Global Immigration Immigration News

A public opinion survey conducted by Transatlantic Trends has shown that the public perception of immigration is largely positive - many of the people surveyed being pleased with the benefits immigration can bring.

Beginning 2012, Taiwan's immigration department will officially launch E-gates at three airports and one seaport to help expedite passenger clearance at immigration control. This will reduce processing times to approximately 12 seconds per individual.

More than half of China's millionaires are either considering emigrating or have already taken steps to do so, according to a poll by Shanghai's Hurun Institute, which publishes an annual list of the richest people in the country. The poll cited worries among the business elite about their quality of life and financial prospects; they also hope for better educational opportunities for their children abroad.

Following numerous complaints from the tourism industry the new Sri Lanka visit visa fee will be much lower than originally planned. There is currently no visit visa fee. From 1 January 2012 it was expected that there would be a visit visa fee of $50. The fee will now be US$20 instead of US$50.

At a recent National Day Rally speech by Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong spoke about tightening immigration rules for skilled foreign workers. This has raised concerns that in future it will be more difficult for skilled overseas workers to emigrate to Singapore.

In a recent global poll, researchers found that Australia, Canada and Brazil had the highest percentage of citizens who viewed immigration in a positive light.

Brazil led the polls with 47 percent of respondents saying that immigration benefited Brazilian society, followed by Canada (43 percent) and Australia (36 percent). The study was undertaken by UK and Irish research company Ipsos.