LABOUR SHORTAGE AND MIGRATION

Australia’s ageing workforce demands new blood. It is common knowledge that the Immigration Minister, Amanda Vanstone, is advocating a radical relaxation of visa restrictions on skilled migrants in order to improve the prospects of attracting new workers to kick-start the Australian economy.

Indeed, evidence increasingly points to the fact the minister is pushing for a massive one-year rise of 20,000 in skilled places - a figure that is likely to take the overall migration program to about 140,000 in 2005-06.

Thus, it stands to reason that migrants of African descent might benefit from the new creative way of overcoming labour shortage and boosting the Australian economy.