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Amidst a growing debate about immigration in the US, one of the country's top officials has said that tougher policies brought in since September 11 2001 may put a brake on America's productivity growth, Reuters reports.
Answering questions at the Council on Foreign Relations, Ben Bernanke, a member of the Board of Governors of the US Federal Reserve, said relatively open immigration had been good for the US economy.
UK immigration policies are to get an overhaul to deal with false asylum seekers and terror suspects, the BBC reports.
In an interview with The Times newspaper, Britain's Home Secretary Charles Clarke outlined a five year program on asylum seekers and said he would look at all of the ways that people could get into the country. Particular attention would be paid to what sorts of dependants are allowed to come to the UK with people on work permits.
The minister also indicated that illegal entrants should be discouraged from entering the Country in the first place.
The number of immigrants to Germany dropped below 800,000 for the first time in many years in 2003, the broadcaster Deutsche Welle reports.
According to Government figures released on January 17, 768,000 migrants came to Germany in 2003. About two thirds of these arrivals were from European countries, mainly Italy, Poland, Russia and Turkey.
While other European countries struggle with high unemployment, the UK is facing a labour shortage that could be eased through higher immigration, the Financial Times newspaper reports.
Figures just released by Britain's Office of National Statistics (ONS) show that the UK's employment rate reached 74.8 percent of the working age population in the period from September to November 2004, a 0.2 percent rise on the previous quarter. The total figure of over 28.4 million people in work is the highest ever such indicator in Britain according to some analysts.
Following the January 13 resignation of Judy Sgro, newly-appointed Canadian Immigration Minister Joe Volpe will seek to speed up the process of determining who is a refugee, the website Cnews reports.
Mr. Volpe said he doesn't consider it acceptable that it should take years to deal with some cases.
"If something can be done to shorten the process it will be done," he said January 17.
Mr. Volpe also said he will immediately start looking into the situation of thousands of construction workers operating illegally in Toronto.
A leading human rights watchdog has accused the European Union and its member states of neglecting the rights of asylum seekers in their migration and anti-terrorism polices, the website EU Observer reports.
According to a report published January 13 by the US-based organization Human Rights Watch (HRW), the actions and policies of authorities in Europe adds up to a policy geared toward keeping asylum seekers out.
"The exclusive focus on combating illegal immigration in Europe reflects a disturbing and prevailing attitude that migrants have no rights," the report states.