Australia to maintain immigration at 190,000 in 2013/14

Australian immigration minister Brendan O'Connor has announced that Australia will keep its immigration target for 2013/14 at 190,000; the same number as for the previous year. Of these 128,500 permanent resident visas will go to skilled migrants and 60,885 to family members. There will also be 565 places for 'special eligibility migrants' who are former permanent residents who have close ties with Australia.


There had been speculation that the immigration target might be cut. In recent months, Australia's Labor government has turned immigration into an electoral issue in the run up to the general election this September. In February Mr O'Connor claimed that Australian firms had been abusing Australia's temporary skilled migration visa, the 457 visa, to employ poorly paid foreign workers at the expense of Australian job seekers. Prime Minister Julia Gillard also weighed in, saying that her government would 'put Aussie workers first'.


But the overall migration target has remained the same. Mr O'Connor has announced that 700 places will be shifted from the skilled migration category to the family migration category because demand is heavy.

Australia needs to balance economic and social objectives

Mr O'Connor released a statement on the Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) website in which he said 'The Gillard government's top priority will always be jobs for Australians. The permanent migration program is about getting the balance right between our economic and social objectives. Our migration program ensures skilled migrants will continue to fill critical gaps in regions and sectors with genuine skills shortages'.


Mr O'Connor's statement continued 'It is important that our skilled migration program is driven by genuine skills needs. Under the Gillard government, skilled migration to Australia will continue to be carefully targeted to ensure that migrants complement but do not replace the domestic labour force'.


He said 'Skilled migration continues to make up two thirds of the program because of its obvious benefits to our economy and society. Targeted skilled migration enables Australia's economy to grow by addressing skills gaps and bottlenecks'.


Global Visa Support offers a variety of programmes in Australia. Please visit our Australian page for more information: http://www.globalvisasupport.com/australia.html

US and UK are world's top immigration destinations for professionals

A new report has found that the US, the UK and Australia are the three preferred destinations for professionals around the world seeking to relocate for work. The US was the top destination last year too. The UK has risen to take second place from Australia, which is third.


The survey was carried out by the ESCP Europe business school on behalf of the Hydrogen recruitment company. It is the fourth annual survey prepared for Hydrogen. ESCP questioned over 2,000 professional people who had relocated worldwide. They worked in a range of fields; technology, finance, life sciences, oil and gas and legal.


The survey found that those questioned chose to move to find greater career opportunities, to increase their earning potential and to experience life in another country. 72% said that they had earned more as a result of moving and 77% said it had enhanced their careers. 98% said they would recommend the experience to others.

27% of professionals favour the US

The USA was the most popular destination in all these fields. In total 27% of professionals questioned said that they would like to relocate to the US. 13% of people said they would relocate to the UK and slightly fewer said they would choose Australia.


The UK was the second most popular destination for technology professionals, lawyers and life science workers but, surprisingly, was not in the top three for financial professionals despite the fact that the City of London is one of the world's leading financial hubs.


Equally surprising to some might be the emergence of the UK as a global magnet for technology professionals. Britain has not been particularly well-known for having a high-tech industry but Dan Fox of Hydrogen told PR Newswire that the UK and, in particular, east London, is fast becoming globally important.


'The US is still the dominant force, but the UK is definitely on the march. The States has Silicon Valley and San Francisco. The UK has Silicon Roundabout near Old Street, where you've got all these exciting firms opening. A lot of Europeans view the UK as a tech hub where you can work for exciting fast-paced companies. We're seeing a lot of Europeans coming to work in the UK.'


The survey also found that 86% of professionals who choose to work abroad end up staying longer than they expected. Over 63% of those questioned stayed for over six years and over half of all those questioned said that they were considering applying for permanent resident status in the country where they currently live.


The survey found that professionals still favour the developed world, despite the difficult economic times faced by these countries in recent years. Eight of the top 15 countries are in North America or Europe. Of the remaining seven, two are Australia and New Zealand. Brazil and China have made the top 15 but India has not.

UK moves up to second place

The top 15 most popular countries overall for all the professionals surveyed were

1. USA
2. UK
3. Australia
4. Singapore
5. Canada
6. Switzerland
7. France
8. Hong Kong
9. UAE
10. Germany
11. China
12. Brazil
13. Italy
14. Spain
15. New Zealand

The survey also found that professionals are becoming increasingly international in their outlook. Over half of those questioned (52%) said that 'home' could be anywhere in the world.


