Immigration newsletter 23 Nov 2005

Earlier this year, thousands of IT workers were encouraged when the US Senate voted to increase the number of available H1B visas by 30,000. The US Congress this week, however, passed its own version of the same bill, without any increase in H1B visas. The Senate had also voted to increase the cost of the H1B visas, while the Congress voted to increase the cost of the L1 visa instead, which is is a non-immigrant visa that allows companies operating both in the US and abroad to transfer certain classes of employee from its foreign operations to the USA operations for up to seven years. The fate of the H1B visa increase will now depend on the common bill, which will have to be prepared before it can be sent to the US President for his approval. There is likely to be intense lobbying by pro-immigration and anti-immigration groups in the coming weeks.

Countries hoping to integrate new immigrants should make sure the immigrants remain proud of and interested both in their ethnic culture as well as culture of their new home country , suggests a new study on immigrant youth. The study, based on more than 5,000 interviews conducted over 10 years, looked at 13 countries and the experiences of their young immigrants. The ideal situation, according to the report, is for young immigrants to be proud of both their ethnic culture and the culture of their new country, and to avoid ignoring either. Remembering their roots makes it easier to handle discrimination and deal with the challenges of facing a new life, the report says. The study, considered to be the most exhaustive of its kind ever produced, found that countries that promote assimilation or a melting-pot philosophy often alienate young immigrants.

Australia's immigration policy of attracting professionals and skilled workers from poorer countries could be damaging the countries they leave behind, by attracting their doctors, nurses, nation-builders and reformers. A report released by the World Bank finds that more than 75 percent of all graduates from Tonga and Samoa, and 62 percent of all graduates from Fiji have emigrated. Most are now in Australia and New Zealand. The situation is more severe in the Caribbean, where as many as 89 percent of all graduates have emigrated, mostly to the West, where their skills earn them much higher incomes.

Meanwhile, a newspaper in the African country Ghana reveals that an average of 8,000 highly trained and skilled Ghanaians leave the country annually for the US through the Green Card Lottery. The requirements for entering the lottery are at least 12 years of elementary and secondary schooling, equivalent to high school in the US, at least two years of work experience or work in a job that requires at least two years of training. All these fit the nation's highly trained and skilled human resource such as doctors, teachers, accountants, engineers, nurses, pharmacists and lawyers whose exodus from the country has raised serious concern.

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