Archive for October, 2008

With the property industry in Spain facing a downturn, one British expat has come up with a novel way to off-load his property just outside Benidorm and start a new life in Florida.

Wayne Connell, owner of an eight-bedroom villa, a wild west theme park and a Harley Davidson, that he values at £5 million, is selling raffle tickets at £25 a pop - the winning ticket takes the lot.

“All the winner will need is a price of a ticket and airfare to get here,” Connell said.

A maximum of 200,000 tickets will be sold he says. If he sells less than 175,000 tickets the winner will receive the cash, he says.

Developers have offered to buy the land, but he wouldn’t get “full value” and he doesn’t want to see the business he built over 10 years “reduced to rubble,” he says

“In the current market, there are not many people buying,” Connell says, “but there are still developers buying up land and sitting on it.”

Would you give over £25 for a chance to win the lot?

Have you heard of other people attempting novel ways of international emigration?

He’s sold about 10,000 so far and intends to hold the draw in April…

Elsewhere in Spain…

A British expat has become the ‘accidental mayor’ of a Spanish town on the Costa Blanca because his predecessors have been arrested in an alleged property development scandal.

The deputy mayor is allegedly caught accepting a 5,000 euro (£3900) bribe stating, ‘It’s better in large denomination bills. They occupy less space,’ in a video released by Spanish media outlets.

All sounds very News of the World.

I didn’t see the funny side of Phil Woolas being slam-dunked in the face with the vegan pie, somehow it didn’t have the same impact (on me) as say the rubber stress ball whacking George Galloway to the other side of the open top bus on that sunny day back in spring.

This was an entirely different incident.

When the stress ball hit Galloway it was lobbed from a first floor window, navigated open space above a busy city street, falling curvedly like the fairground ‘ball in a bucket’, and by some fluked misfortune hit the objective head on.

There were at least several seconds of twisting anticipation with the antagonisers of this most reckless of practical jokes - as the ball fell, will it or won’t it, will it or won’t it… !

Woolas on the other hand suffered a pie thrown from a meter away and went down like a gagging order from Jacqui Smith – sudden, swift.

Not very sporting, over in no time.

The ‘No Borders’ spokespeople, claiming responsibility for the pie attack uttered, ‘We threw the pie because we didn’t want to engage in debate and legitimise what he was saying’.

This makes me quite angry for a number of reasons, most of which I’ll not go into for fear of highlighting the legitimate immaturity of ‘No Borders’ beliefs and actions.

First off, they advocate violence - they don’t want to talk so they attack, second, on the one hand they demand to live without fear and racism, on the other they want to let anyone and everyone into the country. Well tough but I and the majority of the people in this country don’t want to live in a country that offers no security. Immigration has to be controlled, monitored and constantly evaluated, it’s incredulous to believe what this group is proposing - an end to migration controls.

I have a friend working in Iraq, guarding democracy for the security and freedom of this country and that country so this misled group of people can advocate a back door to devolution of democracy using custard pies.

Perhaps they ought to examine the good work of the Home Office and Border Agency staff and their efforts to promote the UK as an attractive destination for immigrants who will make a positive contribution to society.

Wake up - use your passport, go travel, go see the world, go experience what life’s really about and find out why you can go out and buy that Nigella Lawson cookbook on baking the perfect custard vegan pie.

Rubber balls thrown by one person and hitting one person are one thing, a group throwing a pie at laws built upon the knowledge of nations are another.

A Polish soap resembling East Enders could soon be coming to British tv.

Londynczycy, translated ‘Londoners’ depicts life in the city from the perspective of Polish immigrants.

With 1.2 million Polish immigrants currently living in the UK and roughly 200,000 in London, some of the plot lines have been drawn from real life stories told to writers by Poles living in Finchley.

The series features a history teacher who follows his wife and son to England but struggles to get a job and ends up drinking and sleeping rough on park benches.

A Polish builder who lives in Ealing being worked to the bone by his demanding boss and a blonde 25 year old who arrives in the capital with two ambitions: become a star and marry a rich (I like her already).

The programme, filmed at Ealing Studio, features loads of shots of Wembley Stadium, the London Eye and the Southbank Centre, and less glamourous shots of Victoria bus station and a Polish delicatessen.

Andrzej Szajna, the London-based producer of the series says all the scenarios are based on real situations. The baddies are all Poles, with Polish people screwing over Polish people, ‘Which is often the case in real life’.

In one scene a Polish girl is approached by other Poles with the promise of a good job in exchange for £100.

The program is broadcast on Polish TV today.

Has anyone seen the program, is it any good?

Are any of the stories lines familiar to you?

6 things you need to know to get you there

Canada is one of the most rewarding and dynamic countries in the world. The United Nations voted it into 4th place 2007/08, up two places from the previous year.

Scoring it on health, educational and economic indicators, it beats Australia, Ireland, UK and USA.

There are many avenues to explore to become a Canadian citizen, here we look at the Federal Skilled Worker programme.

Immigration applications are assessed on six factors designed to indicate which applicants are likely to become economically established upon immigration to Canada.

