Archive for the ‘UK’ Category

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?

Loosely based on the United States ‘green card’, the single EU work visa is to be known as a ‘Blue Card’ after the colour of the flag, offering permanent residency anywhere in Europe after five years’ work.

The European Commission President announced plans to target qualified immigrants who will be able to bring their families after a 90-day application period. This is to meet an estimated short-fall of 20 million skilled and non-skilled workers by 2030.

Ministers said that Britain was likely to opt out of the scheme but would not be able to block most of the other 26 EU nations from agreeing to the scheme at their next summit in November. It will be decided by qualified majority voting with the Irish Republic and Austria other possible objectors.

The idea of a visa giving full employment and social security rights to migrants has long been a dream of the European Commission to meet projected shortages of engineers, doctors and IT specialists as Europe’s population ages.

Officials in Brussels believe that the Blue Card will change the image of Europe as a destination mainly for unskilled immigrants. About 85 per cent of global unskilled migrant labour heads to the EU while only 5 per cent goes to the United States, the commission argued. In contrast 55 per cent of skilled labour goes to the US and just 5 per cent to the EU.

Applicants for a card will need a job offer for at least a one-year contract and the employer will have to certify that the post cannot be filled from within the EU. The work contract will also have to offer the applicant a salary at least three times the level of the national minimum wage in the country where the job is located.

In return, 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.

The UK Government is preparing its own system where applicants from outside the EU will only qualify to work in Britain if they earn enough points under criteria such as qualifications, age and experience.

The Blue Card will also mean increased mobility for high-skilled immigrants and their families inside the EU.

Unfair voter registration laws are punishing expat workers in locations like London, New York and Hong Kong.

Simply put, if you’re Canadian and are working abroad more than five years you can’t vote. Those away less than five years can – but you must declare your intention to return to the homeland, and that could cost you dearly in taxes.

Long-term assignments overseas can mean lower taxes than in Canada but the cost of living in places like Hong Kong or London is considerably higher than in Canadian cities.

If you want to vote you run the risk of high taxes and high living costs.

David Armitage, a governor of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong said, “I would like Revenue Canada to come out and say Canadians living abroad can register to vote without having it impact their tax status”.

Hong Kong residents pay only about 16% in income taxes, but rent for a modest apartment can be several times higher than in any Canadian city, a potentially devastating blow for anyone’s finances if they are brought under the Canadian tax system.

The “bigger issue” is “how Canada values its expat community,” says Mr. Armitage. There are about 300,000 Canadians living in the U.K. and Hong Kong alone.

“We are the people that work tirelessly for Canada,” says one of them. “We sell Canadian products and promote Canada’s global image. We are the kind of people who would bring something very valuable to the Canadian voting polity. But we aren’t invited to that party.”

Richard Wright, a Canadian in the communications industry who has been in Hong Kong for several years doesn’t share the view. “If Canadians abroad don’t pay taxes in Canada then they shouldn’t have the right to vote, I’m quite political when I’m back in Canada, but if I want to vote there I should pay taxes.”

In recent weeks UK TV viewers have had their favourite evening and daytime television shows interrupted with a host of adverts produced by the UK Home Office. These ads highlight the introduction of the new Points Based System and the need for businesses to obtain licenses in order to employ foreigners.

Well, it seems that this new trend of media and migration is not only restricted to the UK but instead is also sweeping the States.

According to an article in the Washington Post a number of new US immigration ads are as they put it ’stirring the melting pot’.

The ads are being run by a number of pro-immigration groups; with the campaign featuring various full page advertorials in a variety of newspapers. The reason for which is to protest a lobbying blitz occurring this week by the anti-immigration group FAIR, the Federation for American Immigration Reform.

The ads includes three racially explosive quotes and images. The campaign has even extended to the recruitment of well recognised public figures, with the Post saying that “FAIR is getting a big boost this week from the TV world’s most famous anti-immigration zealot, Lou Dobbs, who will participate in the organization’s annual ‘Hold Their Feet to the Fire’ lobbying event in Washington, which is presented as an immigration reform lobbying effort.”

One thing is for sure, in an era where more people tune into a daily soap opera than a party political broadcast, media is like it has become for politics emerged as a key tool in alerting people to the debates surrounding immigration. Even if like the UK clips, they fail to actual deliver much explanation and understanding to those watching.

UK immigration laws have been the subject of discussion yet again, this time the news regards the refusal of entry for an up and coming artist whom was scheduled to attend an exhibition in Brighton.

John Grider, also known as Broken Crow, was refused entry to Britain when he arrived in the UK to exhibit some of his popular street art pieces, but failed to show a valid UK work permit.

The artist whom is known for his large and colourful depictions of animals on the sides of buildings was subsequently refused entry and detained at Heathrow airport. This was due to the visa which he was in possession of being the wrong type.

Speaking of the entry refusal a spokesperson for the UK Home Office said “All applications for entry are considered on their merits and in accordance with the immigration rules. Where an application does not meet the requirements of these rules it will be refused.”

The artist had previously travelled to the UK for similar exhibitions and had not had any problems, however changes in the UK immigration laws have meant his existing visa for travel was no longer valid and instead he required a UK work permit.

The Director of Ink_d studio in Brighton, where the artist is due to present his work said: “John has been travelling around the world to take part in and attend exhibitions but never had a problem until now. But I understand the British immigration service has changed the laws on visa applications, which has affected artists in particular.”

The world is becoming more and more mobile with people coming and going globally on a daily basis, and the United Kingdom is no exception.

As people flock to the UK seeking better job opportunities and higher earning power, so to are people flooding out of Britain for similar reasons.

The numbers of Brits leaving the UK has reached record levels reveal recent statistics. In the past year up until June, 406 000 residents have left Britain to live and work abroad. Over 200 000 of these were UK citizens, this is an increase from 196 000 the year before, reports www.dailymail.co.uk.

Of those who have left the UK, Australia has benefited the most with as many as 1.3 million British born citizens living Down Under. About 761 000 live in Spain and 67800 in the USA.

The amount of people leaving is far less than those coming in, in the same period 600 000 newcomers settling in the UK, many of these are returning Britons.

Global mobility has therefore become a commonality in today’s society and with figures like this it looks set to continue.