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On 29th November 2012, the UK Border Agency (UKBA) issued a warning about 'fake UK Border Agency websites and calls'. The warning advises people who want to work in the UK and students who are already studying in the UK to be aware of a number of frauds that are being carried out by criminals pretending to work for the UKBA.
The House of Representatives, controlled by the Republican Party, has passed the STEM Jobs Act. This act would, if it became law, allow 55,000 more highly skilled graduates to get US 'green cards' or permanent resident visas.
However, it seems unlikely that the Act will ever come into force because the Democratic Party has said that it opposes the bill. President Obama has said that, if the bill is passed by the Senate, he will veto it.
The US could create 8.8m new jobs by issuing 100,000 green cards to graduates says Peter Cohan, a management consultant, author and lecturer.
Mr Cohan was writing in Forbes magazine. He cites research from the Kaufman Foundation which suggests that highly skilled immigrants tend to be more entrepreneurial than native born Americans. 25.3% of technology and engineering start-ups between 1995 and 2005 had at least one immigrant as a founder. These companies had sales of US$52bn and employed 450,000 workers in 2005.
Lord Bilimoria, the founder of Cobra Beer, has said that the UK's immigration policy is preventing Indian restaurants from recruiting the staff they need.
On 29th November 2012, the UK's Office of National Statistics announced that net immigration into the UK had fallen by about 25% to 183,000 in the year to March 2012, from 242,000 in the year to March 2011. Prime Minister David Cameron welcomed the news He tweeted, 'Effective immigration helps us compete in the global race'. He added, 'It shows we are reducing net immigration.' Grant Shapps, the Chairman of Mr Cameron's Conservative Party said 'This big fall in net migration shows that the tough steps we have taken to reduce the uncontrolled immigration that Labour presided over are working.'
The UK's Labour opposition will fight the next election on a tough, anti-immigration platform, a senior Labour figure has revealed. Until now, Labour has been seen as the pro-immigration party.
Ed Balls, the shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, told a UK political website, politics.co.uk, that Labour needs to change its tune on immigration if it is to recover seats lost at the last election. 'I think people need to know that Labour recognises we didn't get everything right and will have tough controls. That's important,' he said.