Immigration News: July, 2004 - Volume #11

THE AMERICAS

Border, Interior, Visas

Border. Apprehensions of Mexicans just inside the US border totaled 1.1 million in FY03, and are on track to top 1.2 million in FY04; there were

Congress: AgJOBS, Dream, Solve

The Agricultural Job Opportunity, Benefits, and Security Act (AgJOBS) was not attached to must-pass bills in the Senate in July 2004. Supporters

Integration, Sierra Club, States

In 2002, the US had 32.5 million foreign-born residents, including 52 percent from Latin America (30 percent from Mexico), 26 percent from Asia, and

Mexico: Migration, Remittances

About 10 percent of the 115 million persons born in Mexico have migrated to the US, and Mexicans continue to settle in the US at the rate of about

Canada: Professionals, Politics

Almost two-thirds of the professionals arriving in Canada under the point system are engineers, but many cannot get licenses to work as engineers.

Labor, H-1B

US employment growth accelerated in spring 2004, and the unemployment rate was stable at 5.6 percent in April, May and June 2004; employment rose at

Latin America

Latin American countries are expected to receive $30 billion in remittances in 2004, mostly in transactions that range from $200 to $400. A survey

ASIA

China: Migrants, Emigration, Economy

China's State Statistical Bureau reported that there were 114 million migrant workers in 2003, making migrants a sixth of the 744 million strong

Japan, Korea

Japan has cracked down on foreign students who overstay their visas, jailing them for several days, fining them up to 300,000 yen, and barring their

Southeast Asia: Maids, Countries

Maids. Women from Indonesia, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Pakistan and India often go to Middle East oil exporting countries as well as

South Asia

India. The Hindu nationalist party that has led India since 1998 was defeated in May 2004 elections, despite an "India shining" campaign celebrating

EUROPE

EU: Enlargement, Muslims

On May 1, 2004, 10 countries and 75 million people, half in Poland, joined the EU, bringing it to 25 countries and 455 million residents. About 35

Germany: New Law, Labor

A compromise migration law approved July 9, 2004 (effective January 1, 2005) acknowledges for the first time that Germany is a country of immigration

Dutch, Spain, Turkey

Netherlands. The Dutch, who took over presidency of the expanded EU on July 1, 2004, called for tough new EU-wide immigration laws that would speed

UK: Migration Crunch

In April 2004, Prime Minister Tony Blair said that Britain had reached a "crunch point" in its dealing with migrants and promised a "top-to-bottom"

Eastern Europe, ex-USSR

Hungary had 116,000 foreign residents in January 2002, including 45,000 Romanians, 10,000 Ukrainians, and 8,500 Yugoslavs. Some 8,400 foreigners

OTHER

Australia, New Zealand, Tonga

Australia received 125,300 immigrants in 2002-03, while the natural increase in the population was 115,200. However, almost as many people left

Middle East

Saudi Arabia issued 600,000 work permits to foreigners in 2003, and has been issuing 60,000 work permits a month in 2004. Many of the work permits

Africa: South Africa, Nurses

South Africa. Some 50,000 white farmers own 87 percent of farm land, and in 2004 the Restitution of Land Rights Act, which allows the Ministry of

Global Trends

Remittances of $93 billion to developing countries in 2003 were 1.5 times the $58 billion in Official Development Assistance, and G-8 leaders at

ILO on Migrants

The 92nd Conference of the International Labor Organization in June 2004 focused on migrant workers, reminding union, employer and government

Refugees

UNHRC released refugee data for the end of 2003, reporting 9.7 million refugees and an additional 7.4 million persons of concern to UNHCR: a million

Davidow: US-Mexico Relations

Jeffrey Davidow, the US ambassador to Mexico between 1998 and 2002, invents a hypersensitive Mexican porcupine interacting with an insensitive

Copenhagen Consensus

The Copenhagen Consensus is a DK5 million effort led by Bjorn Lomborg (author of The Skeptical Environmentalist) to rank 10 challenges facing the

Cornelius: Controlling Immigration

The second edition of country case studies emphasizes that migration and concerns about migration rose in the 1990s in industrial democracies.