Canadian immigration announces new and quicker 'Express Entry' system

Canadian immigration minister Chris Alexander has announced that Canada will introduce its new 'active recruitment' immigration system in January 2015. It will be known as 'Express Entry' and will be similar to Australia's SkillSelect skilled immigration system.


Mr Alexander's predecessor Jason Kenney began work on the new system in 2012. It has been known as the Expression of Interest system until now. Mr Alexander says that he believes that the new system will be 'a game changer' which will 'revolutionize the way we attract skilled immigrants, and get them working here faster'.


The new system aims to make it much quicker for skilled foreign workers to gain permanent residence visas than before. Mr Alexander says that he hopes that a successful applicant will have his/her application processed in six months once Express Entry is up and running.

 

 

Four immigration programs

The system will be used by applicants in four current immigration programs

• The Federal Skilled Worker Program - this is Canada's main skilled immigration programme. About 55,000 people gain visas each year under this program. The three sub-streams are as follows:
  • 5,000 visas available annually for applicants skilled in one of 24 'eligible occupations'. Many engineering and medical occupations are on the list.
  • Unlimited number of visas available for applicants who have an offer of skilled employment in Canada. This stream accounts for the great majority of FSWP visas.
  • Unlimited number of visas available for those studying for a PhD at a Canadian university or for those who have recently received a PhD.
• The Federal Skilled Trades Program - This allows up to 3,000 skilled tradespeople to gain permanent residence visas each year. There are 43 skilled trades on the FSTP occupations list. They include carpenters, plumbers and mechanics
• The Canadian Experience Class – This stream allows some 12,000 people annually to apply for Canadian permanent residence visas. To qualify, you must have worked in a skilled occupation in Canada for at least 12 months.
• The Provincial Nominee Programs – Canada is a federal state comprising ten provinces and three territories. Each of them has its own immigration programme. Each province has slightly different requirements for skilled workers. Applicants under the PNP should apply to a provincial or territorial government for nomination. If the applicant meets the provincial/territorial government's requirements, then he/she will usually be nominated for a visa. The applicant then applies to the Federal government's immigration department, Citizenship and Immigration Canada and the application processed.

 

 

Expression of interest

Under the new Express Entry system, applicants will be able to submit an 'expression of interest' to the Canadian government. They will provide a CV (résumé) and their details will be entered into a database. Employers who are seeking foreign skilled workers will have access to some information from the database and will be able to select suitable candidates.


Those candidates who are not chosen after their profiles have been on the database for some time will be removed from the database. The idea behind the scheme, according to CIC, is to 'allow the government to select the best candidates who are most likely to succeed in Canada, rather than those who happen to be first in line'.


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Lords denounce UK's 'overblown rhetoric' on immigration

Yet another parliamentary committee has criticised the UK's Coalition government for its rhetoric on immigration.


The House of Lords Science and Technology Committee published a report on International Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) students on 11th April 2014 which warns that the number of STEM students studying in the UK has fallen considerably since 2010, when the UK's current Coalition government came to power.


The number of STEM students fell by 8% between 2010/11, the year that the government came to power, and 2011/12. It fell by a further 2% in 2012/13 to 52,905 (from 58,815 in 2010). The number of students coming from India has fallen dramatically. It fell by 38% in 2011/12 and a further 28% in 2012/13.

 

 

Negative perception

The committee says that this is not necessarily caused by the UK's immigration rules but because of a negative perception about the UK among potential students in many countries. The committee warns that this perception is caused by the tone of the public debate on immigration in the UK.


It warns that in the age of social media such as Twitter, negative comment about a country like the UK can spread between students very quickly.


The committee places the blame for negative views about the UK among students on the government and on the UK press.

 

 

'Visa situation in the UK has become too difficult'

The report contains evidence from the Society of Biology saying, 'Our members have told us that central student agencies who guide the students on the best countries in which to study are now directing students to universities elsewhere (e.g. the USA) because in their view the visa situation in the UK has become too difficult'.


The committee warns that the Coalition's policies on immigration and education are 'contradictory'. It says 'The Government are simultaneously committed to reducing net migration and attracting increasing numbers of international students (15–20% over the next five years)'.


During the last general election campaign, the UK's current prime minister, David Cameron, then the leader of the opposition, promised, if elected, to cut net immigration into the UK to below 100,000 annually by 2015 from the then level of 250,000 a year.

