Originally Posted by ecaarch
skilled people
That is the key. The USA is also facing a shortage of people with certain skillsets, e.g. nurses, project managers, some kinds of computer programmers. If you lack such skills, however, the waiting list for permanent residency in the US can be 10 years.
New Zealand has a particular problem because their economy is not very large and educated young people can often find more lucrative opportunities in Australia or the UK than at home.