• Texas threatens to withdraw from refugee resettlement program

    As part of its ongoing fight to keep Syrian refugees out of the state, Texas is threatening to withdraw from the nation’s refugee resettlement program if federal officials refuse to “unconditionally approve” a state plan requiring additional vetting of relocated people.

  • More than 800 ineligible individuals granted U.S. citizenship owing to incomplete fingerprint records

    U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) granted U.S. citizenship to at least 858 individuals from special interest countries — individuals who had been ordered deported or removed under another name. DHS IG says that this happened because neither the digital fingerprint repository at DHS nor the repository at the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) contains all old fingerprint records of individuals previously deported. Currently, about 148,000 fingerprint records of aliens from special interest countries who had final deportation orders or who are criminals or fugitives have yet to be digitized.

  • Europeans’ attitudes to migration do not depend on net migration levels

    A new study has analyzed attitudes to immigration across twenty-one European countries and finds that negative attitudes do not appear to be linked with net migration rates. Some countries with high immigration levels are also very positive about migrants, such as Norway, while other countries like the Czech Republic and Hungary, which have low immigration. have populations with negative attitudes. U.K. respondents’ support for immigration is slightly lower than the European average, but they also have a slightly more positive view of migrants’ contribution to their country compared with a decade earlier.

  • Refugees can offer economic boost to host countries

    Refugees are often considered an economic burden for the countries that take them in, but a new study indicates that refugees receiving aid — especially in the form of cash — can give their host country’s economy a substantial boost. The researchers found that these economic benefits significantly exceeded the amount of the donated aid. The findings come as refugee numbers around the world are growing.

  • Net migration to U.K. increases to 333,000

    The British government has release new migration figures which show that net migration into Britain rose to 333,000 last year - 20,000 more than in 2014. About 308,000 of these immigrated to Britain for work, an increase of 30,000 from 2014. Just under 60 percent had a specific job waiting for them, but 42 percent arrived looking for work, which, the government notes, is a statistically significant increase from 104,000 the previous year. The information released by the Office for National Statistics is politically significant now, as Britain is a month away from a referendum on whether to remain in or leave the EU.

     

  • 2015: 28 million people forcibly displaced by conflict, 19 million displaced by disaster

    Conflict and violence internally displaced 27.8 million people in 2015. The number of people internally displaced by disasters in 2015 was 19.2 million in 113 countries. Additionally, at least a million people were forcibly displaced by criminal violence in Mexico and Central America, and tens of millions more by development projects such as dams and urban renewal projects.

  • Texas’s E-Verify law operating under honor system

    After former Gov. Rick Perry issued an executive order in December 2014 mandating the use of E-Verify for state agencies, some lawmakers noted the directive lacked a mechanism to ensure compliance. But more than nine months after Gov. Greg Abbott signed a separate E-Verify bill, some of those gaps still exist.

  • EU migrants’ benefits and the U.K. EU-exit referendum

    Ahead of Britain’s EU referendum, research will explore the experiences of EU migrants working in the United Kingdom, and attitudes to employment and social security – for which there is little empirical evidence, despite intense political rhetoric. An initial study suggests workers from the EU are significantly under-represented in employment tribunals.

  • New rule permits STEM graduates to stay in U.S. for 36 months

    A new rule published by DHS this week allows foreign students in science and technology to extend their stay in the United States under the Optional Practical Training (OPT) program. The new rule will go into effect in May, and it will allow STEM graduates to stay and work in the United States for up to thirty-six months.

  • Candidates' plans to change controversial H-1B guest worker program highlight need for an overhaul

    Since its inception in 1990, the H-1B guest worker program that allows employers to bring in high-skilled foreign workers on six-year visas has been steeped in controversy. Critics accuse it of depressing wages and outsourcing American jobs, while advocates call it an essential source of the best and brightest talent. The H-1B program is an important program that serves as a bridge to permanent immigration for talented foreign workers. It should be used to recruit truly specialized workers from abroad when the labor conditions are tight and a qualified American can’t be found. But no American worker should ever be displaced by an H-1B worker – that was never the program’s intent – and this practice should be ended.

  • Europe’s failed response to refugee crisis risks fraying local labor markets

    As this crisis continues to unfold and countries in Europe reevaluate how to manage its challenges, it is essential that we take time to appreciate the broader context of the problem and some of the issues that have been neglected, specifically the negative effects on labor markets. While the plight of the refugees is desperate, the consequences of the crisis are also dire for some of the most significant achievements of European integration: open borders, social welfare, and human rights. They have also affected the functioning of European labor markets in ways that have been poorly understood. Understanding these effects is important because welfare, peace, human rights, and open borders all depend on the capacity of governments to generate wealth through work and production.

  • Immigrants play growing role in U.S. science and engineering (S&E) workforce

    Immigration is a significant factor in decade-long growth in total science and engineering (S&E) workforce. From 2003 to 2013, the number of scientists and engineers residing in the United States rose from 21.6 million to 29 million. This 10-year increase included significant growth in the number of immigrant scientists and engineers, from 3.4 million to 5.2 million. Immigrants went from making up 16 percent of the science and engineering workforce to 18 percent.

  • New regulations improve opportunities for certain highly skilled workers

    DHS’ U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services on Friday announced changes to the programs serving the H-1B1, E-3, and CW-1 nonimmigrant classifications, and the EB-1 immigrant classification. The purpose of the changes was to remove the obstacles and disadvantages workers in these categories faced compared to workers in other visa classifications.

  • Wave of refugees a major boost to German economy, society: Economists

    A leading German economist says that Germany stands to gain from the wave of migrants arriving in the country. The long-term economic gains from the large number of refugees arriving in Germany, he said, will far outweigh the considerable immediate costs Germany faces. Germany is facing an imminent demographic crisis, which would see the country’s working population shrink by around 4.5 million over the next decade unless a sufficient number of immigrants is allowed to come and work. This promises great opportunities for new arrivals to be integrated into the workplace. “In the long run the refugees are an incredible opportunity for Germany,” says Marcel Fratzscher, the head of the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW).

  • Tackling the under-representation of British Muslims in top professions

    A new report finds that British Muslims are least likely to hold professional or managerial jobs of any religious group in Britain — at only half the average level (16 to 30 percent) — and that more likely to be unemployed or living in poverty. The report calls for urgent action from government, employers, universities, and within the Muslim community to encourage economic participation and prevent conscious or unconscious discrimination.