 

 

Students comprise a majority of non-EU immigrants

But, the committee says that, because new students are counted as immigrants in the national migration figures, and because 'students comprise a majority of non-EU immigrants' to the UK, it follows that 'net migration can only be reduced by reducing the number of international students coming to the UK – contrary to the government's stated policy to grow numbers of international students'.


The committee therefore recommends that the government should remove students from the net migration figures. Failing that, it says that, 'at the very least…when the Government present the net migration figures, they should clearly state what proportion of the sum is students and they should not include student numbers for immigration policy making purposes'.

 

 

'Feedstock for a toxic debate over immigration'

It warns 'Including students, who bring so much to the UK economy, in the net migration figures, sees them used as a feedstock for an all too often highly politicised and sometime toxic debate over immigration'.


In March, the parliamentary select committee on soft power made similar recommendations. The Soft Power Committee said that the UK benefitted from the international influence it has thanks to the high number of international leaders who have studied at UK universities.


The committee warned that government policy was putting this influence that the UK currently has internationally at risk. Several other parliamentary committees made the same recommendations last year.

 

 

The brightest and the best

The Government does not accept the findings of the Lords Science and Technology Committee report; A Government spokesman said that the UK was both controlling immigration and attracting 'the brightest and the best'.


He went onto say that 'We do not accept that the UK's immigration rules are deterring international students and there is no clear evidence in the report to support that argument. Where some courses and countries have seen falling numbers, other countries and courses are on the rise'.


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Senator urges US Republicans to 'get beyond' illegal immigration

Rand Paul, a right-wing Republican and a potential challenger for the presidency in 2016, has said that the Republican Party has to 'get beyond' its problem with illegal immigration or it will never gain significant support from the Hispanic community.


Mr Paul was speaking at the launch of MRC Latino, a right-wing media lobbying group that will campaign against left-wing bias in the Spanish-speaking media in the US. He said 'The bottom line is the Hispanic community is not going to hear us until we get beyond this issue'.


Mr Paul's intervention is interesting because he is identified with the right-wing 'Tea Party' faction. The Tea Party is a loose affiliation of activists who oppose 'big government'. In general, they oppose tax-rises, cuts in military spending, gun control and immigration, particularly illegal immigration from Mexico.

 

 

Hispanics are 'natural Republicans'

Mr Paul believes that there are many 'natural Republicans' among the Hispanic community, even though Hispanic US citizens vote overwhelmingly for the Democrats.


Mr Paul told journalists 'What's happened is that there is not the perception of empathy coming from the Republican Party that we care about Hispanics and where they are coming from and what their problems are. Until we get to that point, they are not going to listen to any of the next message'.


At the last presidential election in 2012, Republican challenger Mitt Romney wooed the right wing of the Republican Party, and Tea Party activists, by promising to introduce 'self-deportation' policies to deal with illegal immigration. This would have meant introducing policies which would make life so difficult for illegal residents in the US that they would prefer to leave rather than stay in the US.

 

 

Amnesty

At the same election, President Obama, the Democrats' candidate, said that he would, instead, introduce legislation which would lead to an amnesty for many of the US's 11.5m illegal residents.


This gave President Obama a massive advantage with US citizens of Hispanic descent voting in the election.


This is because it is believed that 80% of those living in the US illegally are of Hispanic descent, mostly coming from Mexico and the rest of Latin America. It has been said that most Hispanic US citizens know at least one illegal resident who may very well be a friend or relative, and so are likely to vote for a political party that supports an amnesty for illegal aliens.


It is perhaps for this reason that over 70% of Hispanic voters voted for Mr Obama and only 27% voted for Mr Romney.

 

 

5m vote advantage for Obama

There were over 11m Hispanic voters at the election. 8m of them voted for Mr Obama. Only 3m voted for Mr Romney. This granted Mr Obama a 5m vote advantage. He won the popular vote in the election by fewer than 5m votes.


The Hispanic population is the fastest growing sector of the US population. Some Republican strategists therefore believe that unless the Republicans 'reach out' to Hispanic voters, there will never be another Republican president.


Mr Paul told his audience 'there [are] many in the Latino community who go to church and believe in traditional values and who are conservative…Maybe half. Maybe sixty percent … there's enormous upside potential [for Republican support]'.

