Migration

How does one become President in a country with more than 20 million illegal immigrants? Well, the issue is not so simple as it isn’t something that people tend to be bothered by too much. In a VOA article on the Democratic Candidates and Swing States in the US they note that only 20-25% of people would not vote for a candidate if they disagreed with them on immigration. Voters, according to the article “..by and large don’t dislike illegal immigrants..” which Senator Clinton, Giulani and Obama have taken to a new level, pushing immigrant issue into the spotlight to earn the votes of the American Hispanic community, while not offending many other Americans in the process.

This soft strategy has not been absorbed into the Republican ranks so far. Rep. Tancredo did not attend a televised Spanish Language debate to make a “mute” point, while Senator John McCain has become the immigration darling of the Republican party supporting much of the immigration reforms discussed in the policy debates this past summer. These two pariahs in the Republican Party on immigration may hinder the Republicans as a whole by alienating the Hispanic vote, with little support for immigration reform from most of the candidates, not helped by Tancredo’s silly boycott. Alternatively, McCain may give some Hispanics a reason to have faith in his party, but may alienate more hardline Republicans on the immigration issue. He is often mistaken as a Democratic-Republican, with the exception for his support on Iraq he could be an ideal running mate with a Clinton if the proposal was a realistic one.

In the middle of the debate is Romney and Huckabee, using the immigration issue to take each other to task as the polls heat up in Iowa. Immigration issues in Iowa may become a microcosm for the GOP and the Presidential election in the near future as the interest in Iraq is becoming slowly displaced with the immigration debate. Despite problems in Iraq, no candidate wants to dwell on the issue in order to distance themselves from Bush and dive into another unsolvable debate. Immigration is something candidates can use as ammunition it seems without having anything blow up in their face…a luxury which the soldiers in Iraq do not currently possess.

Like Canada and Australia, Britain has sought the adoption of an immigration points system in order to limit the number of unskilled workers entering the UK and promote highly skilled workers coming in to support the British Economy. While this idea is a logical one, it often leads to dozens of smaller issues which while limits the number of low-income immigrants, also makes life fairly intolerable in the process.

While not on a points system, the City of New York has set out to conquer an issue which is also prominent in cities like Toronto, Canada. New York has always had an issue with illegal immigrants being victims of unreported crimes because upon contacting legal officials, often the immigrant would be simultaneously placed into the removal process since they did not reside legally in New York and the US. In Toronto, while three years ago and prior to that police did not have powers to enforce immigration orders, since then they can now check someone’s legal status in Canada and detain them when responding to criminal investigations. The problem in immigrant cities like Toronto, is that due to the points system, people who used to come in as middle income workers often now come as illegal migrants. In Toronto as well as New York, immigrants not able to be personally secure because it will surely result in the end of their lives in their resident country.

Growing in great numbers due to its booming economy, the city of Calgary in Canada shows an example of how the lack of law enforcement for many illegals can lead to some undesirable situations. In the North-East part of the city, dozens of illegal Asian migrants were found working in an illegal brothel which takes advantage of many people in similar situations entering Canada without a proper legal status. Many similar organizations exist across the country, and due to the new police powers to enforce immigration rules, many more underground operations have the roots to keep them beyond the law.

The UK is likely to have many of these issues plaque their cities in the near future. While trying to crack down on immigration, there is a real threat that society as a whole will lose in the long run.

The weekly news roundup features critical views of the UK points system for highly-skilled migrants, a look at how Wester Union is dominating the remittances market across the world and a preview of France’s new immigration legislation released on November 22nd.
It is becoming ever more attractive to become a US citizen - at least that’s what the latest surge in citizenship applications seems to suggest. In fact, it’s less that naturalization has become more popular over the past months, it is more a combination of a fee increase earlier in the year, fear of new immigration legislation and confusion over green card applications that is causing the bureaucratic backlog that might take up to a year to clear, the New York Times reports.

