Immigration News: January, 2004 - Volume #11

THE AMERICAS

Bush: Legalization, AgJOBS
President Bush on January 7, 2004 unveiled a program that would permit the six to eight million unauthorized foreigners in the US with jobs to become

DHS-ICE: Sanctions, Registration
On October 23, 2003, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested 250 illegal migrants who worked as janitors for outside contractors at 60

DHS: Border, Visas
The DHS has three bureaus responsible for immigration: Customs and Border Protection (www.cbp.gov), U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services

Mexico: Migrants, Politics, Remittances
Mexican leaders continued to press the US for a migration agreement that would legalize some unauthorized Mexicans, open new guest worker channels

H-1B, Labor, Education
The US unemployment rate was six percent in October 2003, 5.9 percent in November 2003, and 5.7 percent in December 2003, as the labor force shrank

Canada: Immigration, Unauthorized
Canada admitted 229,091 immigrants in 2002, down from 250,484 in 2001; the leading countries of origin were China, India, Pakistan and the

Foreign-Born, Licenses
The US had 291 million residents on July 1, 2003, and is projected to have 300 million by 2007. Nevada was the fastest-growing state in 2002-03,

Latin America: Trade, Remittances
President Bush traveled to Mexico in January 2004 to meet with leaders of 34 Western Hemisphere countries, and many commentators noted that many

Nafta at 10
The North American Free Trade Agreement was 10 years old on January 1, 2004. In the early 1990s, Nafta was controversial in the US, with presidential candidate Ross Perot asserting there would be a "giant sucking sound" of jobs leaving the US for Mexico.

ASIA

China: Migrants, Labor
China's economy is booming, but illegal migration from the southeastern coastal provinces of Fujian, Zhejiang and Guangdong continues, with migrants

Japan, Korea
Japan has a large sex industry based on Filipina, Thai and increasingly Chinese and South American women; the industry had estimated revenues of $2.4

Malaysia, Thailand
Malaysia banned additional Bangladeshi migrants in 1996, but in November 2003 agreed to allow the resumption of recruitment under a new bilateral

Indonesia, Philippines
Indonesian scholars and activists have called for a halt to labor emigration until the Ministry of Manpower and Transmigration develops a system for

South Asia
India's economy is expected to expand by eight percent in 2003, making it second only to China, nine percent, in Asian growth. One reason is the

EUROPE

EU: BMA, Expansion, Labor
Ireland assumed the EU Presidency in January 2004, and pledged to urge EU member nations to enact common immigration and asylum rules. Eight EU

Germany: Immigration, Courts, Labor
In May 2003, the German SPD-Green government re-introduced its migration bill unchanged. The opposition CDU-CSU proposed 128 amendments, the

UK: Immigration, Labor, Asylum
Net migration to the UK rose from about 50,000 a year in the early 1990s to 172,000 in 2002- some 479,000 people entered the UK for more than a year

France, Benelux
In November 2003, France revised its asylum system, promising that the agency OFPRA will make decisions on applications within two months, down from

Eastern Europe, Russia
The Czech Republic, with 10 million residents, has 230,000 foreigners, two-thirds of whom are Slovaks. The 15 current EU member nations can restrict

Southern Europe
Spain. Spain is a magnet for migrants from Africa, especially Morocco. A Moroccan Arabic word is often used to describe the effort to get into

OTHER

Global Trends
December 18 is International Migrants Day; on December 18, 1990, the UN General Assembly approved the International Convention on the Protection of

Australia: Asylum
The population of Australia reached 20 million in December 2003, meaning that it doubled since 1959; the population is projected to reach 30 million

Africa: Migrants
Children. West Africa includes coastal and landlocked countries, prompting international migration for jobs from the interior to the coast, as from

Middle East
Israel. Unemployment in Israel was 11 percent and rising in Fall 2003, and the government attempted to remove many of the 180,000 unauthorized

Professional Migrants and Development
One of the fastest-growing types of international migrants are highly skilled persons moving from developing to developed countries, such as IT