Immigration news

Representative Kevin McCarthy, the Republican Party's whip in the House of Representatives ('the House') has said that there will be no vote on a comprehensive immigration reform bill in the House this year.

Representative McCarthy, from California told immigration reform activists at a meeting in Bakersfield, California, that there were not enough days left in the legislative calendar for the House to vote on the immigration reform bill that has already been passed by the Senate. Mr McCarthy said that he was 'committed' to immigration reform in 2014.

The new Australian immigration minister Scott Morrison has said that he wants to fast-track 400 wealthy visa applicants for permanent residence. The 400 have applied for subclass 888 Significant investor visas and Mr Morrison believes that, between them, they have about AUS$2bn to invest in the Australian economy. He also says that he wants to 'reboot' the Significant Investor Visa so that it creates more Australian jobs.

The UK's Office for National Statistics (ONS) says that the population of the UK is set to grow by nearly 10m over the next 25 years and calculates that 5.8m of that rise will be caused directly or indirectly by immigration.

The ONS says that its projections indicate that the UK's population should reach 68m in 2022, 70m in 2027 and 73.3m in 2037. Part of this rise will be caused by the fact that people are generally living longer. By 2037, one in 12 of the population will be over 80. There will be 111,000 people aged over 100, compared to only 13,000 today.

Analysis of government data by academics at University College London has shown that immigrants who came to the UK between 2000 and 2011 contributed £25bn to the UK economy. The research also showed that immigrants were less likely to receive benefits or live in social housing than UK citizens.

Academics at University College London have published a report criticising the UK's Coalition government for its policy of reducing net immigration to 'tens of thousands' a year by 2015. The report, by Professor John Salt and Dr Janet Dobson says that the 'tens of thousands' target is neither 'a useful tool or a measure of policy effectiveness'.