The selection factors are summarized as follows:

Education: Applicants are awarded up to 25 points
You’re given points ranging from 5 for secondary education to 25 for a PhD, or Master’s, AND at least 17 years of full-time or full-time equivalent study!

Language Skills: Applicants are awarded up to 24 points
Canada has two official languages, English and French, you’ll be scored on listening, reading, speaking, writing for both after indicating which is your first and second. You’ll be awarded upto 16 points for your first language and 8 for the second.

Experience: Applicants are awarded up to 21 points
Marked on the number of years work experience you have in your chosen field, ranges from 15 points for one year to 21 points for four or more.

Age: Applicants are awarded up to 10 points
Good news if you’re in the 21 to 49 year old group - you get 10 points, you’ll lose 2 points for being 20 or 50, lose another 2 points for being 19 or 51, lose another 2 for 18 or 52 and so on.

Arranged Employment: Applicants are awarded up to 10 points
Ten points awarded for permanent job offer from a Canadian employer.

Adaptability: Applicants are awarded up to 10 points
If you have family or relatives you’ll be awarded 5 points, any authorised work over a year 5 points, over two years full time study another 5 points, 3-5 points if your spouse or common-law partner’s education and 5 points recieved under arranged employment.

If you score at least 67 points and can show you have enough money to support yourself and your dependants after arrival in Canada visit Global Visas for further advice and information.

The Home Office has issued an apology to a highly trained migrant worker after she was lectured on getting a job more suitable to her credentials.

Pooja Tandon, who was returning from a holiday and who has lived in the UK with her husband for the past four-and-a-half years, was stopped at Heathrow Airport in July.

The former IT professional joined the Highly Skilled Migrant Programme, but moved to a more flexible HR role after having a child - which is allowed under the HSMP scheme.

The UK Border Agency sent a letter to the HSMP Forum apologising , stating the situation could have been handled in a more positive manner and that the employeee involved would be retrained.

“The immigration officer who dealt with this incident has been interviewed, and it appears that he was not fully aware of the conditions attached to a HSMP visa,” the letter stated.

“It is accepted that there is a training need in this particular instance, which will be addressed, and the immigration officer has accepted that they should have handled the situation differently and communicated with Mrs Tandon in a better way.”

The Government will tomorrow debate new rules on immigration including licensing of sponsors, developed through UK Border Agency policy and guidance.

The Immigration Law Practitioners’ Association (ILPA), a professional organisation aiming to promote and improve the giving of advice on immigration have met with the UK Border Agency throughout the development of the sponsor-licensing scheme and have expressed many concerns, including:

• In the rush to get the system up and running, UK Border Agency staff have stopped carrying out audits on employers before registering them as sponsors. Given that sponsors will be able to issue Certificates of Sponsorship that will stand in the place of the current work permits, the potential for fraud is large.
  
  
• There is no indication that the current immense bureaucracy will target those employers who do not play by the rules. The most extreme examples of such employers are those involved in human trafficking and the exploitation of migrant workers, including the use of bonded labour, thus undercutting employers who respect their obligations under health and safety law, company law and employment law, whether they employ migrant workers or those from the resident labour market.
  
  
• The UK Points-Based System is often described as ‘Australian-Style’. But under the Australian Regional Sponsored Migration Scheme (which allows employers in regional areas to sponsor skilled workers where no labour available locally), the employer must demonstrate (among other things) a record of compliance with workplace relations laws. By contrast, the UK Border Agency scheme is more of a ‘speeding fines’ approach that raises revenue from employers who take all these obligations seriously but sometimes make an innocent mistake in understanding their obligations or in collating or retaining the evidence of compliance.
  
  

The new rules are subject to the negative resolution procedure whereby parliament has 40 days to ‘pray’ against them and reject them.

Should this happen the requirement to have a sponsor will not become law, effectively stopping or slowing down the sponsor licensing scheme and the introduction of Tiers 2 (skilled workers), Tier 5 (temporary workers and youth mobility) and potentially Tier 4 (student) of the Points-Based System.

Given Phil Woolas’s controversial remarks over the weekend it will be interesting to see how the government address the concerns of employers taking on the role of unpaid immigration officers and how many employers currently employ people who hold work permits, compared with the number of employers registered as sponsors – a long bureaucratic procedure involving 130 pages of guidance and a 35 page application form.

As the Director of www.globalvisas.com one of the world’s leading immigration authorities I believe the Minister must accept that without migrant workers the UK would suffer. The UK needs migrant skills and should be grateful when those skills make the UK their home and avoid such comments for the sake of a right wing vote. In our experience the UK is a great place to live and work but so is Australia, Canada, US and many places. He should maybe focus more on selling the country a little more. The UK is not the only option Skilled workers have!

Our offices around the world are showing more and more people are looking to leave the UK as well as join it. UK employers will always need hard workers and training a local unemployable will not make them any less of a liability to an employer. Work shy people are that way through choice and no matter what the Minister says they will stay that way.

