Recent decades have coincided with the rapid globalisation of the nursing profession. Within Australia there has been rising dependence on overseas qualified nurses (OQNs) to compensate for chronic nurse shortages related to the continued exodus of Australian nurses overseas and to emerging...

In the past decade Australia has developed unprecedented reliance on skilled migrants a process intensified by a period of sustained economic boom. By the time of the 2006 Census, 57 percent of all degree-qualified information technology (IT) professionals were born over-seas, compared with 52...

In the past decade, Australia has developed unprecedented reliance on skilled migrants, a process intensified by a period of sustained economic boom. By 2007, two-thirds were former international students recruited in Australia rather than offshore applicants, exemplifying a transition to what...

The past decade has coincided with extraordinary growth in international student migration to Australia. By mid 2010, over 610,000 students were enrolled, large numbers of whom planned to convert to permanent resident status through two-step migration. While international students were initially...

Circular and return migration are the globally endorsed preferred models for health workforce mobility. Australia is the sole country to date to record emigration as well as immigration flows, including data permitting analysis of migration dynamics and scale in specific vocational fields....

Striking demographic shifts are underway in developed nations, where fertility decline is fuelling competition for high-skilled migrants. According to the Chief Economist of the OECD, ‘Over the next couple of decades nothing will impact on (member) economies more profoundly than demographic...

Australia, Canada and New Zealand are global competitors and collaborators in relation to skilled migration. In the recent decade they have operated large permanent migration programs, sharing two priority goals: nation-building and economic growth. In terms of policy, their primary focus is on...

The theory and practice of occupational regulation are outlined together with associated issues regarding foreign qualification recognition. Trade-offs between public safety and the monopoly power inherent in occupational regulation are highlighted, together with a description of the increasing...

This paper has four aims. First, it defines the extent to which skilled migration to Australia has changed in recent decades in terms of scale, source country, and entry mode. Second, it describes Australia's federally driven foreign qualification recognition (FQR) reform strategy, including the...