• Agence France Presse has a stunning article about the tiny village Elinkine in Senegal that is profiting from the droves of illegal immigrants passing through the town to seek a passageway to Europe. In a mafia-type set up, local families profit from “facilitating” migrants’ journeys, i.e. housing them ahead of their departures, and - the article alledges - police pockets are equally fleeced for the same purpose.
• What has five times as many locations worldwide as McDonald’s, Starbucks, Burger King and Wal-Mart combined? Why, Western Union, of course. Powered by immigrant remittances around the globe, the once bankrupt telegraph and communications company now turns a USD 1 billion profit annually. Last year migrants sent home USD 300 billion,nearly three times the world’s foreign aid budgets combined, according to this New York Times article on Western Union.
• In an opinion piece for the Financial Times, Michael Skapinker notes that the new points system to evaluate highly-skilled migrants in the UK has its faults. Geared toward the university educated, well-earning individual, Skapinker fears the new system would keep out precisely those entrepreneurs needed in Great Britain today: the brilliant minds too impatient to sit it out in a classroom, i.e. the Bill Gates and Steve Jobs of this world.
• Also in last week’s FT, Gideon Rachmann ponders the realities of immigration today. He concludes that while economics can be spun both in favor of and against increased immigration flows, governments are likely to pursue restrictive policies. But, he notes that the populist arguments and general anti-immigration stance is losing force in the Western world, partially because: “Voters are more attached to the principles of an open society than the raw polling data on immigration suggest. It is certainly possible to crack down on legal and illegal immigration. But the necessary measures would often involve sacrificing freedom and convenience. You could have much tougher controls at borders - and even longer waiting-times at immigration control. (Forget just hopping on the Eurostar to Paris.) You could introduce identity cards in countries, such as the US and the Netherlands, that have long resisted them. You could bind employers in even more red tape. You could restrict people’s right to marry. You could arrange mass deportations of illegal immigrants and shut your eyes to the resulting injustices. Some combination of all of those measures probably would dramatically reduce immigration. But in the process you would risk creating countries that are not only less welcoming to immigrants. They would probably be much less palatable for native-born citizens as well.”
• France’s new, 65 article strong immigration and asylum legislation was revealed at the end of last week. While I have yet to read the full text, Le Monde offers an initial glimpse here, though again, introducing genetic testing for immigrant minors wishing to accede French territory as highlighted by the paper and detailed in article 13 is hardly new, given the debate on DNA testing an immigration a few months ago. We will cover these legal changes in a separate blog. Meanwhile, however, Jean-Claude Trichet, President of the European Central Bank and one of the prominent Frenchmen on the international stage has implicitly criticised the restrictive new immigration law, pointing to France’s longstanding history as a country of immigration.

*This article has been posted both on FPA’s Migration Blog as well as the Mexico Blog this week.

Illegal immigration may be one of the hot button issues for the next Presidential election, and will favour neither party in the process. In the Democratic party debates televised widely among American networks this past weekend two things were made clear. Firstly, that immigration will likely be a key issue in the next election, and Secondly that no one has a clear idea on how to handle the situation as there is no clear solution to the problem. This has lead to many candidates being seen as slightly differing on the issue in insignificant amounts with the exception of Republican Rep. Tom Tancredo who’s recent campaign commercials make reference “that Islamic terrorists roam free in the United States because of an unsecured border”. This has made me wonder in a personal context, do Mexican’s and Islamic terrorists look similar to each other? I’ll leave it as an open question for the reader to decide. In the end the answer is as clear as the debate on the issue as neither has anything to do with securing the border in any realistic way or giving necessary rights to individuals regardless of their legal status. Of course, It will not make a difference for Rep.Tancredo as he is quite far from winning the Republican nomination and has nothing to lose making a decisive choice on an issue no one can resolve.

What did result from the debates this past weekend is that Senator Clinton is starting to assert herself against rival Edwards and Obama after losing some support in the last few weeks in her campaign. Migration issues can place candidates in a position of losing much of the Hispanic vote, or alternatively losing the vote of many Americans who desire an answer to the Immigration question. This was made evident on challenges made by the candidates of each other on specifics of the issue, knowing full well that a slight change in answer or attitude may set their campaign into a downward spiral. With Bush’s attempt to deal with illegal migration last summer to turn his legacy away from the focus on problems in Iraq, an explosive question was laid for the next election that could affect the outcome of the election at the end of the day. With such evenly matched candidates in Obama, Clinton, Romney and Edwards poised to challenge other strong candidates in Giulani, America’s 9/11 hero and John McCain Vietnam war hero and torture victim the outcome is that one of these American heros will win, but small opinions such as on Immigration may absorb thousands of votes in the process even if the issue will not be resolved itself. The only assurance in the debate on migration and the upcoming election is that people are going to be fatigued with the election well before it begins as much as they are already fatigued discussing the Immigration issue which no one can solve for the next while. It seems that next year’s big blockbuster issues are ones that we have seen for months already and will be dealing with for the next months to come.

