Peak hour in downtown Sydney…Thousands emerge from Central station, ready for another day at work.

But Jacinto Manansala won’t be working today. He’s another casualty of the economic downturn… But unlike local workers, he only has days to find a job before his visa expires.

Jacinto Manansala is an experienced construction worker from the Philippines. When he arrived in Australia in 2007, the industry was booming. Now the sector is contracting and temporary overseas workers are no longer needed on construction sites.

Jacinto Manasala feels betrayed. “They told us, Australia, they told us, this is a democratic multicultural country but you can still feel the discrimination anywhere.”

At work, Jacinto Manansala claims his manager treated Filipino workers with disdain. “He told us that if you do not do this, I’m going to send you back home," recalls Manansala. "I know the country where you came from, he said, and that’s bullying and discrimination for us.”

Unions claim migrant workers are exposed to exploitation and abuse. They also believe unscrupulous employers use them to put a cap on wages.

Why would they argue for migration workers to continue when they know there are local workers unemployed?" asks John Sutton, the national secretary of the CFMEU (Construction Forestry Mining Energy Union). "The only logical reason for that is that they want to further drive down the rates of pay and conditions.”

It’s been a long battle for the unions. But their lobbying effort is slowly beginning to pay off. The Australian government has recently announced they will reduce the intake of migrant workers by 14%, in an effort to protect local jobs.

With no money to send home and only days to find work, Jacinto Manansala turned to Migrante for help. Migrante is an independent association designed to help Filipino workers overseas.

Jane Brock, a volunteer at Migrante, says the crisis is dividing the workforce. “The other concern of course is racism, she explains. Migrant workers could easily be picked on as grabbers or who stole others' jobs.”

It is too early to say whether the government’s decision will have any effect on employment figures, but for Jacinto Manansala, the impact is real. His dream of a better future may simply have come to an end.