Immigration, particularly skilled immigration, is an important area for policy-related research because it has been traditionally viewed as the one component of labor market growth which policymakers control directly. One should remember that there are other participants in the immigration market, i.e., the migrants themselves and other receiving countries. Increased competition for skilled migrants among receiving countries may constrain policymakers' ability to control both the number and the quality of the migrants they accept. The purpose of this article is to address these issues by analyzing the relative importance of internal and external factors on the demand for skilled immigration visas to Australia. Our objectives are to determine how the size of the pool of potential migrants is influenced by factors such as relative economic conditions and U.S. and Canadian immigration policies and to determine what implications these factors have on the relative quality (skill level) of potential migrants to Australia. Our results indicate that the demand for skilled immigration visas to Australia is related to the number of immigrants accepted by the United States and Canada as well as employment possibilities in Australia. We do not find a relationship between U.S. and Canadian policy and the relative quality of the applicant pool. Caution is indicated, however, because Australia has had to increase its acceptance rates in recent years to reach its desired intake levels, perhaps suggesting a decrease in the selectivity of the evaluation process.

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