Migration

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.

Much happened in migration related matters across the globe this week. Following the conservative victory in the parliamentary elections, the French president moved ahead on realizing his new restrictive immigration policies, while at the same time creating the most inclusive government in the country’s history. Elsewhere, US conservatives are stepping up the pressure to move ahead on the immigration bill, while the UK joins the chorus of European countries introducing measures to attract the most talented migrants to the country to fill existing skills gaps. This week’s news roundup also features two new pieces of analysis from the MPI and ECRE. Happy clicking:

• This week’s edition of the Economist features an article about Malta’s changing attitude towards migration and the start of Operation Nautilus II, designed to control the waters between Africa and European islands.
• We recently reported that France’s new government is moving swiftly to implement changes to existing institutional structures governing immigration affairs and changing legal requirements for family members looking to join migrants in the country. Well, not without a fair amount of opposition, as is the French tradition. Plans for a national ministry of immigration and national identity caused controversy during the Presidential campaign and drew protest from various groups. Now, the IHT reports a new petition has been published in the left-leaning newspaper Liberation. These types of protests will have little impact on M. Sarkozy’s plans, but are a part of the French democratic tradition.
• While he seems to be cracking down in his policies, M. Le President’s most recent cabinet reshuffle (following the parliamentary elections) produced the most inclusive government France has ever seen. In what is largely interpreted as a move to reconcile withe the minority groups he isolated throughout his campaign and his tenure as interior minister, Sarkozy has named three women (WOMEN!) of Northern African origin to his cabinet. Two new junior ministers now join the already appointed justice minister, Rachida Dati, around the president’s cabinet table.
• In the run-up to the presentation of Germany’s national plan for migrant integration on July 12, a number of federal states are publishing and promoting their individual approaches. On June 21st I attended a panel discussion hosted by the Koerber Foundation, which featured one of Berlin’s leading integration policy makers, Guenter Piening. He presented parts of the new program, which is available in full here (in German). The plan includes a number of functional changes that will facilitate access to basic social services, including full and equal access to education and the full integration of migrants into the work force - changes, which are long overdue. Monitoring and measuring the success of integration policies is another new element introduced in this updated plan. I will review Berlin’s approach in the context of Germany’s new  toward integrating migrants in a separate post. To understand the evolution of Berlin’s integration concept, Piening’s 2005  policy action plan (in English) is an interesting read.
• The Senate immigration bill is still one of the hottest topics on the Hill. On Thursday, Homeland Security Chief Michael Chertoff went on the record to oppose an amendment, which could make a new program to stop businesses from hiring illegal workers less burdensome. In a letter to Senators he said that taking such a decision “would be a serious step backwards in our enforcement effort.” This statement came as news broke that Federal agents had arrested 81 suspected illegal immigrants during a raid at a manufacturing plant in the Pocono mountains in Pennsylvania. The company said an agency that provided temporary workers was , the IHT reports. Mr. Chertoff, meanwhile, might have other recent worries: the ACLU is suing the Department of Homeland Security in the name of two migrants who say they were drugged by department officials to ease their deportation. Just days earlier and hoping to influence the Congressional debate on the immigration bill, the White House released a study citing the positive effects of immgrant labor on the nation’s economy. The New York Times has a full report.
• The first Muslim prayer site was opened on Friday in Athens, Greece since the end of the Ottoman Empire, the New York Times reports.
• We recently reported that German industrial organizations were pressuring the German government to ease up their requirements on admitting labor migrants into the economy. Britain seems to be interested in doing the same. Where only a mere three years ago, critics complained that the generous welfare system was attracting too many unwanted migrants, the Guardian is now reporting that immigration minister Liam Byrne is planning to launch an “an international marketing campaign designed to attract businesses and people with the right skills” - the global war for talent is on.
• On the reports and analysis front: the always prolific Migration Policy Insitute issued a new report coinciding with World Refugee Day entitled “Bridging Divides: The Role of Ethnic Community-Based
  Organizations in Refugee Integration” (pdf).   As the German EU Council Presidency comes to a close and the Portuguese government prepares to take over, the European Council on Refugees and Exiles has prepared a memorandum on EU asylum and refugee policy over the next six months.

The Migration Policy Group, a Brussels-based NGO and independent advisor to the European Union, has published the second edition of its ‘Handbook on Integration for Policy Makers and Practitioners.’

The handbook is the result of in-depth workshops with the National Contact Points on integration, which are a key element in the European Union’s Hague Program. The handbook is a mixture of strategic and practical policy advice and “best practice” solutions. Different chapters address both integration infrastructure and practical issues, such as economic integration and housing matters.

The full report can be downloaded here, while the Commission’s press release summarizes the findings.

This week’s news roundup features stories on racial inequality in the UK, an update on the immigration debate in the US and Canada’s search for new migrants to help it cope with its recent oil boom:

• ITV, the UK news channel, features a story on research by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation according to which people from ethnic minorities are twice as likely to be poor than their white counterparts. The series of research reports on the issue can be downloaded directly from the foundation’s website.
• Immigration policy reform remains a hot button topic on the US agenda, with presidential hopefuls beginning to weigh in on the issue to add to their profile. Over the weekend, immigrants protested in Houston, Texas and Phoenix, Arizona. A number of protests are expected across the country for ‘May Day,’ including a march in Indianapolis . Organizers there are hoping to repeat the success of the last demonstration in April, which brought 20,000 people to the streets to remind Congress of its unfinished business. Meanwhile the April 30th Editorial of the New York Times accuses Republican Presidential candidates of “lurching, falling over themselves to convince voters that where they stand is not where they stood.” The author finds Rudy Giuliani and John McCain’s sudden change of opinion the most disheartening.
• Modern day slavery is the result of human trafficking. The New York Times features the harrowing story of a Nigerian woman worked for 12 years without pay, in what can only be described as modern day servitude.
• While all the world seems to be speaking of curtailing immigration, officials in Alberta, Canada are seeking a few good men and women - 100,000 to be exact - to help cope with the demand in jobs after the oil boom, the UK’s Guardian reports.

