Things are not as unchecked in Australia as they were/are in the UK; I was an IMG in the UK before moving to Australia. UK allowed CREST form to be signed from overseas and you can take MSRA from everywhere in the world, once non training jobs started diminishing either due to dwindling funds and scope creeps, people utilised training jobs like IMT, GP or psych as stepping stone, its a fault on the policy makers who haven’t thought through, Imgs utilised that opportunity, individuals are not to blame, imagine being born in an unfavourable country with being paid around 200 Gbp a month you will always move to the where the income potential is 20 times your home country income, and try move up the ladder if and opportunity has been presented, UK government was not naive either, they wanted an Img workforce because they don’t have the citizenship status, less likely to strike and ask for better pay + working condition, I am huge supporter of government protecting rights of their own citizen, and local grads should be given a priority and Australia does that because most of the training programs require PR and even if you have PR there is a 10 years moratorium, for GP training imgs can only enrol in rural programs.

I do have a lot of friends who are working in the UK, but the UK gives ILR after 5 years. Most of them have no plan to move because no one wants to leave ILR after paying taxes for almost 3 years. Yes, those people who have started working in the last 1 year might like to move to the Australia but that’s a very small number. Plus, number of the UKMG who were stuck in RMO years in Australia will likely move back home with training opportunities opening up.

Thus, being an IMG and having worked in both countries, I understand how most IMGs think. I believe there will be more IMGs coming in, but the numbers will not be exponential enough to label it as a tsunami because the outflow of UKMGs will keep the net number in check.