 

 

Paul may antagonise Tea Party

It is unlikely that Mr Paul's words will go down well with many Tea Party supporters.


On 6th April 2014, Jeb Bush, another high-profile Republican and a challenger for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016, told Fox News that the Republicans had to drop their 'harsh political rhetoric' on illegal immigration.


Mr Bush said that many illegal immigrants entered the US as 'an act of love' for their families. When the right-wing businessman Donald Trump addressed a Tea Party rally in New Hampshire on Saturday 12th April, the audience booed loudly when he mentioned Mr Bush's name.

 

 

Bush could have been 'more artful'

While expressing some support for Mr Bush's views, Mr Paul was also mildly critical of Mr Bush. Paul said that he had said similar things himself but added that Mr Bush could have been 'more artful' in expressing himself.


Mr Paul said; 'I don't want to say, "Oh, he's terrible for saying this". If it were me, what I would have said is, "people who seek the American dream are not bad people...However, we can't invite the whole world"'.


Global Visa Support offers a variety of programs in United States. Please visit our USA page for more information: http://www.globalvisasupport.com/usa.html

US immigration announces H-1B visa ballots

The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has announced that it will hold two ballots to allocate this year's quota of H-1B temporary work visas.


In a brief statement issued on 7th April 2014 US immigration had the following to say 'USCIS announced today that it has received a sufficient number of H-1B petitions to reach the statutory cap for fiscal year (FY) 2015. USCIS has also received more than the limit of 20,000 H-1B petitions filed under the U. S. advanced degree exemption'.


The H-1B temporary work visa allows foreign workers who are educated to bachelor's degree level (some applicants may be eligible for H-1B visas if they have achieved 'degree equivalence' through a mixture of work experience and qualifications) to apply for visas to work in a 'specialty occupation' in the US.

 

 

85,000 H-1Bs available annually

Each year, 65,000 H-1B visas are available for bachelor's degree graduates and a further 20,000 visas are available for applicants with higher degrees such as PhDs and other doctorates.
 

Each year, USCIS begins accepting applications on the 1st of April (or the first working day thereafter). It continues to accept applications for five working days each year. If, after five days, the cap has not yet been reached, it will continue to accept applications until the cap is reached.



If, however, after five days, sufficient applications to meet the cap have been received, USCIS stops accepting applications. If more applications are received than there are visas available, then USCIS holds either one or two ballots. The applications of those applicants selected in the ballots will then be processed and other applications will be discarded.

 

 

Two ballots

If necessary, USCIS holds two ballots; one for applicants with higher degrees and one for other applicants. This year, it will hold two ballots because both the caps have been exceeded.


It will firstly hold a ballot for the higher degree applicants. 20,000 applicants will have their applications processed. All those who are not successful will be entered into the second ballot along with the bachelor's degree applicants. The second ballot will then be held and 65,000 applications will be selected. All others will be discarded.


Last year was the first year for some time that the H-1B applications cap was reached within five working days. USCIS received 124,000 applications in the first five days and held two ballots to distribute the visas.


Global Visa Support offers a variety of programs in United States. Please visit our USA page for more information: http://www.globalvisasupport.com/usa.html

UK employs devious means to cut immigration total

The UK's Home Office is under pressure to reduce the net immigration total but the figure is rising. To help reverse the trend, the Home Secretary Theresa May is rumoured to be considering a small change to the Tier 2 (Intra Company Transfer) (Short Term) visa which will, on paper, reduce the number of immigrants in the country by 19,000. But, in reality, there will be the same number of migrants as before.


By changing the maximum stay on the short term ICT visa from 12 months to just under 12 months (say 364 days or eleven months), Mrs May would remove 19,000 people from the immigration figures at a stroke. They will then no longer be classed as 'resident' in the UK and will therefore not be included in the immigration figures.


The Financial Times, a UK newspaper, reports that civil servants at the Home Office have proposed the change in order to reduce the net immigration figure.

 

 

'In a pretty dangerous place'

The paper also reports that business opposes the change. It reports that Neil Carberry of the employers' body the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) said 'We are in a pretty dangerous place if we are redesigning the tiers of the immigration system in order to meet a political target.


He added 'This would undermine the image of the UK as a place where we welcome highly skilled people'.


The UK's Coalition government has promised to reduce net annual immigration to below 100,000 by 2015. Net annual immigration is calculated by taking the number of people who arrive in the country intending to reside permanently over a given year and subtracting the number of UK residents who leave on a long term basis over the same period.

