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Almost 60 European and African countries met July 10 in Rabat, Morocco for a major conference on immigration, following a radical rise of illegal migrants flowing to the EU from the south.
European Commission vice-president Franco Frattini believes the event could produce concrete measures tackling the "uncontrolled migration movements" between the two continents, which he argues would be "in the interest of all parties involved, including first and foremost migrants themselves."
Australia must increase its migrant intake to stop the economy from stagnating in coming years, a leading business information company says.
IBISWorld said that without more migration to offset the nation's aging population and low natural birthrate, the economy would suffer and key industries would lack sufficient staff.
For more than two years, investigations and evidence have been mounting that some private language schools being set-up in Britain are nothing more than fronts to exploit loopholes in immigration law. Estimates range between 25% and 50% of language schools are processing student visas to foreigners who never attend class and who are working illegally without work permits.
In a sharp departure from other EU nations over the past year, the new Italian government of Prime Minister Romano Prodi has announced that it will grant citizenship to immigrants that can document they have stayed in Italy for five years. Interior Minister Giuliano Amato, speaking for the new centre-left government, said "I see no reason why we should not grant citizenship to those who acquire a residence permit and thus demonstrate their commitment to this country."
As previously reported, obtaining a visa or work permit for foreign-born nurses to travel to the UK just became more problematic.
The Home Office announced last week they would be removing 'general nurses' from the Skills Shortage Occcupations listing. As of this week, advance notice of the exact change and when it will take effect has been published.
Originally, Britain estimated that the inclusion of ten new member states to the EU would result in approximately 15,000 new immigrants each year. For this reason, it was decided that the UK would have an open border policy, allowing any EU national to work in the UK.
However, many more have come. Until recently, the official number since the 2004 EU expansion has been placed at approximately 375,000.