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

Over one fifth of Canadians are immigrants

Over 20% of Canadians were born in other countries and have become Canadians by naturalisation, a national survey shows. This makes Canada the country with the highest proportion of immigrant citizens on earth. The National Household Survey was completed in 2011 by around 74% of the Canadian population. About 6.3m people out of Canada's population of about 33,000,000 were born citizens of other countries.


The survey also shows that mass immigration has changed the ethnic makeup of Canada hugely in the last two decades. Whereas, in the 1960s, most immigration to Canada came from Europe, now, 82.4% of immigrants are non-European. Immigrants are reported to have arrived in Canada from 200 countries. 6.3m Canadians, 19% of the population, now say that they come from 'a visible ethnic minority'. The three largest ethnic minority groups are south Asians, Chinese and black.


The survey found that 1.2m migrants settled in Canada between 2006 and 2011 and that over half of these, (56.9%) came from Asia, including the Middle East. During the 1970s, only 8.5% of Canadian immigrants came from Asia. Between 2006 and 2011, 13.1% of immigrants or 152,300 people came from the Philippines alone. 10.5% (122,100) came from China and 10.4% (121,400) came from India.

More migrants from Philippines than from Europe in 2006-2011

13.7% of the migrants arriving between 2006 and 2011 came from the entirety of Europe, only just more than the number coming from the Philippines. In the 1970s, 75% of immigrants were Europeans. 12.1% of immigrants over the five year period between 2006 and 2011 came from Africa.


Respondents were asked to record their ethnicity and these responses showed that Canada is extremely ethnically diverse. 200 different ethnicities were given by respondents. The survey suggests that there are over 1m Canadians belonging to 13 different ethnic groups. These are:

• First nations (Aboriginal Canadians such as Inuit and native Americans)
• Canadian
• English
• Scottish
• Irish
• French
• German
• Italian
• Chinese
• Ukrainian
• East Indian
• Dutch
• Polish

Immigrants now settling all over Canada

The survey also showed that fewer new immigrants move to Toronto, the capital and to the province of Ontario than had been the case, although it is still home to 3.6m immigrants, over half of the total. Between 2006 and 2011, 43% of new citizens settled in Ontario and most of these settled in Toronto, Ontario's biggest city. Nearly 50% of Toronto's population was born abroad but the survey shows that new Canadians are also choosing to settle in Manitoba, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and elsewhere.


The National Household Survey was first held in 2011 as a controversial replacement for a census which had been held at regular intervals in Canada since 1825. The Conservative government scrapped the census, which every Canadian household was required to complete by law, with the voluntary Household Survey.


Unlike the census, the National Household Survey was sent to only 4.5m households across Canada. Of the 4.5m questionnaires distributed, 74% (about 3,330,000) were completed. Although this makes the figures less reliable than census data, the survey nonetheless provides a very detailed picture of the nation's makeup.


Global Visa Support offers a variety of programs in Canada. Please visit our Canadian page for more information: http://www.globalvisasupport.com/canada.html

Canada needs to encourage immigration

Do you want to move to Canada? A recent poll showed that Canada is the third most popular migration destination in the world after the USA and the UK. 42m people told the GALLUP polling company that they would like to settle there. And Canada is actively encouraging skilled workers from around the world to do so.


The Canadian government says that Canada needs to encourage immigration because the native population is aging. This means that, while some other countries are cutting immigration, Canada continues to welcome international migrants. Canada continues to grant permanent resident visas to 250,000 people each year. It has recently re-opened the Federal Skilled Worker Program, its main skilled worker immigration program. It also issues nearly 200,000 temporary work permits each year.


Canada has a great deal to offer to immigrants beyond a relatively welcoming immigration regime. Canada's economy is the 11th largest in the world and it survived the global economic crisis of 2007-2010 relatively unscathed. The average yearly salary in December 2012 was around CAN$47,200 (US$46,706, GB£30,385)


Among the most popular Canadian work and immigration programs are

The Federal Skilled Worker Program (FSWP)

The FSWP is Canada's main skilled immigration program. About 55,000 people annually receive Canadian permanent resident visas under this program. The program was suspended in July 2012 by Jason Kenney and re-opened on May 4th 2013.