 

 

UN definition

To be classed as a resident when you arrive in the UK, you must be intending to stay in the UK for a year or more. This is the UN definition of a migrant.


Therefore, students who arrive for a three year university course are classed as residents. As most students are in the UK on a temporary basis many Universities and colleges have argued that it is misleading to include students in the immigration figures as permanent immigrants coming to the UK.


Those arriving in the UK on shorter term student visas, however, which last under a year, are not classed as residents and are not included in the migration statistics.

 

 

Those staying under one year are excluded from statistics

By altering the maximum stay for short-term Tier 2 (ICT) visa holders to just under one year, therefore, Mrs May would remove all of them from the immigration statistics. About 20,000 short term ICT visas are issued each year.


The UK government wants to reduce immigration; Opinion polls show that a majority of the UK population believes that immigration is too high.


Under the UK's previous Labour government, there was a significant increase in net immigration. Much of this rise was caused by the accession of eight new countries to the European Union in 2004. Unlike many EU countries, the UK did not place any controls on citizens of the new countries coming to live and work in the UK.

 

 

Massive underestimate

The Labour government said that they expected 13,000 people to come to the UK to work from the new EU member states each year. In fact, it is estimated that over 600,000 came in the first year.


Under the previous Government there were also many immigrants from outside the European Union. By 2010, net immigration was about 250,000 per year. Mr Cameron said in a BBC (the British public sector broadcaster) program before the last General Election that he would reduce immigration to 'tens of thousands' annually. This was taken to mean below 100,000 a year.


At the 2010 election, Mr Cameron's Conservative Party failed to win an outright majority but was the largest party. It entered into Coalition with the centrist Liberal Democrats and Mr Cameron became prime minister.

 

 

Immigration reduction measures

His government set about reducing immigration immediately. It;

• Abolished the Tier 1 (Post Study Work) visa. This visa enabled foreign graduates of UK universities to stay in the UK and work for two years after graduation
• Abolished the Tier 1 (General) visa which allowed 'highly skilled people' (mainly graduates) from around the world to come to the UK and work. The government said that many Tier 1 (General) visa holders were working in low paid jobs in the UK
• Introduced a cap of 20,700 on the Tier 2 (General) visa for skilled workers. The Home Office has also introduced stringent requirements for applicants making it time-consuming and expensive to apply for these visas. It is for this reason that in reality the cap is never reached
• Removed the licences from 700 colleges which effectively prevents them from sponsoring foreign students for Tier 4 student visas
• Prevented UK citizens and permanent residents who earn less than £18,600 a year from bringing foreign born spouses to live in the UK.

 

 

Reduced by 100,000

By 2012, the government had succeeded in reducing the net immigration figure by about 100,000 to an estimated 153,000 annually. However, it has since found reductions harder to come by. This is because of two main reasons

• The government has no control over the number of EU citizens who come to live in the UK. Large parts of continental Europe are in recession and many workers from eastern and southern Europe are coming to the UK to work
• Fewer UK residents are leaving the country. In fact, this is, in part, because of the government's earlier successes. The UK economy is doing better and so more people have decided to stay in the UK. Therefore with more people deciding to live in the UK on a long term basis and fewer people deciding to leave the UK you see an increase in net immigration.

The latest figures showed that, in the year to September 2013, the net immigration figure is back above 200,000. Experts predict that the figure may well climb back up to 2010 levels making Mr Cameron 'a failure' on immigration.

 

 

Electoral defeat

Mr Cameron is also facing the possibility of electoral defeat in the European elections this May. Conservative Party strategists fear that a rise in the net immigration figure could drive some Conservative supporters to vote for the anti-EU UK Independence Party (UKIP) in coming elections. UKIP is promising to cut immigration by taking the UK out of the EU.


This, UKIP says, would enable the UK to set its own immigration policy and to cut immigration. A rise in the net immigration figure might encourage more voters who would normally vote Conservative to vote for UKIP instead.


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Tea Party holds US to ransom on immigration

In June 2013, the US Senate passed an immigration reform bill; the Border Security, Economic Opportunity and Immigration Modernization Act 2013. The bill contained proposals for comprehensive reform of the US's immigration system which is commonly said to be 'broken'.


