A lot has taken place on the immigration front in the past two days. New Zealand has introduced tougher immigration rules for skilled workers and reaffirmed its new stance as Kiwis first. The country’s immigration minister Michael Woodhouse said today after announcing the changes that the government has a ‘Kiwis first’ approach and changes were made to better manage immigration and to fill genuine skill shortages to contribute to the economy.

The move from New Zealand comes after Australian Prime Minister scrapped its skilled worker 457 visa scheme to give Australian workers priority for domestic jobs. Mr. Turnbull said in a video message posted on Facebook: “We are an immigration nation, but the fact remains Australian workers must have priority for Australian jobs.” He added that 457 visas will no longer be passports for jobs that could either go or should go to Australians. However, the government will issue new temporary visas for companies to recruit foreign workers but the rules will come with stricter requirements.

On the very same day, the US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order called ‘buy American, hire American’ aimed at cracking down the abuse of skilled worker visa and forcing government agencies to buy more domestically produced goods.