Immigration package to ease skills shortage - Immigration Media Release ce015/2008

17 February 2008 The Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Senator, Chris Evans, today unveiled a package of migration measures designed to address Australia’s skills and labour shortages. The General Skilled Migration program, selects people with the right skills and qualifications to work in industries where labour is in demand. He stated that employer sponsored visas are the highest priority because they put a migrant worker directly into a skilled job. more...

Demand for workers lifts migrant intake

18 February 2008 Australia is to lift its skilled migrant intake to 108,500 as the overall number of foreigners arriving for work climbs to more than 300,000 a year. The Immigration Minister, Chris Evans, said “an expert panel would examine the sensitive migrant worker arrangements as he revealed another 6,000 places would be added to the permanent skilled migration program”. The Government is also expanding the working-holiday visa scheme to help the construction industry by allowing people who do at least 3 months in the construction sector in regional areas to extend their 12-month visa by another year. more.. .

Construction union opposes temporary workvisas

18 February 2008 The Construction Workers Union is opposed to any increase in the number of people brought into Australia on temporary work visas. The union's national secretary, Dave Noonan, says “calls by the WA Chamber of Commerce and Industry to significantly increase the numbers of unskilled workers, as well as skilled migrants, is unwarranted”. more...

Migrants beating locals to new jobs

28 February 2008 Migrants secured more than half of the 240,000 full-time jobs created over the past 12 months as employers ran out of qualified local-born people to fill job vacancies. Overseas-born Australians enjoy a lower unemployment rate than their local-born counterparts, 4.4% to 4.6%. The advantage is greater still for English-speaking migrants from New Zealand, Britain and Ireland. Migrants account for just 28.6% of the nation's working age population, according to the detailed breakdowns that the Australian Bureau of Statistics releases after the monthly labour force survey. more.. .

An inconvenient truth about rising immigration

3 March 2008 John Howard never wanted to talk about his booming immigration program. It seems Kevin Rudd's lot doesn't want to either. According to Rory Robertson of Macquarie Bank, net immigration has exceeded 100,000 a year in 12 of the past 20 years, having exceeded 100,000 only 12 times in the previous 2 centuries. The immigration program is so big, it now accounts for more than half the rate of growth in our population.

more.. .