While hard working skilled people will always go out and do a hard days work and work for what is best for their family be that in the UK or anywhere in the world.

Yesterday the streets of London saw 350 athletes on 12 floats parade from the Mansion House to Trafalgar Square carrying a grand total of 102 metals - as we all know they finished fourth in the rankings - our best performance since 1908. Well done guys!

This got me wondering where all the faces originated from.

They’re a mixed bag of elite professionals from England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales but how many are first, second or third generation immigrants and are any emigrants?

Christine Ohuruogu stormed home to take Gold in the 400m - she was born to Nigerian parents in Newham, East London, Tyrone Edgar, a Men’s 100m quarter finalist was born in Greenwich and has since went to junior college in Kansas in the USA and continues to work there. Mo Farah was named male athlete of the year 2006 by the British Athletics Writers’ Association, he was born in Somalia and Jeanette Kwakye, 100m, 4 x 100m Relay is of Ghanaian origin!

I wonder how many others represent not just Team GB, but Australia (6th), USA (2nd), Australia (6th) - did I mention Team GB came 4th (well done guys!), where they came from and where they now live/ work?

With the new points-based Managed Migration System replacing current methods by which athletes can enter this country how will sport be affected and how will it adapt?

If I were an athlete I wouldn’t want to be loosing sleep over it, I’d want to be getting on with my training and have someone else take care of the bureaucracy!

In 1912 a ship set sail from Southampton with 2,240 souls onboard. The ship would never reach its destination and 1,517 people, most of them second and third class emigrants would meet an unfortunate end.

Millvina Dean, 96, the last remaining survivor of the Titanic, is today in the news hoping to raise £3,000 auctioning off personal mementoes from the ship to pay her nursing home fees.

Only 9 weeks old when her family were emigrating to Kansas she was placed in a sack and carried to safety along with her mother and brother and would never see her father again.

Items up for sale include a suitcase full of clothes given to her by the people of New York after her rescue, several rare prints of the ship and compensation letters sent to her mother from the Titanic Relief Fund.

For todays migrant workforce hoping to find a better life what fate meets them?

Immigrants form an important part of the labour force in many of the world’s most industrialised countries.

The European Union has estimated a short-fall of 20 million skilled and non-skilled workers by 2030 and are working on the Blue Card, the idea being naturalization after five years work. Migrants will enjoy an equal level of social and employment rights to EU citizens, including pensions, housing and healthcare. They will also be allowed to move to any other EU country if they find a new job there after two years of residence in the sponsoring country.

Migration has reached its highest level ever, according to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM).

The Geneva-based organisation says there are about 150 million migrants worldwide - just under 3% of the world population. That is 30 million more than 10 years ago.

The reasons for the increase include the collapse of Communism, globalisation and an upsurge in civil wars.

In its first comprehensive review on global migration, the IOM predicts that there will be even greater movements of people during this century - both forced and voluntary.

Barbara Dainton, another infant survivor and emigrant aboard the Titanic passed away this day last year. Her family were on their way to Florida to start anew in the fruit business.

Despite the obstacles and tremendous struggles these two women should be an inspiration to all migrants.

Imagine this – you work hard all year, you pay your taxes, your national insurance and your bills. When you can afford it you book a holiday and take off for a week with your family for some quality time. When you return you are detained by immigration officers and lectured on finding alternative work more suitable to your qualifications.

Hmm…when did immigration officers start giving out career advice?

That’s what happened to Pooja Tandon.

The Highly Skilled Migrant from India, along with her Husband, their 1½ year old child and parents were returning from holidays in Switzerland when they were detained at Heathrow airport.

The officer berated them on their personal life before telling them they might be better off finding somewhere else to work.

He then took their passports before being instructed by his superior to return them with a verbal warning. But what did they do wrong? They had all the necessary documents but they were still treated like criminals…

You think that’s bad, it gets worse.

In a second instance, a doctor who has been in the UK for a decade was questioned by an Immigration Officer when returning with his family from a holiday in India. The charge against them was the use of NHS services during the delivery of their son. The Officer further threatened him that migrants who have benefited by NHS care for delivery and other health needs will be investigated by the Anti-fraud agency for recovery of the money.

It is a fact that all foreign migrants are entitled to NHS treatment as they pay tax and National Insurance, and that as such, the Immigration Official had no legal position to threaten, abuse and intrusively demand information about the sensitive and private medical care of a legal migrant worker.

At the airport in Belfast a migrant was detained for couple of days and was about to be deported to his country of origin, charged for not working in his field of expertise. In reality Highly Skilled Migrant visas do not have any such restrictions. In the recent HSMP Forum’s High Court Judgment the court acknowledged the difficulties migrants face at times in finding employment in their field.

It is clear from these cases that Immigration Officers have tried to take the law into their own hands.

Campaign organization HSMP Forum has received various complaints from legal migrants about the humiliation, harassment and abuse suffered at the hands of immigration officials at some of the UK’s busiest airports like Heathrow, Manchester and Belfast.

Have you had similar experiences?