
The overall skilled migration trend indicates a downward movement mainly due to the governments’ policies of localization and the unemployment level in the major skilled workforce attracting countries. However, new policies are currently in the pipelines that will dissipate this situation.
There are some changes in the immigration policies are expected in the US and UK in near future which would attract the world’s skilled work force towards these countries. Meanwhile, countries like Germany, Singapore and Switzerland show promising prospects for people having skills in the engineering and information technology fields. Apart from the above there were quite a number of approvals seen for Family Sponsorship Cases of USA during the last month.
Coming towards the New Zealand, Australia and Canada region – the skilled immigration points criteria has continued to remain at the higher side. In Canada it went up to 470 points earlier in end of May and then again showed a downward trend later in mid-June. In Australia the last 02 rounds’ selections have been as high as 75 and 80 points for most of the occupations with only 100 each EOIs were picked up for processing. Experts suggest that keeping high points and slow processing of applications are being used by the governments to manage the immigrant inflow in these countries.
On the contrary, the present situation in the Gulf region will remain vulnerable for the skilled workforce but it is expected that this uncertainty in the market will only last for temporary period. The recently announced investment and business migration policies by UAE and KSA is a highly encouraging indicator for those considering these markets as a good business and investment prospects .
The countries like USA, UK, Australia, Canada and New Zealand would continue to increase the inflow of students but without compromising quality – for a serious and genuine students particularly for post graduate STEM programs, the current situation is very encouraging to apply.