Immigration news

New Zealand's population rose by 7,900 in 2012/13 because of net immigration, the latest government figures show. In 2011/12, the population fell slightly due to migration. The government expects the net immigration figure to rise to 16,000 in the year to September 2013 and to 30,000 in mid-2014.

New Zealand's immigration minister Michael Woodhouse welcomed the news. He said 'These figures suggest that our policies are working with more New Zealanders choosing to stay and work in New Zealand, more returning home, and more immigrants choosing to come here and take advantage of everything we have to offer'.

14% of start-up businesses in the UK were founded by immigrant entrepreneurs, according to a newly released report. The report says that there are 456,073 immigrant entrepreneurs working in the UK who have founded 464,527 businesses which employ 8.3m people.

The report calls on the government to 'fly the flag for Britain' by 'encouraging entrepreneurs from all corners of the world to settle and launch businesses in the UK'.

Open dissent has broken out in the UK's Coalition government over immigration. The UK's political system usually requires members of the government to 'toe the party line'. This means keeping personal opinions private and speaking publicly in support of government policy. However, in the last few days, ministers have launched a war of words over immigration policy.

In particular, a war of words has broken out between the Business Secretary Vince Cable and the Immigration Minister James Brokenshire over the government's pledge to reduce immigration to 'tens of thousands' a year by 2015.

The Indian outsourcing firm Tata Consulting says that half of the applications it makes for US visas are being declined by US immigration. As a result, Tata is employing many more workers from the USA and Canada.

Tata's global head of human resources Ajoyendra Mukherjee told the livemint.com website that the rejection rate for visa applications made by Tata rose from about 30% in 2011 to 50% in 2012 and has stayed at that level ever since. This means that Tata has started to hire more staff in the US.

The UK can still hit the government's target of cutting net immigration to below 100,000 by 2015, according to Conservative Party chairman Grant Shapps. Mr Shapps was speaking on the BBC's Sunday morning politics programme The Andrew Marr Show.

In February, the latest UK net immigration figure showed that net immigration had risen by 59,000 in a year from 153,000 in the year to September 2012, to 212,000 in the year to September 2013.

Many commentators say that the figure is likely to rise further as more people come to the UK from southern Europe and fewer Britons emigrate to live overseas.

The UK's Coalition government has been accused of withholding a report prepared by civil servants because it suggests that the Government has greatly over stated the "negative effects of immigration to the UK".

The BBC television news programme Newsnight has alleged that the government has delayed publication of the report because its findings disagree with earlier research prepared for the government which found that 23 Britons are displaced from jobs for every 100 immigrants who come to the UK.