To qualify, you must score 67 points out of 100 awarded for

• Language ability
• Age
• Education
• Work experience
• Having an offer of employment in Canada
• Adaptability

In addition, you will have to meet one of the following criteria

• You have at least one year of continuous work experience in one of 24 eligible occupations on the eligible occupations list. From now on, 5,000 FSWP permanent resident visas will be awarded to people with experience of one of these occupations
• You have a 'qualifying offer of arranged employment' in Canada
• You have a PhD and can therefore apply through the 'PhD stream'

You must also prove that you speak English and/or French to a minimum standard and, where you are relying on a foreign educational qualification you must have that qualification assessed by a licenced Canadian credential assessment organisation.

Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP)

The TFWP allows Canadian employers to employ foreign workers on temporary contracts. A Canadian employer who wants to employ an international worker must often first obtain a Labour Market Opinion (LMO) which will show that the hiring of an international worker by the employer will have either a neutral or a positive effect on the Canadian jobs market. Employers may be able to employ some workers (particularly those from the USA) without an LMO.


Where an LMO is required, after the employer has received a neutral or positive LMO, he may offer the job to an international worker. The international worker will then, having been offered a job, apply to Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) for a work permit. This will allow the worker to work in Canada for the period of their work contract. TFWP work permits will last for a maximum of four years. Many though, last for only one or two years.


The TFWP worker will then have to apply to CIC for a Canadian entry visa.

TFWP workers can apply for permanent residence

After being in Canada for some time, TFWP workers may be able to apply for permanent resident visas, perhaps through the Canadian Experience Class (CEC) program. Anyone with 12 months experience of working in Canada within the last three years is able to apply for a permanent resident visa. CIC says that 9,353 people obtained Canadian permanent resident visas under CEC in 2012.


CIC figures show that the number of TFWP work permits issued annually has risen sharply. There are currently around 300,000 TFWP workers in Canada, three times more than in 2002. More than 192,000 TFWP workers entered Canada in 2011 alone. In 2011, 29,000 workers who had entered Canada as TFWP work permit holders received permanent resident visas.


After two cases of suspected abuse of the TFWP, Canadian immigration minister Jason Kenney announced a series of reforms to the program. These changes have made it slightly harder to get a TFWP work permit.


TFWP workers must now be paid the 'prevailing wage' for the job (there had been freedom to pay up to 15% less than the market rate) and the Accelerated Labour Market Opinion (ALMO) which allowed employers to receive an LMO in a few weeks has been suspended. However, the TFWP program has not been suspended and it remains a popular choice among those wishing to work in Canada.


Global Visa Support offers a variety of programs in Canada. Please visit our Canadian page for more information: http://www.globalvisasupport.com/canada.html

UK government announces immigration reform bill

The UK government says that it intends to pass legislation that they say will encourage people who want to contribute to the country but discourage those who want to take advantage of the UK's social benefits. The proposed legislation was revealed by Queen Elizabeth II at the state opening of parliament in Westminster on Wednesday 8th May 2013.


The State Opening of Parliament is an annual event at which the monarch reads a speech outlining her government's legislative agenda for the coming year. This year, the immigration bill was one of the major announcements in the seven minute long speech. The speech contained commitments from the government to pass fifteen laws which will deal with matters as diverse as pensions, social care, job creation and immigration.


The Queen announced that the immigration bill would ensure that the UK 'attracts those who will contribute and deters those who will not'. The bill will do the following if it becomes law:

• Restrict access to the NHS for foreign nationals in the UK
• Require visitors to the UK to make a contribution towards the costs of any treatment they receive from the NHS
• Introduce bigger fines for firms which employ foreign workers who do not have the right to work in the UK
• Oblige private landlords to check the immigration status of prospective tenants before they rent a property. A failure to do so may result in hefty fines
• Require the courts, when considering applications from foreign criminals to remain in the UK under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, to consider the impact on the victims and on society generally. Article 8 says that everyone has the right to family life. This has been interpreted by the courts in such a way that some foreign criminals have been allowed to stay in the UK because they have fathered a child even after they have committed serious offences.

