Regardless of the various cries of there are Aussies in all sorts of countries across the world, the 457 visa program is supposedly intended to only allow experienced workers in a selected range of fields entry into Australia only if a test has been applied that demonstrated that there were no suitable applicants from within Australia.
Skywest did it with the ATR introduction for a bunch of experienced ATR crew and the hook there was there were very few experienced pilots with ATR time and it was a new type and therefore a cadre of experienced pilots was necessary for the introduction.
I don't think that reasoning could be applied to the QantasLink case and given that they have a well established check and training system experienced in training all manner of pilots, including cadets with sod all total time on the Dash, then I can't see the justification for allowing the 457 visas.
With regards Aussies in different countries, most of the countries are ones where the pilots are needed not wanted and they would give the expat pilots the push with the blink of an eye of they could.
Many are in Europe and a much smaller number in the US as a result of family ties that give them passports/right of residency in the respective countries and they have to do all the licensing like normal residents. No free passes in the easa system even for experienced pilots, so for those that went to those countries they worked for it, so good on them.
The US is easier from a licensing perspective but more difficult from an immigration perspective. Even more difficult from a seniority perspective. From what I read on another thread, if you don't have an aviation related bachelors degree you need 12 years of relevant industry experience to qualify for an E3 view, which I gather from my non existent research
is the US equivalent to our 457. Because of the way the industry works there you are not going to get much credit for your experience in terms of the positions available to you, so you start at the bottom of the list like everyone else and get **** money and **** rosters working for the regional feeders into the mainline carriers and work your way up from there. In fairness it is probably much the same as here in many ways except the salaries paid here are much more substantial than those paid to 'junior' pilots in the US.
I would love to go and be a wide body airbus captain in Europe and take the family and see out my career there but it just ain't going to happen. I don't have the family heritage that gets me an EU passport, I couldn't be arsed doing all the subjects again, and starting as a FO again, so it just ain't going to happen for me, but there are those that are happy to take the bucks in China and not sure why the sandpit is attractive other than shiny wide body aeroplanes but people go there too, but make no mistake if the Chinese or the Emiratis could get rid of expats and crew all their aeroplanes with locals without huge dramas the expats (of all nationalities) would be gone in a heartbeat.