Robert Dziekanski, a Polish immigrant to Canada who came to live with his mother on Oct 14th of this year was killed while police tried to detain him after arriving at Vancouver’s international airport. While being kept up for more than 10 hours in the airport, Mr. Dziekanski was seen as having an angry reaction for an unknown reason and after many hours he took to physically attacking a small table and a laptop computer before police responded with two taser shots at the individual, putting him onto the ground and then subsequently leading to his death for unknown causes yet to be investigated. Despite Robert Dziekanski’s behaviour for such an extended period of time, no efforts were made to communicate with him in his own language nor was it seen by many as appropriate to use such excessive force in detaining him as he was not assulting anyone at the time nor abusing any offices in the process. The incident was recorded by a teenager on his cellphone at the time and was widely published in the media on November 14th.

See the video here. 

Canadian officials emplored the public to consider other evidence besides the video regarding the case of Robert Dziekanski. In reality however, a witness account which was filmed goes well beyond DNA or other evidence in investigations of any crime of any type. The reality of the situation made clearer my the young man’s recording made new headlines yesterday on the BBC, across Canada and worldwide as a clear conflict in handling persons who are not considered to be a great threat, where no efforts were made to speaking to him in his own language in an international airport after more than 10 hours of a possible conflict, and which was a necessity in diffusing such a situation as an alternative to the use of tasers. In addition, it is well known by many in the policing and legal community in North America that tasers are a questionable tool, as it is overused in many cases due to its ability to maintain a proper distance from suspects, but also that more that 200 deaths have been attributed to the use of the devices without a proper inquiry into the dangers of tasers.
Lingisutic barriers and newcomers in societies such as Britian and Canada face many challenges integrating into society. One barrier however when considering law enforcement in the cases of the Brasilian victim de Menezes seen as a terrorist during the London bombings, or Canada’s Polish immigrant losing his life due to a lack of communication and responsility of law enforcement to take the initiave to communicate with people in communities which are very diverse. Logically, patience is required with linguistic situations to avoid death which are uncalled for, accidentally or otherwise. As seen in last week’s posting, the London Police were considered responsible for the death in their case, raising the standard of care towards immigrants or residence in communities without a uniform language spoken among all residents. In the Canadian case, some simple words in Polish may have made a world of difference to the lives of the Dziekanski family.

Like many Brazilians, 27-year-old Jean Charles de Menezes moved to London for a change of environment, work opportunities and to benefit from the ever overvalued British Pound Sterling. The fate of this young man was not one of a typical South American migrant, being chased down by the London police and shot point blank during the London bombings of 2005. Unlike others accused of terrorist acts in London who are tried at the Old Bailey for their crimes, the trial for De Menezes was done posthumously as he was killed by the police themselves who thought he was contributing to the crimes that day by running away from officials and perhaps not having the language skills in English to understand what precisely was occurring at the time.

In a surprising verdict last week, the years of contemplation and stress between the UK and the Brazilian Government and community in London resulted in a guilty verdict against the London Police as a whole, charged with more than 800,000 Pounds Sterling in damages and legal fees. The individual officers were not found guilty, despite much pressure from the family and friends of the victim in Brazil seeing the officer’s actions and criminally negligent beyond their police powers in the incident. The nature of the incident was initially hidden from the public, but when more investigations were completed it was found that de Menezes most likely did not understand what was occurring when the Police tried to detain him and took off for unknown reasons. He was pursued into the Tube Station and pinned down by officers, apparently then not being arrested but having a firearm placed against his body and discharged according to the BBC World Service broadcast of the event months after the Bombings.

Despite the victim being typically Latin American in appearance, the profile of the Bombers in one of the most culturally diverse cities in the world could not be distinguished from other minorities during the time of chaos. The event also loomed with suspicion as a clear effort to cover up the true events from the public took place for months after the death of de Menezes due to the Terrorist label being applied to the victim and the Bombings taking place the same day of the incident. With the guilty verdict, the “accident” which took place seems more like negligent behaviour than simply a mere misunderstanding. The verdict is well justified after the lack of cooperation in finding the true source of the error which led to the young man’s death.

