More than 3,000 Irish people have contacted Australian visa specialists in an effort to move to work in Australia. In the past 18 months New Zealand has granted a record 6,441 work visas to Irish people.
In 2009,only 308 people were granted residency in New Zealand, and a a staggering 2,384 Irish people were granted residency in Australia.
50,000 Irish people had gained temporary entry to Australia by the end of the last fiscal year. 17,139 of those were temporary residents. According to recently published figures Canada is also experiencing a similar a trend.
It seems that Canada, Australia and New Zealand are the nations of choice for Irish immigrants.
However, Australia is currently reviewing its Skilled Occupations List and is currently only focusing on highly skilled English speaking professionals and tradesmen.
The review of the Skilled Occupations List will only affect 5 per cent of those who have applied for visas.
"We have met over 3,000 Irish people looking to relocate to Australia over the past 12 months and less than 5% will be affected by the pending visa changes," said Liz O'Hagan, founder of Australian Visa Specialists.
"While there is a lot of speculation, the current review is necessary to ensure that jobs are available when people migrate. We have seen the profile of Irish applicants change over the past year to more highly skilled professionals," she added.
The U.S. has clamped down on immigration and as a result it has fallen out of favor with Irish immigrants.
1 Comment
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Switch to the desktop site to post a comment.Silling | Oct 04, 2010, 12:11 PM EDT
The Irish still have to swear an oath of allegiance to the queen in New Zealand. Also, remember that there was prohibition in Auckland until 1996. Also, read " The Passionless People " by Gordon McLauchlan before going there. Also read, " The poisoning of New Zealand " by Meril Watts. The 60,000,000 million litres of agent orange which the Americans used in Vietnam was made in Taranaki and New Zealand was the last country in the world to ban DDT. The water table is full of pesticides and and the country is riddled with cancer. There are more pipe bands in NZ than Scotland. Nz is a Calvanistic country and only suited to a certain type of Irishman. Be warned, it is not all it is made out to be. 60,000,000 sheep and an ozone over the south island. ( methane ) They drink Lion Red which is as close as one can get to infected urine. You can smell the porridge two hours out of Sydney. Bishop Wakefield planned to never have any Irish at all there. Take my advice all those Irish thinking of emigrating, forget about hanging on the the traditional apron strings of Mother England and the colonies she set up for us. Be adventurous and go somewhere different. Why not France or Spain or Italy. Emigrating to the colonies is only continuing the insult of our history. one last thing to all of you who might be thinking of emigrating to New Zealand, Be sure and read History of NZ and its Inhabitants by Dom Felice Vaggioli translated by John Crockett. Also read the poem by Wynford Vaughan -Thamas titled Farewell to New Zealand. You will find it on the internet. Do all I have requested before you commit yourselves to New Zealand. Remember what George Bernard Shaw said about the place, " I would hate to live there, but it would be a great place to die ".