If it ever becomes law, the Act will

• Create a 'pathway to citizenship' for illegal residents. To join the 'pathway', they would have to pay a $500 fine, learn English and pay back taxes
• Increase the annual number of H-1B temporary skilled work visas' from 85,000 to over 150,000 annually. This figure could rise above 200,000 if demand was high over several years
• Increase the cost of L-1 and H-1B visas for firms which had a high proportion of staff in the US with these visas
• Allow an unlimited number of graduates from US universities with higher degrees to apply for green cards (as US permanent resident visas are called)
• Increase spending on border security by $4.5bn over the next four years
• Abolish country quotas for US employment based green cards. Even if this happens there are no proposals to change the overall quota. Therefore processing times could still be some years.

 

 

'Pathway to citizenship'

But the Act is not likely to become law. This is because of the proposed 'pathway to citizenship' in the reform bill; an issue on which the Republicans and the Democrats cannot agree.


Both parties, the Republicans and the Democrats, accept that changes to the system are necessary. People in both parties accept that there should be a greater emphasis in the US system on employment-based immigration. The US has one of the lowest percentage of immigrants who enter on employment based immigrant visas in the developed world.


In 2013, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (the OECD) said that only 6% of US immigrants in 2010 and in 2011 were in employment based visa categories. In Canada and Australia, this figure is much closer to 26%.

 

 

Republicans and Democrats disagree on pathway

But on the issue of the pathway to citizenship, the two parties are fundamentally opposed to each other.


There are 11.5m illegal residents in the US. Many of them have been there for many years. It is believed that 80% of them are of Hispanic ethnicity and come from Latin America. Over half of them are believed to be Mexican.


At the last presidential election in November 2012, President Obama promised that, if re-elected, he would act to establish a pathway to citizenship. His Republican opponent, Mitt Romney, promised, instead, to make life so difficult for illegal residents that they would 'self-deport'. That is, they would leave the country voluntarily.

 

 

Hispanic voters opposed 'self-deportation'

This policy was extremely unpopular with US citizens of Hispanic descent. Over 70% of them voted for President Obama. The polls show that this was more than enough votes to win the election for the President. About 11m Hispanic voters voted in the election.


8m of these voted for the president. 3m voted for Mr Romney. Mr Obama won the election by around 2m votes.


But polls show that the 'self-deportation' policy is also unpopular with other US citizens too. A recent poll conducted fr Dox News showed that 80% of Americans support the establishment of a pathway to citizenship for illegal residents who learn to speak English and pay a sum to compensate for any tax they failed to pay while working illegally (if necessary).

 

 

Many Republicans support the 'pathway'

Indeed, polls show that many Republicans support the 'pathway'. A poll by the Chicago Council showed that 75% of Republican businessmen in the Chicago area support the establishment of a pathway. Many influential business organisations, including the US Chamber of Commerce, which usually supports Republican candidates at presidential elections, support the pathway.


Businessmen such as Warren Buffett, the world's most successful investor and Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook are also supporting reform.


So if 80% of people support the reform, along with business and many churches, what is the problem? The problem is that the US political process has, to some extent, been hijacked by a tiny, but extremely vocal, minority.

 

 

Tea Party

This is The Tea Party movement. The Tea Party is a loose association of right wing, anti-government ideologues. They dislike tax and 'big government'. They rose to prominence at about the time that President Obama was first elected.


Many of them are members of the 'birther' movement. Birthers believe that President Obama was not born in the US and is, therefore barred from being President. They believe that Mr Obama forged his Hawaiian birth certificate.


The Tea Party is overwhelmingly white (96%), and religious; 97% are Catholics. It claims to have 15 'non-negotiable Core beliefs'. The first of these is this; 'Illegal aliens are here illegally'.

 

 

Moderate Republicans deselected

The Tea Party has caused mayhem in the Republican Party by campaigning to have any moderate Congressmen and women deselected. They do this through the US's primary system.


Before a Republican or Democratic candidate can stand in an election, he or she must first win a primary election to earn the right to represent their party.


Because of low voter turnout in primary elections, small numbers of committed activists are able to ensure that their preferred candidates are selected to represent their party in the election. Turnout can be as low as 1% of the turnout in a general election. It is generally around 10-15%.

 

 

30 Congressmen and women with Tea Party links

The Tea Party has campaigned to have moderate Republicans replaced by more extreme alternatives. There are now some 130 Congressmen with links to the Tea Party.


