Working holidays create a new generation of travelers

A Digital Journalist investigates working holiday Visa’s, which are becoming a popular worldwide phenomenon. A look at the pro's and con's, as well as some general information about a Visa you may have never even known existed.

To most people's knowledge, if you want to travel overseas for more than a few months, you either had to have a lot of available funds, a business you can run from anywhere else in the world or be willing to work illegally in the country you are travelling in. Other options were to volunteer, become a student or join some sort of a program where you would be able to work for your keep, while in a land far away. Working holiday Visa’s may not be an entirely new thing, but they have only recently gained public knowledge and popularity, as more and more countries have adopted the system. Definition from Wikipedia: A working holiday visa is a travel permit which allows travellers to undertake employment in the country issuing the visa for the purpose of supplementing their travel funds.

Most working holiday visas are offered under reciprocal agreements between certain countries, to encourage travel and cultural exchange between their citizens.

There are often several restrictions on this type of visa:

* many are intended for young travellers, and as such have an age restriction (usually 18-30)

* there are usually limits on the type of employment taken, or the length of time the traveller can be employed.

* the visa holder is expected to have sufficient funds to live on while they seek employment

The original participating countries in this were Japan, Australia, New Zealand and Canada. This kind of program makes for a different kind of traveling and enables travel to many people who normally would not be able to afford to. Young travelers gain a life experience and learn more than ever about living and working in a new country. Being a tourist is interesting, but being a part time citizen of a different society is a real learning experience, and can be fun too. The experiences and knowledge you gain when actually living in a new country, is wholly different to that of which you gain when just touring through. So save some cash, pack your bags, make sure your resume is in order and go experience. Well, maybe you should make sure you know what is in store for you also. Gaining employment anywhere in the world can be difficult, even in your own country, though if you have the right experience or credentials, you should be able to get employed if you look hard enough. OK, so now you have landed on the other side of the world, and just because you now have the legal right to work, does that mean you will find a job as easily as you can in your own country? Unfortunately, it just doesn’t work that way, even if you speak the language. Employees tend to prefer their own countrymen first. Do you blame them? Well, what about their own countrymen that are on the same Visa in your country? Don’t they deserve a chance? After all, you crossed the world in good faith, hoping to find a job you are qualified to do, yet now you are being discriminated against? Employees prefer to see you have experience in their own country prior to employing you. With the restrictions on a working holiday Visa, being the amount of time you can stay in the country or stay with one employer; (In Australia you get a twelve month working holiday Visa but you can only stay with one employer for up to six months,) most professional jobs are unobtainable. There are those travelers who have a lot of luck getting the jobs they want, and there are even those that get professional jobs and later are offered a sponsorship, which is a different kind of Visa, sponsored by their workplace that gives them a working permit in the country and they can stay long term if they wish to. In reality, most travelers on a working holiday Visa become nothing more than legal foreign workers, doing the jobs that citizens don’t want to do. Jobs like cleaning, farming, dish washing, laboring, etc… I have spoken to various travelers in Australia, and have heard a list of complaints. One Irish man, aged 28 says: “At home I am an electrician, but here in Melbourne I can't get a job. Most places don’t give me interviews. I know that if I go to more remote places it will be easier, as Australia has a lack of workers in most parts, but in the popular cities like Melbourne and Sydney, that is not an issue, and people don’t want to employ me, they prefer to employ Australians. I even tried to get a job in construction but no one is offering me a job. I only got offered a construction job that pays cash, which means I won’t be insured, and will be working illegally.” This kind of complaint I heard a lot. The joke is, that it is much easier to get cash in hand jobs than it is to get a legitimate job. So why even pay for the working holiday Visa in that case? It is important to note that participating countries state that the point of a working holiday Visa is to have a holiday, not to work in your profession, but it does not disallow it. Travelers are frustrated when they see jobs in their profession are available but that they are not being accepted. Another English woman aged 26 complained: “They want to see you have Australian experience. If you can show you have job experience here, it makes it easier. I don’t even know why I came to the other side of the world, to a country that openly states that they don’t have enough workers, if they expect me to work out in the bush. In the bush you can get a job no problem, but with terrible conditions and pay. You usually end up sleeping in a dorm with 12 other people and picking fruit all day. If the economy and well being of this country so urgently needs the fruit to be picked, why aren’t all these patriotic Australians going into the bush to do their part? No, instead they want us travelers, who are play a big part in the countries economy just by coming here, to do all the dirty work.

In England we offer Australians and New Zealanders 2 year work permits and they don’t have nearly as hard a time getting employed there, even in their profession, as we do here.” So it is not as great as it would seem at first glance. But I still think this program offers an amazing opportunity, and not everyone I spoke to had a reason to complain. I have met a lot of people that had better luck. It would seem though, that in Australia, the society might need to respect these travelers a bit more. After all, Australia is an expensive place and most people need to take 2 flights over 10 hours each to get there. I am sure that travelers in other countries face similar issues also, so it may not just be Australia that needs to adjust. The fear is that these types of Visa’s will be molded more and more for obtaining cheap foreign labor. That would be a shame for both the visitors and the hosts, as they would be missing out on a real culture exchange within the workplace. Here are some links with information on such Visa’s: projectvisa.com liveworkplay.com.au Here is a link to a chart that shows the countries participating: anyworkanywhere.com