This week’s news roundup features stories from Iraq, the UK, France and Russia: 

• UK Home Secretary, John Reid, is coming under fire from right-wing critics. Civitas, a right-wing think tank has argued that people have been allowed to enter the UK “at record pace.” Mr. Reid has acknowledged that illegal immigration creates insecuritites and a sense of “unfairness” among the resident population, the BBC reports.
• The Editorial of the New York Times warns of the effects of mass migration from Iraq. “Four million people - one out of seven Iraqis - have been forced to flee their homes. If Iraq continues this descent, the refugee tide could turn into into a regional tsunami, with potentially convulsive political consequences.
• The Economist takes a last look at the candidates ahead of Sunday’s election in France and has this to say about immigration: Indeed, it is the enduring potency of Mr Le Pen that has pushed Mr Sarkozy to the right on immigration during this campaign. Although Mr Sarkozy firmly rules out an electoral deal with the far-right leader in the second round, assuming he gets through, he has been unapologetic about courting his supporters. “It is not Le Pen that I’m interested in,” he says, “but his voters.” To that end, at a rally in Metz this week Mr Sarkozy repeated his declaration that “those who do not like France are not obliged to stay.” He even added a religious twist: France, he said, should not “renounce 2,000 years of Christian civilisation and heritage.”
• The NYT also features a piece by Eleanor Randolph, in which she highlights a new wave of racist crimes in Russia. There migrants have been banned from selling their wares at market: “In the street there is hate for immigrants.” SOVA, the anti-hate-crime organization in Russia, has estimated that so far this year, 23 immigrants have died and 149 have been wounded in what it terms ethnically motivated attacks. Since April 1, the police have raided the markets with buses to round up people and send them back to former Soviet states like Azerbaijan or Uzbekistan or Georgia. Notices on market doors advertise space now for “farmers from the Fatherland.”

• HIV-AIDS activists in Australia are up in arms after Prime Minister John Howard has floated the idea that migrants with the disease could be denied access to the country.
• The BBC reports that officials from the city of Calais and NGO groups are meeting to discuss the possible re-opening of a new asylum camp, dubbed ‘Sangatte II’.  The first camp of this kind was closed five years ago, after conditions became untenable and the UK government claimed it was holding ground for would-be immigrants to illegally board freight trains through the Channel tunnel to claim asylum in Great Britain. Many asylum seekers died trying to reach the country through these precarious means.
• The New York Times features a story about labor migration in Romania. For years, even prior to the country’s accession to the European Union earlier in the year, Romanians have been leaving the country for Spain and Italy, which offer higher wages and often better employment conditions. As a result, local employers have resorted to bringing in migrants from China to plug gaps in the labor market. We will explore this issue further in a future story on this blog.
• The NYT editorial from April 11th argues that President Bush has to commit himself to comprehensive immigration reform, rather than give in to the short-sighted ideas formulated by Republican Senators.   We have addressed the President’s plans here. Mr. Bush feels that with respect to illegal migrants, the measures introduced by his administration are already bearing fruit.
• The Migration Research Group of the Hamburg World Economic Archive has prepared a number of factsheets on migration in different countries. This one (PDF download) examines the French situation and supplements our own series on the development of French immigration policy.

The OECD is set to release a comprehensive report on migration today, showing that Australia, Canada and New Zealand - all countries which have skilled migrant schemes in place - have seen the fastest population growth over recent years. But the US and the UK remained the biggest destination countries, receiving nearly one million and 300,000 respectively. Despite stricter asylum laws in Europe, following the Dublin Convention and a move toward tougher legislation, France has replaced the US as the “most important destination country for asylum seeking,” the BBC quotes the report. 50,000 asylum seekers entered France in 2005. The full OECD report can be downloaded here, while a summary is available on the BBC News website.

At the end of every week we will offer a regular look at the ‘top stories’ on migration, integration, fundamental rights and the movement of people in general.

• In news from Europe, a riot at the Parisian Gare du Nord crystalizes the debate over immigration and national identity as a key issue in the French elections. The BBC features the story of a new project in Linconlshire county to help migrants learn about their rights and learn the English language in the UK.
• A number of interesting stories on immigration from the US over the past few days: The International Herald Tribune offers a first glimpse at the White House plan to grant work visas to undocumented migrants. For weeks now, Republican Senators have held closed-door meetings on the draft immigration legislation. Under the plan, undocumented workers could apply for three-year work visas, renewable indefinitely. Yet, these come at a hefty price tag. The clear need to reform current US immigration legislation was underlined by the immigrant rights rallies across the country last March. On March 26, 5,000 immigrants and their supporters gathered in Los Angeles to mark this occasion. Meanwhile, this week’s Economist reports that more and more illegal immigrants are leaving Los Angeles, in part because they are seeking out better economic opportunities elsewhere, in part because they want a better life for their children. This is a mixed blessing for the City of Angels, the article argues. On the one hand it takes the pressure off public services, on the other hand “their departure suggests that a place is losing some of its economic dynamism.” Despite the difficulties in devising a functional policy toward undocumented and illegal migrants, green card holders and other legal immigrants are increasingly opting to become American citzens, as the New York Times reports.
• The IHT also features a number of Associated Press stories on migrants trying to make their way toward a better life. This story covers the journey of a Somali migrant to the rich Gulf states, while this article examines the plight of over 100 Haitian migrants as they attempt to reach the shores of Florida.