Australia to focus on high skills, cancels 20K visas

Australia will dump 20,000 low-skilled migrant applications to re-focus its immigration intake on high-skilled jobs critical to the economy and help meet growing Chinese resource demand, the government said on Monday. The move was welcomed by Australia's mining sector, where major firms like BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto have been expanding to meet China's growing demand for resources, but is struggling with a shortage of skilled workers.