Immigration news

President Obama made immigration reform one of his top priorities for his second term. This may, ironically, be why he has not managed to achieve it. Some Republicans in the House of Representatives seem to have taken it as a personal challenge to prevent it from happening.

Now, it seems that the consensus viewof both parties and of both sides of the immigration argument is thatthe Republicans in the House (as it is known) have won. There will be no immigrationreform while President Obama is president.

The UK's Home Secretary, Theresa May, has announced a series of reforms to the UK's visa regime to make it easier for Chinese nationals to come to the UK.

Over the last few years there have been problems in the UK's relations with China; particularly so since the meeting between UK Prime Minister David Cameron and the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhists in May 2012.

The renowned Marxist philosopher Slavoj Zizek has written a piece for the New Statesman magazine blaming the rise of anti-immigrant feeling in the European Union on the failure of the continent's leaders to deal with, or even to understand, the problems facing the continent.

In late May, elections were held around the European Union to elect members of the European Parliament. In many countries, right-wing, anti-immigrant parties did very well.

Emma Watson, who played Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter films, is under investigation by UK immigration over allegations that she illegally employed a foreign housekeeper with no work visa at her London home.

Various UK news sources have claimed that Ms Watson first employed the woman when she was in the US in February 2013 while studying at Brown University, a prestigious 'Ivy League' university in Rhode Island.

Citizenship and Immigration Canada, the Canadian federal government's immigration department, has announced major changes to the Temporary Foreign Worker Program.

The TFWP allows foreign workers to acquire Canadian work permits.

On Friday 20th June 2014, Canada's employment minister Jason Kenney and the immigration minister Chris Alexander announced the changes in a joint press conference. The two ministers said that their "reform" of the system would help to prevent abuse.

The main reforms are

A Democrat Senator in the New York State Legislature has proposed a radical plan to grant 'state citizenship to up to 2.5m illegal residents in the state.

Senator Gustavo Rivera who represents the Bronx, New York City, in the state Senate, proposed the new state law on 16th June. State citizenship (assuming such a thing is permitted under US law) would allow anyone who could prove that they had lived in the state for over three years to receive a range of civic benefits.