Australian Defence Force to allow recruits from foreign countries
Australian Defence Force to allow recruits from foreign countries
Permanent residents from countries including the UK and US will be eligible to join and get citizenship.
The Australian Defence Force (ADF) will allow recruits from foreign countries, including the UK, to help grow its ranks.
Australia has been struggling with enlistment shortfalls, as it seeks to beef up its armed forces in the face of what it says are growing regional threats.
From July, New Zealand nationals who are permanent residents of Australia can apply to join, and from next year that will expand to recruits from the UK and other countries including the US and Canada.
Minister for Defence Richard Marles said the changes to eligibility requirements were "essential to meet the nation’s security challenges through the next decade and beyond".
It looks like eligibility is limited to permanent residents. I can't imagine this would help that much in this case? Someone already living there already has a leg up on finding a job (especially, as the article states, the issue with enlistment is already-high employment).
I'd think they'd have better luck opening this up to non-residents in a French Foreign Legion sort of approach. It seems like a much better value-proposition to someone from an economically-disadvantaged country, especially if it opens the door to AUS citizenship. This veers pretty close to the Starship Troopers "service guarantees citizenship" and as such I'm not saying they should do this - just that I wonder if they considered it if they're having that much trouble reaching enlistment targets.
I'm doing my part!
I think you might be right though, it seems unlikely the current plan is going to attract more than a handful of applicants.