Tea Party sympathisers recently threatened to deselect the speaker of the House of Representatives John Boehner because he said that he wanted to pass an immigration reform bill that would allow illegal residents who came to the country as children to join a pathway to citizenship if they subsequently studied in college or served in the US military.


Many US commentators say that the Tea Party is now a spent force in US politics. This has been partly caused, commentators say, by its previous success. The Tea Party had considerable success in the elections of 2010 in getting extreme candidates appointed.

 

 

Gridlock

Once in Congress, those Tea Party candidates have caused 'gridlock' in Congress by a complete refusal to compromise on any issue.


Perhaps the best-known example of Tea Party intransigence came when Tea Party Republicans nearly caused the US to default on its debts by refusing to approve the money to pay the country's creditors.


A Republican primary candidate from Maine, Andrew Ian Dodge, told USnews.com; 'There were [Tea Party] people saying, 'Yes, I think we should default,' and there were the rest of us saying, 'You're insane' ". What makes this criticism more surprising is the fact that Mr Dodge was a founder of one of the major Tea Party groups in Maine.

 

 

Opposition to immigration reform is Tea Party's top priority for 2014

Nonetheless, it remains unlikely that Republicans, fearful that they will be undermined by Tea Party activists, will vote for immigration reform in 2014. It is an election year and the Tea Party seems to have made opposition to immigration reform its number one priority.


The American political system has been kidnapped by the Tea Party.


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UK immigration statistics underestimated total by 350,000 in a decade

The UK's Office for National Statistics says that it underestimated the true extent of immigration from Eastern Europe between 2001 and 2011 by about 350,000. It says that the error occurred because the ONS estimate was based on misleading data from the International Passenger Survey.


The ONS has recently completed a review of immigration from the EU particularly after 2004 when eight new nations joined the European Union. It found that the statistics only used data from major airports rather than from all airports in the UK.


In 2004, Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Slovenia joined the European Union. Some opponents of EU immigration warned that there was likely to be a large influx of people from those countries when they joined the EU.

 

 

Transitional controls

Most other EU countries introduced 'transitional controls' with restrictions on working for nationals of the eight 'accession states' for up to seven years. Out of the Countries that were EU members states before 2004 only the UK, Ireland and Sweden did not.


The government dismissed warnings of a sudden rush of immigrants as alarmism but, within six months at least 600,000 EU immigrants had arrived most of whom to live and work in the UK. That figure has now been revised upwards.


The reason for the error is that, between 2004 and 2008 no information at all was gathered from most regional airports. Data was only gathered in major airports such as Gatwick and Heathrow. In 2008, the system was improved and more data was gathered from regional airports.

 

 

International Passenger Survey

The UK's immigration statistics are based on the International Passenger Survey. Each year, between 700,000 and 800,000 passengers are asked to complete surveys providing details of their reasons for travel and other information. This information is then collated and interpreted to provide immigration and emigration figures.


Given that UK airports handle nearly 250m passengers a year, the number of people who complete the International Passenger Survey is too small to rely on for accurate immigration statistics; Only about one in 350 passengers complete the survey. This has led a committee of MPs to describe the UK's immigration statistics as little better than a guess.


The Chairman of the Public Administration Committee, Bernard Jenkin told journalists last year that the UK's immigration statistics were 'little better than a best guess - and could be out by tens of thousands'.

 

 

Incomplete data

But, the news that no information was gathered from many lesser airports means that the ONS estimate was not even based on complete data.
 

The ONS now believes that net immigration was about 275,000 a year over the decade, up from the previous estimate of about 240,000 a year.

Carlos Vargas-Silva of Oxford University's Migration Observatory told journalists 'We have known for some time that net migration must have been much higher during the 2001-2011 period than the official estimates had suggested'.

 

 

Need for better migration data

Mr Vargas-Silva added that the mistake illustrated 'the need for better migration data and of the limitations of using a survey to develop net migration data'.


The error is likely to intensify the debate about immigration to the UK from the EU in the run-up to the European Parliament elections which are due to be held on May 22nd. Much of the UK public is hostile to mass immigration and the new figures may boost the electoral support of the anti-EU UK Independence Party.


Global Visa Support offers a variety of programs in United Kingdom. Please visit our UK page for more information: http://www.globalvisasupport.com/uk.html