EU to let in 50,000 Indian workers into Britain
Tens of thousands of migrants from India are set to win the right to live and work in Britain because of the EU, leaked papers revealed yesterday.
Up to 20,000 information technology workers a year are to be handed British work permits as part of a deal between Brussels and India. It would mean thousands of extra migrant workers coming here on top of those already arriving under schemes to accept highly skilled workers from abroad.
Documents leaked to the MigrationWatch think-tank from the European Commission suggest a deal is being done to allow India between 35,000 and 50,000 EU work permits each year for skilled IT workers. Under the pact, Britain would be expected to accept 20,000 workers, while German would take 7,000 and France 3,000.
The numbers are based on the size of the IT industry in each EU country and on the record of each one in granting work permits to Indian workers in the past – a factor which pushes Britain to the top of the list of those expected to accept new migrants.
The revelation comes at a time of mounting controversy over Government plans to limit numbers of non-EU migrants coming in to Britain. Critics say Prime Minister David Cameron’s pledge for a cap is being ever more diluted because of hostility from big business and pressure from Liberal Democrat members of the Coalition.
Last week Business Secretary Vince Cable won a concession from Mr Cameron to exclude from the cap foreign workers coming in under ‘intra-company’ transfers, also known as Mode 4. Last year such transfers brought 22,000 skilled migrant workers into this country. Each can stay for up to five years. Critics say some of these are simply cheap a replacement for British workers.
EU officials are in talks over an EU/India free-trade agreement which may be finalised as soon as next week. The negotiations, which are being held in secret, are thought to have included discussions of a Mode 4 trade deal allowing easy movement of Indian workers into Europe.
MigrationWatch chairman Sir Andrew Green said: ‘This looks suspiciously like a side-door to Britain for 20,000 Indian IT workers every year. ‘It is even more astonishing coming at a time when British IT workers are finding it increasingly difficult to find employment and there is a 17 per cent unemployment rate among computer science graduates. ‘It is time to end the secrecy and for the Government to come clean with what is going on and what, if any, safeguards are being put in place.’
Some EU countries – thought to be mainly in Eastern Europe – are believed to have insisted that the numbers of Indian workers they must accept under the deal be strictly limited.
Many Indian workers moving to Europe would be likely to come to Britain because of its familiar language, hospitality to migrant workers, and the large Indian population already in this country.
Mr Cameron has pledged to bring net migration – the number added to the population each year by migration – below the 100,000 a year mark. Last year net migration to Britain was 196,000.
Mr Cable made his opposition to an immigration cap known as he travelled with Mr Cameron to India in the summer. He said he wanted to make any limit on numbers ‘as liberal a policy as possible’.
In September, Mr Cable said unemployed British school-leavers and graduates should go to India to get apprenticeships and training in high-tech industries. He said the one-way direction of migrant workers from India to Britain should be transformed into a two-way exchange. ‘I believe there should be a freer flow of labour,’ he added. [More emptyheaded Leftist theory!]
SOURCE
Bogus refugees target Ontario
About 440 failed refugees from the U.S. are streaming to Ontario’s border crossings each month to file claims in a bid to avoid deportation, federal statistics show. Bogus refugees from the U.S. accounted for 3,100 claimants who arrived at Pearson airport or border crossings from January to July of this year, according to immigration department figures obtained by the Toronto Sun.
The statistics reveal that even 300 U.S. citizens made refugee claims for asylum in Canada during that time. Many other claims were made by citizens of visa-free European Union countries — like Hungary and Slovakia — who are flooding here to work, immigration officials said.
The statistics show that during the first seven months of 2010, some 1,500 Hungarians and 115 from the Slovak Republic filed refugee claims. Nationals from both countries do not require a visa to travel here.
Immigration officers said there are cases where claimants work illegally and collect welfare and other payments to send back home. Most of the claimants settle in the Toronto area and receive welfare, health and other taxpayer-subsidized services.
Federal officials said there’s little they can do to stop the refugee wave. Immigration department spokesman Karen Shadd said an officer receiving a refugee claim can assess if it is eligible to be referred for a hearing before the Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB). It can take longer than a year for the IRB to determine whether a claimant requires protection.
Liberal MP Jim Karygiannis said “every time there is a downturn in the economy people seek a better life in Canada and other countries. “Canada has a strong economy and is a target for people wanting to have a better life,” Karygiannis said. “In Europe the economy is at an all-time low.”
He said many Romas from Eastern Europe are moving here for a better life. “We need to deal with bogus claimants quickly and in an expedited manner,” Karygiannis said.
SOURCE
Background
Postings from Brisbane, Australia by John Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.) -- former member of the Australia-Soviet Friendship Society, former anarcho-capitalist and former member of the British Conservative party.
Why is "La Raza" the one Spanish term that is NEVER translated in the American mass media? Because translating it would make it a lot less respectable. It means "THE RACE" -- The mixed Hispanic "race" of Mexico. Racism is fine South of the Rio Grande only, apparently.
The "line" of this blog is that immigration should be SELECTIVE. That means that:
1). A national government should be in control of it. The U.S. and U.K. governments are not but the Australian government has shown that the government of a prosperous Western country can be. Up until its loss of office in 2007, the conservative Howard government had all but eliminated illegal immigration. The present Leftist government has however restarted the flow of illegals by repealing many of the Howard government regulations.
2). Selectivity should be based on "the content of a man's character, not on the color of his skin", as MLK said. To expand that a little: Immigrants should only be accepted if they as individuals seem likely to make a positive net contribution to the country. Many "refugees" would fail that test: Muslims and Africans particularly. Educational level should usually be a pretty fair proxy for the individual's likely value to the receiving country. There will, of course, be exceptions but it is nonetheless unlikely that a person who has not successfully completed High School will make a net positive contribution to a modern Western society.
3). Immigrants should be neither barred NOR ACCEPTED solely because they are of some particular ethnic origin. Blacks are vastly more likely to be criminal than are whites or Chinese, for instance, but some whites and some Chinese are criminal. It is the criminality that should matter, not the race.
4). The above ideas are not particularly blue-sky. They roughly describe the policies of the country where I live -- Australia. I am critical of Australian policy only insofar as the "refugee" category for admission is concerned. All governments have tended to admit as refugees many undesirables. It seems to me that more should be required of them before refugees are admitted -- for instance a higher level of education or a business background.
5). Perhaps the most amusing assertion in the immigration debate is that high-income countries like the USA and Britain NEED illegal immigrants to do low-paid menial work. "Who will pick our crops?" (etc.) is the cry. How odd it is then that Australians get all the normal services of a modern economy WITHOUT illegal immigrants! Yes: Before the pandemic, you usually COULD buy a lettuce in Australia for a dollar or thereabouts. And Australia IS a major exporter of primary products.
6). I am a libertarian conservative so I reject the "open door" policy favoured by many libertarians and many Leftists. Both those groups tend to have a love of simplistic generalizations that fail to deal with the complexity of the real world. It seems to me that if a person has the right to say whom he/she will have living with him/her in his/her own house, so a nation has the right to admit to living among them only those individuals whom they choose.
I can be reached on jonjayray@hotmail.com -- or leave a comment on any post. Abusive comments will be deleted.
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