While most countries of destination of temporary migrants expect them to return home, it is likely that some temporary migration will become permanent if the migrants decide that they would like to remain longer or indefinitely for various reasons. This paper examines the factors associated with temporary migrants’ decision to become or not become permanent residents and the reasons for their decision, using survey data on skilled temporary migrants in Australia. It also looks at whether temporary migration facilitates or substitutes for permanent migration and discusses the likely effectiveness of temporary migration programs that assume temporary migrants will return home.

The recruitment of skilled foreign workers is becoming increasingly important to many industrialized countries. This paper examines the factors motivating the sponsorship and temporary migration of skilled workers to Australia under the temporary business entry program, a new development in Australia's migration policy. The importance of labor demand in the destination country in stimulating skilled temporary migration is clearly demonstrated by the reasons given by employers in the study while the reasons indicated by skilled temporary migrants for coming to work in Australia show the importance of both economic and non‐economic factors in motivating skilled labor migration.

Refugees and immigrants being resettled in Australia on humanitarian grounds are known to have poorer health than other immigrants. Using data from the Longitudinal Surveys of Immigrants to Australia, the paper examines the influence of three measures of health-self-reported health status, the presence of a long-term health condition and mental health status-on the economic participation of humanitarian migrants. Multivariate logistic regression is used to control for other factors known to affect immigrants' economic participation, such as age, skills and English language proficiency, to see if health has an independent effect. The results show that migrants with poor physical health are less likely than migrants with good health to be in the work force. Mental health status affects the economic participation of male but not female migrants. The findings provide important empirical evidence of the significant role of health in the economic integration of migrants of refugee background.

With the 1996 introduction of a new visa making it easier for employers to sponsor skilled foreign workers, temporary skilled migration has become a significant component of international migration flows to Australia. This paper examines employers' reasons for sponsoring skilled workers from abroad, their modes of recruitment, the occupational skills they require, and their industry profile. We also discuss issues relating to the perception of a shortage of skilled workers, the extent that sponsoring foreign workers substitutes for investing in local training, and the role of networks in recruiting overseas workers.Many employers now have a global view of labour recruitment. While this is understandable for multinational companies with global operations, many small businesses and public sector institutions are adopting the same strategy to obtain skilled labour which they say is in short supply in Australia. With the internationalization of the Australian economy, there is also an increasing demand for people with specialized skills and knowledge that is not available in Australia's relatively small labour market. An understanding of the demand factors motivating temporary skilled migration is crucial to effectively managing Australia's migration and labour trends.176 Khoo et al.

Britain and many other European countries have been important sources of settler migration to Australia for more than two hundred years. While the sources of settler migration to Australia have diversified in the last thirty years to include non‐European countries, with the current emphasis on skills in Australia's migration policy, many skilled people from Europe are coming to Australia both as settlers and as temporary migrants. This paper examines Europe as a source of both permanent and temporary skilled migration to Australia in recent years. It looks at the trend in migration from European countries to Australia from the 1960s to the present, noting the changes in patterns over time, both in terms of type of migration and source countries. It then focuses on European migration to Australia since the mid‐1990s when Australia's immigration policy became more skill‐oriented and a temporary skilled migration visa program was implemented to simplify the process by which employers could sponsor skilled migrant workers. While Europeans are not a large group among permanent migrants, many come as temporary migrants and then decide to apply for permanent residence. Survey data are used to examine their reasons for migration and residence/return migration intentions, comparing permanent skilled migrants with temporary skilled migrants. European migrants are more likely than other migrants to indicate lifestyle reasons for migrating or coming to Australia to work and then seeking permanent residence, with differences also observed among migrants from different regions in Europe. The implications for ‘brain drain’/‘brain circulation’ are discussed. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.