In a place like Toronto, Canada an interesting situation which rarely exists in many cities in the world is common place in the streets of Canada’s largest city. Immigration is seen as a staple of Canadian society and economy, with over 50% of Toronto being foreign born, but at the same time the divisiveness of institutions in Canada while being open to everyone, does not take into account much of the layered societies which live in the country. Often the Government gives priorities towards larger immigrant groups and avoids addressing smaller immigrant minorities in processes of health, immigration procedures and education.

Institutionally, the Government in the Province of Ontario in Canada offers many programs for new immigrants in society, but when the issue places minority groups against other minority groups the Government has often institutionalised and tried to justify some groups getting funding, while others go without. No other issue makes this evident beyond funding of only Catholic Schools in Ontario. In Ontario it is prohibited for other religions to have access to funding for faith based schools with the justification being that opening funding for faith based schools promotes the “segregation” of people in Canada. Despite this statement it goes without mention from the same Government representatives that their current policy is doing precisely what they are campaigning they are strictly against. While no one is anti-Catholic in any manner, it is completely unjustified to prohibit funding for some groups and not others. This was raised as a problem of inequality in a 1989 UN Report on the issue that suggested that there was no other just measure unless all are funded or none are funded. In addition to this fiasco, the Government two months ago were criticized for funding ethnic communities in Ontario without properly recording the funding going out and to which organizations. The opposition was called on as being anti-immigrant and racist upon questioning Ontario Primier McGuinty, only to find out that in an Official Inquiry into the issue that undocumented funds were given to many minority societies without documentation and with funds well above the requested amounts. This embarrassment of Ontario’s ethnic communities and involvement in a corrupt process has gone unresolved to date. An election highlighting these issues is taking place Oct 10th.

Immigration is also an issue facing Canadians. While most developed countries seek out the best and brightest, Canada’s immigration system often forces the middle class immigrants out of the process and leaves those middle class and below to apply via the refugee system. The current policy also invites highly educated migrants to come to Canada only to make them re-study much of their professional degrees at very high costs and at very long periods of retraining while they are prevented from entering any lucrative labour roles in Ontario society due to lack of Canadian Experience…whatever Canadian experience is…This is the opposite of most other developed countries who seek the best and brightest and let them prosper and grow the economy and country. The result is a lack of Doctors in Ontario as well as thousands of internationally qualified professionals and university educated immigrants driving taxis and living in a state of poverty in downtown Toronto.

In the end, those minorities within larger minorities are dependent on a social system which does not address needs past majorities in society and they are unable to rely on deep social connections to neutralise the negative effects on becoming a newcomer in society. Social connections, whether they exist or not, are also greatly relied upon in the formal immigration system as well. This is often the case of those seeking some support or sponsorship from their larger community in larger cities in Canada when looking for support or sponsorship.

A unique community in Toronto and worldwide, Prithi Yelaja of the Toronto Star wrote an article about Jewish People of Indian Origin and their life in the Greater Toronto Area. While Jewish communities of European and North American origin are often written about and make up the majority of known media and history of the Jewish people in English language and most of Western media, a large number of Jewish people come from what are seen as unlikely places where Jews would exist. The list is broad and includes such countries as Morocco, Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, Yemen and India, just to name a small few. Jewish people of Indian origin which number 400 in Toronto and 4,000 in India as mentioned in the article did not know much Anti-Semitism in India, and only in Canada was there the idea of feeling as a true minority in different senses.

A minority in Canada is one common identity that many possess like the Indian Jewish Community of Toronto. While there are differences in society and with institutional issues above, they are still Canadians. There is also an issue of being a minority in the Jewish community in Canada. While many see all Jewish people as being the same, in reality Judaism is a religion which comprises many cultures and can often be confused as being only one culture, or one religion comprising one culture as well. As a minority in a minority however, even a Canadian with such a diverse background might be and often are left out of the folds of decisions made for Ontarians for the majority and those larger minority communities to which are seen as the only important groups for policy considerations. The thousands of other smaller minorities within minorities have to contend with the lack of political power indefinitely until more become citizens and can work to have economic and political pressure groups in society.

With issues such as labour, education and health reflecting Canada’s majorities, issues raised in Constitutions of equalities for all minorities will never be addressed as long as smaller groups and individuals have no political pressure groups in society. While Canada is a good place to live as a minority, not having rights and equality for all minorities, or using them for political games is an abuse of individual rights and respect in a society where most people will soon be born outside of Canada and are often minorities within larger minorities living across the country.

This week’s news roundup is truly a mixed basket of stories, including a look at the new US citizenship test, a new set of statistics on immigration, which raise a few questions for the Home Secretary in the UK and a story on how a new musical phenomenon is visualizing just how much Italian society has changed over time.

