Immigration newsletter 24 Aug 2005

Workpermit.com is pleased to bring you its newsletter video this week. If you would like to watch the news rather than read it, simply click on the video link on the right hand side.

Research from an Israeli university has found that immigration of skilled workers is 10 times more valuable to an economy than immigration of unskilled workers. While unskilled immigrants produce many benefits for better-off residents in a country, they tend to reduce the wages the un-skilled native population can earn. Skilled immigrants, on the other hand, while directly lowering the wages of the skilled native population by a small amount, also raise the income that can be earned on capital.

Australia announced this week that it has a strong need for skilled British immigrants. The country is launching its largest immigration drive in 40 years. Australia will be holding job fairs in London in the coming months, as well as placing advertisements in British newspapers inviting tradespeople and professionals to meet potential employers and state and federal government representatives.

New Zealand will be launching a campaign to bring New Zealanders home. The idea is to provide expats with information about New Zealand and why it is an attractive place to live and to give them the connections they need to return easily. About 600 New Zealanders leave each week for Australia.

Debate continued this week in the United States over the H1B visa. Last week the country announced that its 65,000 quota had been reached and it would not be accepting any additional applications. Representatives of the high tech industry say the United States needs more visas in order remain competitive internationally. Meanwhile opponents of the visa say the system is being abused, and that international workers are paid less than American ones.

In a global survey of 130 businesses taken by PricewaterhouseCoopers, the United States was found to have the least friendly business immigration policies. Long processing time of work permit applications was the primary problem cited. The US was followed by China and France.