"If I stay like this, how can I benefit my family?": Initial findings on disengagement from the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility scheme

This report details initial research findings on disengagement from the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility (PALM) scheme. The report is based on qualitative, in-depth interviews with over 30 people who have left the PALM scheme and remain in Australia, and seven stakeholders who provide support to disengaged workers. All interviews were conducted in the Riverina Region of New South Wales, where former PALM visa holders had travelled after leaving workplaces elsewhere in Australia.

The PALM scheme has become the backbone of labour supply for many areas in rural and regional Australia, providing much-needed labour for important but low-wage industries like horticulture and meat processing. However, the regulatory framework of the PALM scheme is out of step with many of Australia’s fundamental commitments to labour standards and human rights, and ‘disengagement’ from the scheme is now commonplace. An estimated 7,000 people have walked out of jobs in breach of their restrictive visa conditions and into the murky landscape of living and labouring on bridging visas or without documentation, often reliant on precarious and irregular employment that pervades Australia’s rural economy. Crucially, despite the extent of disengagement and the concern it has generated in both Australia and PALM sending countries, there is little publicly available research examining what informs decisions to leave the scheme or the conditions encountered afterwards.