• Janet Hinshaw-Thomas, the founder and director of Prime - Ecumenical Commitment to Refugees, a two-decade-old refugee resettlement organization in Pennsylvania has been arrested in Canada for aiding Haitian migrants in seeking asylum in the country. This is the first time the 2002 law on prosecuting “criminal smugglers” has been applied to someone working for an immigrant aid organization, the New York Times reports. Hinshaw-Thomas’ organization has been accompanying migrants who have exhausted their legal options in the US to the Canadia border over the past few months, always giving Canadian authorities advanced notice. Her lawyer is disputing the charges.
• The United States has been giving citizenship tests to those seeking a blue passport for years and these have become the golden standard for many European countries who are currently developing their own versions of these exams. Now, the US test has been updated: knowing who the Speaker of the House is and correctly identifying Susan B. Anthony’s role in the women’s civil rights movement will help assess whether an immigrant has understood basic concepts of modern American democracy. American or not, would you be able to answer these questions?
• We have highlighted the difficulties the dire economic situation in Zimbabwe is causing neighboring countries in previous posts. This article from the International Herald Tribune describes the situation for Zimbabwean migrants - some permanent, some merely daily labor migrants - in neighboring Zambia. Around a 1,000 Zimbabweans cross into Zambia daily just to purchase basic provisions no longer available in Zimbabwe.
• Michael Kimmelmann reports from Rome on Italy’s changing face, visible in one of the first truly multicultural, successful orchestras. A documentary the Orchestra di Piazza Vittorio went around the international film festival circuit and boosted the group’s popularity at home. They now play sold-out shows up and down the country and politicians hungry for votes have begun to take notice.
  
• Members of the European Parliament are backing EU Commissioner Franco Frattini’s plans for an EU Blue Card.
• Looks like the UK government needs some better statisticians: earlier in the week, the Office of National Statistics published new projected migration figures, revising previous estimates with an increase of 30%. Naturally, anti-immigrant groups and opposition politicians jumped all over the Labor government for their apparent failure to live up to their “complacent assumptions” of migrants coming into the country. Instead of 145,000 migrants annually, the new figure now stands at 190,000. Home Secretary Jaqui Smith reiterated her commitment to bringing in highly-skilled migrants on a points-based system and cracking down on criminal immigrants and illegals with her proclaimed “zero tolerance” approach, while immigration minister Liam Byrne pointed to the fact that these new numbers could be attributed to the EU decision to relax rules on labor migration from the Union’s newest members to other member states.
• The UNHCR has created an excellent web resource on the Iraqi refugee situation, including an update of recent relief work in the region. In addition, the UNHCR is closely monitoring how Iraqi refugees are being treated in exile.

After the painful debate in the US about immigration this past year, none of the future Presidential candidates came out as a hero for the Hispanic voter in the intense conflict between individual Democrats and Republicans as well as within the parties themselves on how to change the US Immigration fiasco for the better. While not a hot issue beforehand, the Bush Presidency opened the issue to allow a debate beyond Iraq and allow Mr. Bush to end his second term with some positive changes to internal policies in the United States near the beginning of 2007.

While seen by many as self-serving, Bush did try to create positive change to US Immigration policy recently, which was in 2001 his main focus before 9/11. In the end, the support for giving more access and legalizing illegal workers in the United States started where it ended, absolutely nowhere. The only beneficiaries were American media outlets who were given something else to report on besides climate change and the occasional car chase in Springfield, Anywhere, USA. Since the end of the Bill this past summer, the only mention of immigration was on Lou Dobbs and the occasional report on the lack of progress of the fence to be built between the US, Mexico and even Canada.

With the increased furor of the US Presidential elections, a large pile of candidates has announced their intention to run. With such a large number of candidates comes large debate that is hard to follow in any neighborhood or community in the US. One debate this past week was done on a Spanish language channel in the US where the Democratic candidates gave their opinion on issues ranging from immigration to immigration as Jon Stewart cleverly pointed out. The interviewer also questioned issues concerning Cuba and how to address Chavez of Venezuela and his negative PR campaign of the US. While most of the responses were directed by each candidate slightly to the left or slightly to the right of their colleagues, the main focus was on how Republicans often-created negative impressions of immigration to quell any proper debate on the issue, while Democrats were seeking a concrete solution to the immigration issue. This image might have been quashed however, when Sen. Bill Richardson, who is of Hispanic descent, was prohibited from speaking in Spanish as not to give unfair advantage to him in the translated debates. In the end I believe that with the vast number of candidates and everyone waiting for the end of Bush, many do not give much attention to any debates at this point so far away from the voting date. The only assurance is that there will be a new President, but no one could predict who it could be at this point…so place your bets!