Measures do not tackle important issues on illegal immigration – Labour

The UK's Labour Party opposition has said that the measures 'don't tackle important issues on exploitation and illegal immigration'. The Labour Shadow Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper, said, in a statement 'we support the measures promised…but it appears their impact will be limited'.


Ms Cooper said that the government was doing nothing to prevent the exploitation of foreign workers. Ed Miliband, the opposition leader, said, in a speech in the House of Commons, that a failure to prevent unscrupulous employers paying wages below the minimum wage to foreign workers was driving down wages for all.


Labour also said that the government had announced no measures to combat illegal immigration nor to give the power of arrest to immigration staff.


The bill will not alter the UK's five tier points-based immigration system which deals with work and student immigration. Tier 1 visas are for 'high value migrants such as entrepreneurs, those with exceptional talent and the like. Tier 2 is for skilled workers. Tier 4 is for students and Tier 5 for temporary workers intending to stay in the UK for less than two years.


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

Australian immigration minister admits 457 visa 'rorting' claim was a 'forecast'

Brendan O'Connor, the Australian immigration minister has been forced to admit that he had no evidence to support his claim, made on Australian TV last week, that about 10% of subclass 457 temporary work visas had been 'rorted', or obtained fraudulently.


On Sunday 28th April 2013, Mr O'Connor claimed that 10,000 foreign workers were in Australia with fraudulently obtained 457 visas. He appeared on Sky News and said ''Insofar as numbers, I believe that the areas where there's been an illegitimate use of 457s numbers are not negligible. I would say it would exceed 10,000.'


Australian government figures show that there are about 107,000 temporary workers in Australia with 457 visas. These visas allow foreign workers to work in Australia for up to four years.

O'Connor admits 'forecasting' number of fraudulent 457 visas last year

On Friday 3rd May, Mr O'Connor was forced to admit that his claim that about 10,000 457 visas had been obtained by 'rorting' was a 'forecast'. He said 'I'm making a forecast like others have made forecasts. The difference is I seem to be being challenged – fine. My point is this: There are transgressions… they're more than negligible. I've sought to estimate what I think is the appropriate number'.


As soon as Mr O'Connor made his initial claim on Sunday, employers' representatives expressed scepticism at the claim. Peter Anderson of the Australian Chamber of Commerce said that, if it was true, then this reflected very poorly on the government which was, itself, the largest single employer of people on 457 visas.


Innes Willox of the Australian Industry Group said that 'the extreme rarity of prosecutions or even sanctions against employers would suggest that there is no systemic abuse of the 457 program'.

DIAC report says rorting is rare

Embarrassingly for Mr O'Connor, a report prepared by his own department, the Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC), in December 2012 says that abuse of the 457 visa system was rare. The report was released shortly after Mr O'Connor's Sky TV interview on Sunday 28th after a Freedom of Information Act request was made to DIAC demanding to see data about the abuse of 457 visas.


The Australian Freedom of Information Act allows Australian citizens to request information held by government and state government departments. The governmental body concerned should, under most circumstances, disclose any information requested unless there is a valid reason to withhold it, such as national security.


The Australian opposition coalition has complained that Mr O'Connor's claims were part of the Labor Party government's attempt to divert attention from the growing number of refugees arriving in Australia by sea.

Opposition says O'Connor using 457 abuse as a diversion

Scott Morrison, the coalition's immigration spokesman said 'Labor's smearing of skilled migration is a desperate attempt to distract attention from their chronic border failures that this year will see more than 20,000 people arrive illegally by boat'.


The coalition claims that the governing Labor Party is seeking to use allegations of 'rorting' to cast themselves as the supporters of Australian workers in the run-up to the Australian general election which will be held in September.


Scott Barklamb of the Australian Mines and Metals Association told Australian paper The Age that the government was 'irresponsibly attempting to stir up a dog-whistling, quasi-xenophobic campaign'.


Global Visa Support offers a variety of programs in Australia. Please visit our Australian page for more information: http://www.globalvisasupport.com/australia.html

UK's student union criticises government's student immigration policy

An officer of the UK's National Union of Students (NUS) has criticised the UK's Coalition government saying that its immigration policy makes international students 'feel unwelcome with ever more onerous restrictions'. Daniel Stevens, the International Students Officer at the NUS, says that he fears that the government's tough talk and policies on immigration are creating an atmosphere that will deter foreign students from coming to the UK.


