Wellington, New Zealand:
New Zealand said on Sunday it was making immediate changes to its work visa program after near-record migration last year, which it said was “unsustainable”.
The changes include measures such as introducing an English language requirement for low-skilled jobs and setting a minimum skills and work experience threshold for most employer work visas. The maximum continuous stay for most low-skilled positions will also be reduced from five years to three years.
“The government is focused on attracting and retaining highly skilled migrants, such as secondary school teachers, where there are skills shortages,” Immigration Minister Erica Stanford said in a statement.
“At the same time, we need to ensure New Zealanders are put at the front of the queue for jobs where there is no skills shortage,” she said.
A near-record 173,000 people migrated to New Zealand last year, the statement said.
New Zealand, which has a population of about 5.1 million, has seen rapid growth in the number of migrants since the end of the pandemic, raising concerns last year that it was fueling inflation.
Neighboring Australia, which has also seen a big jump in migrants, has said it will halve its influx of migrants over the next two years.
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