Wang (Apple Wang), a professionally trained accountant, chose to move from China to Tazhou after studying in Melbourne.
Ms. Wang is one of the overseas immigrants who come to Australia with a regional skilled immigration visa.
Ms. Wang, who has been looking for a job for nine months, was unable to find a professional counterpart in Hobart. In order to make ends meet, she had to start opening Uber..
Wang said: "the hourly income of driving Uber is 15 yuan, and at least you can buy food. But to tell you the truth, there is no other money left."
Regional skilled immigration visas cost Ms. Wang thousands of yuan to pay for government and immigration agents.
"this is a state government guarantee visa. As part of the visa conditions, I have to stay here for at least two years," Wang said.
Australia`s immigration program began to encourage immigrants to move to subdeveloped areas through visa allocation.
Many visas began to be mandatory, requiring immigrants to work and live in subdeveloped areas for many years.
But Lisa Denny, a demographer at the University of Tasmania, says the plan is flawed.
"We need to shift our attention and really focus on where the needs are."
Federal government and state government said the plan would push immigrants to places where populations are declining, address labor shortages and help boost economic growth, but Denny said it would not work.
"you can`t encourage skilled and qualified immigrants to go where there are no jobs. You can`t force them to go where they can`t even feed themselves."
The definition of "subdeveloped region" varies from place to place in Australia.
In larger new states, Victoria and Kunzhou, subdeveloped areas refer to places outside big cities.
In Tazhou, the whole state is classified as a subdeveloped region, and most overseas immigrants have moved to Hobart.
In the year to June 2018, 2580 overseas immigrants moved to Tazhou. This figure is up 10.2% from the previous year. Of these, 5.4 per cent came to Australia on temporary skilled immigration visas and 9.7 per cent were permanently skilled immigrants.
In the year to June 2018, Hobart`s population soared 1.6%, which also caused a lot of problems.
Denny said Habat is experiencing the housing crisis, where vacancy rates are among the lowest in Australia, causing rents to soar.
"it is almost impossible for people in southern Tazhou to buy or rent a house within a relatively close range of commuting. Much of the problem is caused by immigration-driven population growth."
The unemployment rate in Tazhou is 6.2%, well above the Australia average of 5.2%. This means that it is difficult for locals to find a job, let alone emigrate.
"economic in Australia is not doing very well, so there is an oversupply of labor and a lot of people are looking for work," Denny said. This leads to lower salary growth and higher unemployment rates. These are the costs of population growth, but when we talk about population growth or high levels of immigration, a lot of people don`t realize that. 1.2 million people in Australia hold temporary visas, all of whom have rights jobs. "
Ms. Wang said immigration agencies advised her to move to Tazhou because it was part of a regional skilled immigration visa.
But not only is it hard for Wang to find the right job, but she is shocked by the expensive extent of Habat`s life.
Because of the shortage of housing, Wang even has difficulty finding a place to live, and she points out that the cost of living in Habat is higher than in Melbourne.
"in Melbourne, you can find cheap food, but here you can`t find anything you can eat for less than 10 yuan. There`s no such thing at all. This is the difference between big cities, because there is a lot of competition, so there are a lot of all kinds of food. "
Now Wang has got a job in Adelaide. So she now has to pack her bags and go to another capital city classified as a subdeveloped region.
"I`ve done my best for the city. I sometimes drive 12 hours a day, sometimes 60 hours a week."
Denny said the subdeveloped visa program encouraged people to move to Tazhou, but that doesn`t mean they`ll stay.
"usually, Tazhou is only seen as a transit point to get to other places. This is a fact that we have to accept as Tazhou people. Everyone wants to live in a bigger city, where there are more jobs and more cultural connections. Tahlia is a place for immigrants to qualify for permanent residence in Australia. "
Tazhou Chamber of Commerce Chief Executive Michael Bailey said Tazhou people actually support the skilled immigration program.
"We want the population to grow, and we also want the population to grow to be a skilled population."
But he also acknowledges that it is difficult for those who come to find the right job in Tazhou to achieve their goals, which is determined by the nature of the Tazhou job market.
"for me, it`s really shocking that a qualified accountant has to go to another state to find a job. Tazhou`s job market is a very difficult market to break into, and unless you know acquaintances, most of our positions are not recruited at all and are often digested within the community. We need to break down barriers so that skilled people, whether they are immigrants or locals, can find jobs. "
Bailey also agrees that the current subdeveloped visa program would allow immigrants to move to Hobart, rather than other cities in Tazhou. In his view, Hobart should be removed from the subdeveloped system.
"over the past few years, the population of Habat has grown rapidly, while the population of the rest of the state has remained stable or dwindled. We need to look at the state from a different perspective."
Alison O`Neill, chief executive of the Center for Migration Resources, said the population of Tazhou is ageing, so more immigrants are needed.
"We are an aging state, and the arrival of people from different immigration backgrounds can bring us longer economic benefits. Bringing immigrants here and letting them work in other states is a negative investment because we miss the future of these immigrants. "
O`Neill says Rabat has struggled to cope with the impact of population growth.
"Housing stress, affordable housing and transportation problems, which we experience every day. But immigrants here face the same problem. They also want to find affordable housing close to their workplaces, and they also want their children to go to school. I don`t think that`s a problem. This is not the same as the problem in the new state of Victoria. "
