Immigration newsletter 02 Aug 2006

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The European Commission has expressed its concern and has issued a warning to Italy about its general amnesty program for hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants. Italian authorities will have to check each application for amnesty to ensure the applicant complies with all EU requirements, in addition to Italian law.

UK National Identity Cards will be issued to all citizens and residents beginning in 2008 and 2009. The National Identity Scheme program collects a full profile of each person, including biometric data, into the National Identity Register, and encodes a portion of it to an RFID memory chip on the card.

The Whitehouse announced the end of the so-called 'catch-and-release' policy this week. "Essentially 100 percent" of non-Mexican illegal immigrants who are detained are currently being deported. 

The crackdown also extends to employers who violate immigration law. The penalties can be severe. There can be heavy fines, forfeiture of assets, and loss of business licenses.

The US Congress heard testimony about medical personnel shortages last week. Facilities are unable hire new staff, and people are not attracted to the low pay they can offer. It is being suggested that opening up visa opportunities for foreign medical & nursing workers would help the problem.

The next generation of computer games and software is on the way and the US needs new developers and programmers. Major IT industry companies are lobbying congress to increase the H-1B visa caps. It is being reported that domestic graduation rates will not to cover the need.

There are not enough qualified multi-lingual teachers in the U.S. Not only immigrants who wish to learn English, but many Americans who wish to learn foreign languages from native speakers is driving the demand. With the growing Hispanic population of the U.S., Spanish is becoming the de facto second language of the country. People and businesses are learning both languages to remain competitive.