they’re happy to talk about their hometowns, about their plans and stories of where they’ve travelled and where they’re going next.

Without young people on student or working holiday visas, who would be there to serve your drinks?Credit: Getty Images

Their enthusiasm for Australia is unbounded. They’re working hard, having fun, and many are on the road to staying permanently, they love it so much. Australia has always been a great country for the young.

We’re a proud nation of immigrants (almost all of us are) but for some reason the political dialogue is again about immigration and who we accept into the country.

International students are demonised for political purposes, spuriously blamed for everything from a drop in living standards to the housing crisis.

But who would be cleaning houses, working in kitchens and waiting tables if not for the students subsiding their education?

According to a Tourism Workforce report for October 2023, there were 659,550 student visa holders here in that period, most of them living in cities around the big universities and colleges.

It’s blindingly obvious we can’t function economically without immigrants, temporary or permanent, but neither can we culturally. An injection of other points of view greatly enriches us.

In hospitality, the continual challenge is to find sufficient workers to fill many of the 700,000 plus jobs available around Australia. After the pandemic, businesses really scrambled to find staff. In 2022 the growth in tourism jobs was significantly greater than other jobs in the economy.

In the regions, most of the young people from other countries I met are in Australia on 417 visas, the Working Holiday Maker visa. This includes such jobs as fruit pickers, dive instructors and tour guides.

These permits are available for people 18 to 30 years old (35 for some countries) who undertake a working holiday in northern, remote or very remote regions. The initial 12-month visa can be extended for another year with certain conditions, and after six months they can apply for a third. A few ultimately use this to transition to residency.

The Australian Hotels Association, in a study into migration impacts, pointed out that these visitors are also high-value tourists, spending on average more than $10,000 each trip.

Most of the work is seasonal. Young unemployed Australians tend to not do it because they want long-term jobs, have a career trajectory or do not want to live in Kununurra or Cairns.

I met Manu from Sardinia who was working as a handyman in a Northern Territory agritourism business. Nick from South Africa who managed food and beverages in a Kimberley Lodge. Mary from Ireland, a waitress at a busy Port Douglas resort.

The young people I spoke to would typically do six months in a remote location such as the Kimberley and then travel elsewhere in the wet season, either for fun or to take up other seasonal jobs.

Hospitality, especially working at a high-end luxury lodge or resort, was far preferred to fruit picking and other labour, though it’s true that sometimes are guest workers are badly exploited.

For hospitality roles, they needed considerable skills, but personality and a good work ethic were most prized by the employers I spoke to.

Some came with partners or bonded with one over work.

In exchange, our young people do the same in other countries, as nannies, baristas and ski instructors.

I’m seriously regretting not doing this when I was younger. The joy of working and travelling somewhere exotic is infectious.

And it helps me look at my own country with fresh eyes.