Immigration news

The company that runs Australia's immigration detention centres has been awarded a further five-year contract, despite concerns about its conduct at centres it currently manages.

Serco, which has been operating the 12 migrant detention centres in Australia since 2009, has been criticised over the running of the Christmas Island centre. Serco was heavily criticised by a welfare inspector official who was concerned about the unhygienic conditions at the centre, and the high level of self-harm among detainees. It was reported that self-harm at the detention centres increased six-fold in six months.

Last month Judges in the European Court of Justice (ECJ) decided that Britain can no longer require visas for non-EU family members of EU Citizens wishing entry to the UK, provided they are settled in another EU country.

Both Democrats and Republicans agree that the current US immigration system is broken and would like an overhaul of the system. However some observers have warned that President Barack Obama's recent 'executive action' on immigration may have done more harm than good to the long-term goal of implementing a new system that both parties can agree on.

On 1st January 2015, Canada launched its new Express Entry visa system, aimed at improving the visa selection process for permanent residency and speeding up decision times to six months or less.

There is still a backlog of Canadian immigration cases, which is one of the reasons why the Canadian government have launched this new system. It is designed to prevent a future backlog of applications, and improve the selection process. It is hoped that with increased access to highly skilled overseas workers, the Canadian economy will benefit from this new system.

Immigration is now the main concern for UK voters, according to various polls carried out by the opinion poll company YouGov.

In a series of surveys, immigration has come out either above, or tied with the economy in importance for voters in each survey carried out since May last year. In September, immigration polled 58%, while the economy only reached 48% as being of greatest concern to UK voters. YouGov have stated that this is one of the most important opinion trends of last year.

Will Dahlgreen from YouGov explains:

Temporary workers in Australia can in some circumstances now apply for a Subclass 400 visa for an increased period of six months. Previously the maximum period of stay was three months. These changes were introduced on 23rd November 2014.

The subclass 400 visa is a short term, temporary work visa which is normally issued quickly to employ overseas workers who are urgently required for specialist level work in Australia. Overall it is much easier obtaining a Subclass 400 visa than, for example, a Subclass 457 Temporary skilled work visa.