Immigration newsletter 05 Dec 2007

Kevin Rudd, the new Prime Minister for Australia, has named and sworn in his Immigration Minister, Senator Christopher Evans. Senator Evans replaces Kevin Andrews, the former Immigration Minister for the former Prime Minister, John Howard. 

Senator Evans brings 25 years of service and experience in the Australian government to his new post. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd made immigration, migration and refugee policies a central theme of his election campaign, and major changes in policy from the previous government are expected.

From 30 November 2007, 320 Service Canada centers began offering in-person credentials referral services for migrants who were trained internationally. The Service Canada centers are part of the Canadian government's Foreign Credentials Referral Office (FCRO), and will help internationally trained immigrants who want to work in Canada to get the information they need to have their credentials assessed and recognized more quickly.

New figures from the United Kingdom's Office of National Statistics (ONS) project that the population of Britain could rise up to 108.7 million people by 2081. The current population of the UK is 60.5 million. The forecast takes into account increased immigration, more births, and rising life expectancy. 

The ONS indicates that 108 million is the high end of the estimate; a much more likely scenario is that the population of the United Kingdom will be about 85 million by 2081. The estimate accounts for 69% of the population growth coming either directly or indirectly from immigration, including rising birth rates from new migrants. 

Research released by the Global Economic Policy Centre (GEP) at Nottingham University, uses a case study of minorities in Latvia to warn of a "minority brain-drain" that Central and Eastern European nations may experience. Rather than learn Latvian, many Russian-speaking minorities would rather learn a language like English and move elsewhere for better job opportunities. 

The study shows that many people who speak a minority language as their primary language are highly skilled. However, their local job market may require fluency in the native language of that country. Well-trained and educated individuals of these minority segments are more likely to seek work where their own "native" languages - or English - are acceptable.

For the third consecutive year, the American Chamber of Commerce in New Zealand has stated that the skilled workers shortage is a major concern for United States companies based in New Zealand. The annual Business Climate Survey found that labor shortages were the key concern for 70% of respondents, up from 33% in the 2006 survey. 

The president of the New Zealand American Chamber of Commerce, Mark Fitz-Gerald, said that businesses are urging the government to ease rules for skilled migrants wishing to come to New Zealand. They are also asking for improvements in educational standards and tax incentives for training.

The director of the Victorian Foundation for Survivors of Torture, Paris Aristotle, wants New Zealand to increase its annual refugee quota. He said that people on the run from war ravaged and politically unstable nations are living in detention camps longer than necessary. 

The United Nations High Commission for Refugees estimates that about 32 million people were "of concern" at the end of 2006. A spokesperson for New Zealand's immigration authorities responded that the nation had one of the highest rates of refugee acceptance in the world, relative to its population.