Immigration News: April, 2003 - Volume #10

THE AMERICAS

DHS-INS: Registration, Border
The Immigration and Naturalization Service went out of business on March 1, 2003.

Sanctions: Tyson Acquitted, Airports
After a seven-week trial, Tyson Foods and several managers of poultry processing plants were acquitted in March 2003 of charges that they conspired to recruit and smuggle

INS: Seven Million Unauthorized
The INS estimated there were seven million unauthorized foreigners in the US in January 2000, twice the 3.5 million estimate for 1990.

Refugees, Education, Health
The US target for resettling refugees- persons outside their country who face persecution at home -was 70,000 a year for most of the 1990s

Mexico: Migration, Border, Economy
Foreign Minister Jorge Castaneda resigned in January 2003 and was replaced by Economy Minister Luis Ernesto Derbez.

Labor, H-1B, Education
The US unemployment rate was six percent in December 2002, 5.7 percent in January 2003, and 5.8 percent in February.

Canada: 18 Percent Immigrants
Canada released 2001 Census data that showed that 5.4 million residents, 18.4 percent of 29.6 million, were born outside Canada

Latin America: Remittances, Haitians
In 2002, remittances to Latin America rose by 18 percent to $32 billion from 2001 levels, according to the Inter-American Development Bank

ASIA

Afgha
Afging.

Aund
Austers.

Saa
Theyoun.

Soast
So89.

EUROPE

EU: Asylum, Aid
The European Union in January 2003 launched the Euro 3.7 billion Eurodac system to fingerprint asylum applicants over age 14

UK: Asylees, Safe Havens, Workers
A record 110,700 foreigners applied for asylum in the UK in 2002, compared with 71,100 applicants in Germany and 58,100 in France.

Germany, Austria, Switzerland
The SPD-Green re-introduced the 2002 immigration law (Zuwanderungsgesetz) unchanged in the Parliament.

Ireland: Foreign Workers
Ireland is considering a new system for admitting foreign workers, based on occupation-specific labor shortages.

France, Benelux, Scandinavia
The French government is requiring applicants for three-month tourist visas to be fingerprinted in a bid to stop the practice of destroying documents after arrival

Eastern Europe
Russia reported 300,000 legal foreign workers from 119 countries in 2002, including 100,000 from Ukraine

Spain, Portugal
Ships from five European nations began patrolling the Mediterranean in January 28-February 8, 2003 to prevent migrant smuggling

OTHER

China: Migrants, Economy
China's Spring Festival began February 1, 2003, as an estimated 130 million migrants traveled from the coastal cities and Beijing to their interior villages of origin

Southeast Asia
The Philippines has been called the world's largest exporter of skilled labor, according to Bernardo Villegas

Korea, Japan
South Korea is allowing foreigners whose employers register them to remain legally until March 31, 2003.

South Asia
There were about 3.1 million Indians employed in the oil-exporting Gulf states in 2002, including 1.5 million in Saudi Arabia