Mr Stevens made his claims in online journal The Huffington Post on 9th May 2013, the day after the State Opening of Parliament during which The UK's queen, Elizabeth II, announced the government's intention to legislate on immigration in the coming months. Each year at the State Opening of Parliament, the queen is required to read out a speech written by her government outlining the legislation it intends to introduce in the next year.


The government's proposed immigration bill contains no provisions concerning students. In fact, it contains no provisions concerning any visas issued under the UK's five tier points-based visa system. There are, therefore, no changes to visas for high value migrants (Tier 1 visas), highly skilled migrants (Tier 2 visas) , students (Tier 4 visas) or temporary workers (Tier 5 visas). It seems that Mr Stevens is concerned that students may be deterred by a generally unwelcoming attitude to immigrants in the UK.

Britain will welcome those who wish to contribute

The government has claimed that its proposed immigration bill will make the UK welcoming to immigrants who wish to 'contribute' and unwelcoming to those who do not. The measures proposed include:

• A limit on the right of foreign nationals to use the UK's National Health Service
• Increasing fines for employers who employ workers who are not allowed to work in the UK
• A requirement that all private landlords should make prospective tenants prove that they are in the UK legally before letting them a property
• A measure to limit the right of foreign criminals to depend on Article 8 of the European Convention of Human Rights when applying to remain in the UK. Article 8 says that all people have a right to a family life. The UK government says that this Article has been interpreted too liberally by UK and European courts which, the government says, allow dangerous criminals to stay in the UK purely because they have fathered children, thus endangering the rest of society.

Mr Stevens told The Huffington Post 'The Home Office have set arbitrary targets for reducing immigration and international students are a soft target despite the huge academic, cultural and financial contributions they make to their universities and the communities in which they live. Ministers must stop treating international students like a political football by recognising their value and removing them from the immigration statistics'.


The government did not, in fact, ask the Queen to announce any new targets for immigration during her speech at the State Opening. It has, however, committed itself to an informal target of reducing net immigration to the UK to 'tens of thousands' annually by 2015. This is taken to mean fewer than 100,000 per year. When the Coalition came to power in 2010, net immigration was about 250,000 per annum.

Over 200,000 international students arrive in the UK each year

Critics of this commitment say that the only way that the Coalition would be able to meet its target would be by cutting the number of international students coming to the UK each year. This is because the UK issues between 200,000 and 300,000 visas each year. It would therefore be impossible, they say, to cut UK net immigration to below 100,000 each year without cutting the number of students coming to the UK.


The government has said that its intention is to prevent bogus students from coming to the UK while encouraging 'the brightest and the best' to study at UK universities. The current immigration minister, Mark Harper MP, told online education journal The Pie last month that the government had acted to close down colleges that sold 'immigration not education'. He said that 500 bogus colleges had lost their licences to sponsor international students for Tier 4 visas but insisted that there had been a 1% rise in the number of university students studying at UK universities.


Mr Stevens joins a long list of voices calling on the government to exclude students from the immigration statistics. In January, the chairman of five UK parliamentary committees (Three House of Commons committees; the Home Affairs Committee, the Public Accounts Committee and the Science Committee and two from the House of Lords; the Science and European Union Committees) wrote to the Prime Minister, David Cameron, and urged him to remove students from the immigration statistics in order to 'reconcile the tensions between visa policy and aspirations for growth'.

Cabinet split on whether to remove students from immigration figures

It is believed that two ministers in the UK government cabinet favour this approach including the Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne and the Business Secretary, Vince Cable.


However, Home Secretary Theresa May, whose department has responsibility for policing immigration, has ruled out such a move. She has said that students must remain in the statistics as international statistical standards require that anyone who moves to a country for a year or more should be classed as an immigrant.


Nicola Dandridge of Universities UK told the Huffington Post that the number of enrolments of international students at UK universities 'remained broadly flat this year'. She argued that this showed that 'there is now a need for more joined up thinking and better messaging in terms of international students. If the government's aim is to make the UK a country that attracts people who will contribute, they need look no further than international students'.


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