Europe Immigration News

If you are interested in the Latvian immigrant investor scheme, call us in London on +44 (0)344 991 9222 or in Riga on (+371) 6 781 4120

There are fears that the Latvian immigrant investor programme may close after one of the parties in the country's ruling Coalition called for it to be scrapped. A spokesman for the right wing National Alliance said that his party believes that the permit scheme is pushing up the price of property and so making it unaffordable for ordinary Latvians to buy property.

As of 1st August 2013, Sweden will be part of the EU's blue card work permit scheme. Sweden is the 24th country in Europe to sign up to the scheme.

The Blue Card is a European work permit. While its name is clearly based on the US's 'green card' permanent resident visa, the two cards are not actually very similar. The EU 'blue card' for example, is not a permanent immigration visa. The EU says that the intention of the Blue Card is to allow 'high-skilled non-EU citizens to work and live in any country within the European Union'.

Official figures show that the economic crisis in southern Europe may be speeding the rate of immigration within the European Union. The figures suggest that 1.08m people moved to Germany from within the EU in 2012. They moved from countries in southern Europe such as Spain, Greece, Portugal and Italy as well as from countries in eastern Europe such as Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Slovenia and Poland. The total figure was some 13% higher than in 2011.

The population of Spain has fallen for the first time since records began according to the Spanish National Statistics Institute. The latest figures show that the population of Spanish citizens grew very slightly by 10,000 people but the number of registered foreign residents fell by 216,000 resulting in a net population fall of 206,000 to 47.1m.

Human rights campaigners have alleged that Greek border guards have been using illegal tactics to keep refugees out of Greece.

Do you have a higher education qualification? Do you want to work in the European Union?

Have you considered joining the EU Blue Card Network? It could help you find the job you've been dreaming of.

Why not sign up? It's free.