Rural Australian fruit growers desperate for workers have been helped out by the large number of backpackers who took advantage of changes to the working holiday maker visa scheme. Three weeks after the Government allowed visitors to extend their visa to stay on and pick fruit in rural areas, the Immigration Department revealed that 500 working holidaymakers had already taken up the option. The changes to the scheme came after pleas from Coalition MPs in regional areas.

US President George W Bush has begun touring US states to rally support for his strategy to control immigration and to start a new guest worker visa. Mr Bush wants tighter security along the Mexican frontier, but he also plans to allow migrants with a job offer to stay in the US temporarily. Under his plan, undocumented aliens would be allowed to get three-year work visas. "The programme... would not create an automatic path to citizenship. It wouldn't provide amnesty," Mr Bush told border officials in Tucson, Arizona. "This programme would help meet the demand of a growing economy, and it would allow honest workers to provide for their families while respecting the law," he said.

Joe Volpe, Canada's Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, Nov. 24 announced the Government of Canada will invest an additional $700 million over five years to make important improvements to the federal immigration system. These improvements include funding to start reducing the current inventory of applications at Citizenship and Immigration Canada, and a new process to allow immigrants with Canadian experience or Canadian education to apply for permanent resident status under the new In-Canada Economic Stream in 2007. A $920 million Canada-Ontario agreement announced earlier is an additional immigration investment that Canada is making over the next five years in immigration-related issues in Ontario.

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