Australia and New Zealand Immigration News

The Australian Labor Party has proposed to allow unskilled and low skilled workers from the Pacific islands to work in Australia.

Australian Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews released a draft of a proposed resource book entitled 'Becoming an Australian Citizen'.

A new government report states that New Zealand's labor market will remain tight during the next year as a shortage of skilled workers continues to get worse.

At a time when New Zealand is trying to attract skilled migrants from overseas, statistics are showing that migration to the country is slowing down.

As a reminder, on 01 September, Australia will make significant changes to its General Skilled Migration (GSM) program. People applying before 31 August 2007 will not be affected by the new rules.

Australia's Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) has released statistics on the country's 2006-07 migration program, which granted 148,200 permanent visas for skilled migration, family migration, and humanitarian migration categories.