Immigration minister Gerd Leers is planning to tighten up the procedure for vetting asylum seekers and make it faster by cutting out several layers of the current process, he told the Volkskrant in an interview on Tuesday.
Leers wants asylum seekers to be vetted on all grounds, such as family life, medical condition and the situation in the country of origin, in one go. Their asylum claim could then be considered in one day, the minister says.
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A new think tank report suggests that Finnish attitudes towards immigrants have become a little more open in recent years, after a spike in negative viewpoints at the end of the last decade.
The EVA pro-market think tank found in their latest survey that although attitudes have eased, Finns are still more likely to have a negative than receptive attitude towards immigrants.
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Nearly half of all Finns consider immigration to be a culturally enriching phenomenon. On the other hand, every other Finn believes that a tentative stance towards foreigners is "wise caution" rather than racism.(source)
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Immigrants held at a reception center in the southern Italian town of Bari said on Thursday that they were treated "worse than animals" by authorities at the structure.
The center for identification and expulsion, with a capacity of 119 people, is currently occupied by 196 foreigners awaiting deportation, the immigrants said.
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Regulations governing the reunification of some families may be tightened. A report by the Interior Ministry says it is possible that in future, people resident on the grounds of humanitarian protection may have to prove sufficient income to support their families before being joined by spouses and children.(source)
France's president has dismissed the far-right's use of a recent killing spree as evidence of a need for tougher immigration laws, saying Monday the call makes no sense in the wake of the massacre by a "monster" who was French-born.
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"We can't equate Mohamed Merah — who was born in France, and is French — with the children of immigrants who arrive by boat," Sarkozy told France-Info radio. "This Mohamed Merah, if you'll excuse me, was a monster."
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The study defined migrants as people living in another country in 2010 for over a year, including estimates of illegal immigrants and long-term refugees including Palestinians and their descendants.
"Perhaps contrary to popular perception, ... Christian immigrants outnumber Muslim immigrants in the European Union as a whole," the report said, indirectly referring to far-right parties that have long campaigned against Muslim newcomers.
Of the 47 million migrants in the EU, 26 million (56 percent) are Christians, double the 13 million Muslim migrants, who make up only 27 percent of the total, it said.
The gap narrows when intra-EU migration - for example, Christian Greeks to Germany or French-born Muslims to Britain - is excluded, but Christians migrating from outside the EU still outnumber non-EU Muslim migrants by about 13 million to 12 million.(source)
PRESIDENT Nicolas Sarkozy says there are too many immigrants in France, as the country's presidential election campaign becomes caught up in issues of religion and identity.
Defending a re-election campaign promise to cut the number of new arrivals in half, Mr Sarkozy bluntly declared that France's attempts to integrate foreign arrivals into its culture and society had become paralysed.
"Our system of integration is working more and more badly, because we have too many foreigners on our territory and we can no longer manage to find them accommodation, a job, a school," Mr Sarkozy said.(source)
The number of people seeking permanent residency in Sweden as relatives of immigrants already in the country will increase with 45 percent to 59,500 in 2012, a number comparable to 41,000 last year according to the latest predictions from Swedish Migration Board (Migrationsverket).
The main reason behind the expected increase is a recent verdict in the Migration Court of Appeal (Migrationsöverdomstolen) which is set to make it easier to seek a residence permit for people from countries where it is difficult to produce valid identification documents.
The larger part of the rise in applications is expected to come from Somalia.(source)
The cabinet is exaggerating the number of migrants coming to the Netherlands by including children born here in the figures, GroenLinks MP Tofik Dibi said on Monday.
Dibi says ministers are inflating the figures to legitimise their relationship with the anti-Islam PVV, which wants sharp cuts in immigration levels in return for its support on the economy.(source)
The far-right Swiss People's Party, the country's largest, on Tuesday filed a petition supporting a cap on immigration to Switzerland, where more than a fifth of the population is foreign.
Party leader Toni Brunner said he wanted to "spark a debate on immigration" as he filed the petition to the federal chancellery, ending a months-long campaign to gather the required 100,000 signatures.
If the authorities deem the document's proposals acceptable, it then goes to a popular referendum, as per Switzerland's unique system of direct democracy.
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France's President Nicolas Sarkozy set the stage on Thursday for a re election campaign marked by a conservative social agenda, vowing to oppose gay marriage and euthanasia and restrict immigration.
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Responding to the left's call for non-European immigrants to be allowed to vote in local elections, Sarkozy said: "It's really not the time, with all the risks associated with the rise of multiculturalism."
"In the same vein, I say very clearly that, unlike Mr Hollande, I am not in favour of regularising the situation of undocumented foreigners, which would immediately create fresh demand," he added.
He said he would introduce new qualification criteria to make it harder for a foreign-born spouse to obtain French nationality by marrying a citizen, and transfer immigration hearings to administrative courts from civil ones.(source)
Migrants are unfairly blamed for unemployment and social problems in tough economic times, the International Organisation for Migration said Tuesday.
Describing migration as "one of the most misunderstood issues of our time," the body called in a new report for a shift in attitudes, saying negative views of migration arise in particular during economic recession and spikes in joblessness, it said.(source)
Sarkozy made the remarks while delivering a speech on Europe and the eurozone debt crisis in the southern French port city of Toulon, the same city where he spoke in 2008 about the global financial crisis and the need to "re-found global capitalism."
"A Europe that applies the principle of free movement internally and does not control its external borders cannot last. The Schengen must be rethought," Sarkozy said in the speech.
"We can not stand unlimited social immigrants," he said, stressing that "Europe needs more political responsibility."
Unfair competition caused by "social dumping and tax dumping between member states" could not continue, Sarkozy added, demanding immigrants to share the value of France for integration.(source)
Newly arrived Tunisian asylum seekers have been dubbed criminals in recent press reports and described as “the worst we have had to deal with” by asylum centre staff.
But has this group of Tunisians really earned a reputation as troublemakers and if so, what is going wrong?(source)
As he presented his party’s campaign platform ahead of next year’s presidential and legislative elections, French Interior Minister Claude Gueant laid down the gauntlet to the far right by hardening the government’s position on immigration.
“It’s easier for immigrants to integrate if there are less of them,” Gueant told Europe 1 radio. “It’s obvious that we need to better manage the flow of immigrants. For immigration to work, we need to be welcoming fewer immigrants each year.”
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“Problems with illegal immigrants are well known, but I must stress that this is the first time a comprehensive plan is being forwarded, aiming at restraining and managing their flow” said Deputy Minister for Citizen Protection Mr. Michalis Othonas.
The plan has been approved and will be co-founded by the European Commission in an attempt of controlling the delicate issues of illegal immigration and human trafficking flowing into the EU from the Greek-Turkish borders along the Evros River, in Northeastern Greece.(source)
Experts are warning that Germany faces a shortage of skilled labor that could become an increasingly serious threat to its economy in years to come. Companies in certain industrial sectors are already struggling to fill vacant positions. Demographic developments will only make that worse, as the German population ages and the labor force shrinks. But current immigration law makes it hard for German companies to employ foreign specialists.
Earlier this year, a consortium of German foundations and charities set up a cross-party commission to look at the problem. The commission is headed by Armin Laschet, former state integration minister for North Rhine-Westphalia, and former German Defense Minister Peter Struck. It also includes industry and union representatives, as well as politicians from Germany's main parties. The body will present its findings to the heads of the party groups in the German parliament, the Bundestag, on Wednesday.(source)