Immigration was the hot-button topic across Europe for much of this week (see our separate article on the Blue Card proposal). Following EU Commissioner Franco Frattini’s announcement to introduce a Europe-wide measure to facilitate the immigration of highly-skilled workers to combat existing labor shortages, Member State governments fell all over themselves to criticize the measure, if only to appease a presumed electoral backlash. But there was more news across Europe and the world:

• Earlier in the week, the French parliament debated the President’s new immigration legislation, which includes a proposal to demand DNA samples from visa applicants looking to move to France to prove genetic family ties to those already living in the country. The amendment would require consular offices in the native countries to administer such tests. Human rights organizations were quick to point to the costs of these tests, which the proposal suggests should be voluntary. Tests would serve to weed out economically and perhaps genetically less desireable migrants, they say.
• Brice Hortefeux, France’s immigration minister is also stepping up the pressure elsewhere. In trying to make good on the promises in the Sarkozy electoral campaign (see my commentary on the French election and immigration), he met with local administrators during the week to address why they were failing to meet the ambitious deportation goals set by the President. Sarkozy wants to see 25,000 illegal immigrants deported from France this year. Needless to say, human rights and migrant organizations are heavily critical of the emphasis on achieving the ‘right’ numbers.
• Ahead of EU Commission’s ground-breaking announcement on legal migration, the members of the European Parliament’s Civil Liberties Committee sat down to formulate their recommendations toward addressing the situation of illegal immigrants.  One key issue was that jail time for illegals be limited to a more humane period of time. Parliamentarians suggested that illegal immigrants be held no longer than 18-months ahead of deportation across all EU Member States.  The lawmakers decided illegal immigrants can be held in custody for three months from the moment they are apprehended by police, after which an extension of up to 15 months needs to be justified — for example, when background checks on the immigrant take longer or if the person has no valid papers and documents must be obtained from third countries. In addition, parliamentarians want to see a greater degree of protection for illegal immigrants with residence permits that have fallen seriously ill and want to curtail the deportation of unaccompanied migrant children.
• Randal Archibold of the New York Times is reporting that while overall numbers of migrants crossing the border to the US from Mexico in Arizona is down - in part due to reinforced policing measures - the number of migrants dying in transit toward the promise of a new life is heading toward a new record.  Migrants are unaccustomed and unprepared to weather the climate changes in the Arizona desert and as they are forced to charter new ground to evade border patrols, there is little word-of-mouth on how to prepare for harsh conditions.
• Nine months after the fact, Union representatives at the Swift & Company meatpacking plants (we featured the story here) are suing federal immigration agents over the way workers were treated during a raid, which led to the deportation of over 600 workers.
• The Associated Press is reporting that Saul Arellano, son of prominent immigration activist Elvira Arellano (we covered the story here) has rejoined his mother in Mexico. Earlier in the week, 150 people staged a protest in Congress against his deportation to Mexico, given his US citizenship status.
• This week’s big migration-related story is obviously the EU Blue Card proposal to bring in thousands of skilled-migrant workers to combat looming labor shortages. Other countries, such as Malaysia, are also learning that simply expelling migrants for the sake of popular politics, has a profound impact on the economy. The IHT is reporting that the country’s campaign to expel 600,000 illegal migrant workers is starting to backfire, as demand for workers is growing with increasing government investsments ($57 billion) in agriculture, construction and manufacturing to sustain economic growth through 2010. Some plantation owners and construction companies are already reporting labor shortages and things are expected to get worse.
• Speaking of Asian governments, Japan Focus has published an overview of how municipalities in the country are dealing with migrant needs and how that, in turn, influences their two-pronged integration policy, which closely and purposely mirrors the European approach (*side note: who would have thought that the patche Europea immigration and integration policy is a model worth exporting!). The full report can be read here. Unsurprisingly, perhaps, the results of the survey show that there is a great variance of how social integration questions are addressed, with some communities choosing not to differentiate between local and migrant population in terms of services offered, and others focused particularly on the needs of migrant women.