Immigration newsletter 12 Dec 2007

The United Kingdom's Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith, outlined Britain's new immigration system during a December 5th speech to the London School of Economics. She said that instead of the estimated 80 immigration routes that currently exist to enter the UK, there will now be a single, points-based immigration system. 

The Tier 1 portion is currently scheduled to begin "in March" of 2008, which will replace the current HSMP scheme. In a surprise announcement, Ms. Smith said that the Tier 3 portion of the system, designed for low-skilled workers, will be suspended. She indicated that the government expects migration from within the European Union to provide enough workers for labor market needs.

Economics professor Robert Wright, in an interview with The Daily Record, gave his assessment of some of the problems Scotland needs to address to resolve some of its population growth concerns. Wright estimates that 20,000 - 25,000 migrants and immigrants must enter the country permanently each year to maintain the current standards of living and economic growth. 

Since the 1950s, more than 800,000 people have left Scotland, and the population is currently facing low birth rates and an aging population. The total population is hovering just over 5 million and will soon begin to fall.

Canadian immigration minister Diane Finley announced CAD $38 million in federal funding for 15 partner agencies in the Halton and Peel regions of Ontario. The funding will assist delivery of settlement and integration services for immigrants in those communities. It is intended to cover the period through March 2010 and is expected to help more than 150,000 people. 

These programs have been providing services to migrants of more than 40 nationalities for over 16 years. $1.3 billion CAD in settlement funding is earmarked over the coming five years for all provinces and territories other than Quebec. 

The 2006 census figures, analyzed by Statistics Canada, show that one in five people living in Canada are foreign-born, the highest proportion in 75 years. Asia and the Middle East accounted for the largest proportion of new immigrants (58.3%), followed at a distant second by Europe (16.1%). 

Immigrants from the Americas follow European immigrants, accounting for 10.8%. 20% of the Canadian population now claims a language other than English or French as their native tongue.

On December 10th, an amendment to the Canadian Citizenship Act was put before Parliament that will give Canadian citizenship to those who lost it or never had it because of outdated provisions in existing and former legislation. Many people who thought they were Canadian citizens only found out when recently applying for passports that they were not, in fact, considered to be Canadian citizens under the law. 

The new legislation is designed to automatically grant citizenship in over 95% of these cases. The primary exceptions to the Amendment regard people who have formally renounced their citizenship with Canadian authorities.

In a letter to the United States Congress, Compete America (CA), a group that advocates less-stringent U.S. immigration rules for highly skilled foreign labor, is urging the government to take action on reforming the current H-1B and Green Card system. 

Describing itself as "a coalition representing corporations, trade associations, and educators," they claim that, currently, the U.S. can't attract the best and brightest, and that foreign competitors are set to take advantage of this. In particular, the letter pointed out the European Union's recently proposed "Blue Card" scheme.

According to new figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), net migration has contributed 56% of the total population growth in Australia for the year ending June 30th, 2007. The total resident population of Australia at this point reached a landmark 21,017,200 people. 

Western Australia had the largest population percentage increase over the previous year, at 2.3%, followed by Queensland (2.2%) and the Northern Territory, at 2.0%. Tasmania had the slowest population growth, at 0.7%.