Rob Breumelhof
Active Member
Hier is de eerste officiele bekendmaking van een reductie in het aantal visa voor 'Skilled Migrants'.
AUSTRALIA'S intake of skilled migrants will be cut by 18,500 over the next three months to protect local jobs.
Citing the global economic downturn and growing unemployment, the Rudd Government today will announce a 14 per cent cut in Australia's permanent skilled migration program.
It will be the first reduction in this category of migrants in more than a decade and will cut Australia's intake from 133,500 to 115,000 by June 30.
Workers from the building and manufacturing trades will be affected the most, with the Government deciding to remove them from the critical skills list.
This means that bricklayers, plumbers, welders, carpenters and metal-fitters will no longer be able to be sponsored by an employer or granted a permanent visa.
However, workers in the health and medical, engineering and IT professions will still be allowed to work in Australia under the program.
The move comes after the nation's jobless rate last month soared to 5.2 per cent – exceeding economists' expectations.
Immigration Minister Senator Chris Evans said the cut in migration would protect the jobs, wages and conditions of Australian workers.
He said the migration program needed to be more targeted "so that migrant workers are meeting skills shortages and not competing with locals for jobs".
"Clearly, the economic circumstances in Australia have changed as a result of the global financial crisis, so it is prudent to reduce this year's migration intake accordingly," he said.
"The critical skills list will remain under constant review and the Government will remove occupations from the list if demand for those skills can be satisfied by local labour."
About 50 per cent of the people who are granted permanent skilled migration visas are already living and working in Australia.
In January, the Government put further restrictions on the skilled migration program, only accepting applicants with a confirmed job or those with an occupation on the critical skills list.
A spokesman for Senator Evans said decisions about intake levels in the 2009-10 migration program would be announced in the May Budget.
ACTU president Sharan Burrow has been advocating a cut in the migration program. "In the current climate, we need to be careful there are jobs for all," she said last month.
The CFMEU also has been calling for an immediate freeze on overseas skilled construction workers.
Zie voor het persbercht: www.minister.immi.gov.au/media/media-releases/2009/ce09030.htm.
Met vriendelijke groeten,
Rob Breumelhof
Adelaide
AUSTRALIA'S intake of skilled migrants will be cut by 18,500 over the next three months to protect local jobs.
Citing the global economic downturn and growing unemployment, the Rudd Government today will announce a 14 per cent cut in Australia's permanent skilled migration program.
It will be the first reduction in this category of migrants in more than a decade and will cut Australia's intake from 133,500 to 115,000 by June 30.
Workers from the building and manufacturing trades will be affected the most, with the Government deciding to remove them from the critical skills list.
This means that bricklayers, plumbers, welders, carpenters and metal-fitters will no longer be able to be sponsored by an employer or granted a permanent visa.
However, workers in the health and medical, engineering and IT professions will still be allowed to work in Australia under the program.
The move comes after the nation's jobless rate last month soared to 5.2 per cent – exceeding economists' expectations.
Immigration Minister Senator Chris Evans said the cut in migration would protect the jobs, wages and conditions of Australian workers.
He said the migration program needed to be more targeted "so that migrant workers are meeting skills shortages and not competing with locals for jobs".
"Clearly, the economic circumstances in Australia have changed as a result of the global financial crisis, so it is prudent to reduce this year's migration intake accordingly," he said.
"The critical skills list will remain under constant review and the Government will remove occupations from the list if demand for those skills can be satisfied by local labour."
About 50 per cent of the people who are granted permanent skilled migration visas are already living and working in Australia.
In January, the Government put further restrictions on the skilled migration program, only accepting applicants with a confirmed job or those with an occupation on the critical skills list.
A spokesman for Senator Evans said decisions about intake levels in the 2009-10 migration program would be announced in the May Budget.
ACTU president Sharan Burrow has been advocating a cut in the migration program. "In the current climate, we need to be careful there are jobs for all," she said last month.
The CFMEU also has been calling for an immediate freeze on overseas skilled construction workers.
Zie voor het persbercht: www.minister.immi.gov.au/media/media-releases/2009/ce09030.htm.
Met vriendelijke groeten,
Rob Breumelhof
Adelaide
