Topical:
In a BBC interview today, UK Prime Minister Tony Blair has announcedthat migrants from Eastern European countries who will be joiningthe EU on 1 May will only be welcome if they wish to work in the UK.
He has stated that individuals from these eight countries will need to have a job to go to if they want to live in the UK. In order to avoid 'benefit shopping', migrants will only be allowed to stay in Britain if they can support themselves.
All ex-patriates living in Brussels, regardless of their nationality, have been granted the right to vote in local municipal elections under a new law approved by the Belgian Parliament on 20 February.
Under the new regulations even non-European Union foreigners living in Belgium, such as the large Indian national population, will be eligible to vote in the country’s municipal elections.
Nevertheless, one will have to meet certain conditions before being able to participate.
First of all, any non-EU ex-pats must have been living in Belgium for at least five years before becoming entitled to vote.
A study funded by Human Resources Development Canada has found that growth in the Ontario city of Toronto will be halted unless gaps in the labour market are filled by the year 2010.
The study claims that by then, over 400,000 new jobs will need to be filled, which actually represents 13% of the entire labour market. The existing work force may need to be replaced by then, especially in skilled positions requiring a minimum qualification of at least a bachelor's degree.
The study recommends that the main solution to filling these gaps in the labour market would be immigration.
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has announced today that this year's congressionally mandated H-1B cap of 65,000 applications has been reached. The USCIS will no longer be accepting any new applications for H1-B visas for the purpose of first-time employment in the United States.
New procedures have been announced by USCIS for the remainder of fiscal year 2004 (1 October 2003 - 30 September 2004), as follows:
The Dutch government has announced that local employers will only be able to recruit workers from the ten EU accession countries this year if no Dutch person can be found for the position. Despite this new ruling, the restrictions will vary from sector to sector.
In February, it was announced by the Australian Government that a new minimum salary level will be set for positions being filled by overseas workers on temporary business visas (subclass 457).
The minimum required salary will increase from AUD$35,828 per annum to AUD$37,720 a year for most occupations.
The increase has been made in response to the overall average earnings for all Australian workers, as at February 2003.
Australian welcomes temporary overseas workers and they bring benefits to all Australians by filling certain gaps in the labour market and also by establishing new business networks.