Immigration news

The UK's Home Secretary, the cabinet minister with responsibility for internal affairs and the country's immigration system, has said that the government will reform the country's immigration tribunals and appeals system to make it easier to deport people.

She said that there are currently seventeen ways in which you can oppose deportation from the UK. She said that she would close down all but four of these. She added that those fighting deportation would no longer receive state funding for their legal representation.

The latest figures from the Pew Hispanic Research Center suggest that the number of illegal aliens living in the US has been rising in recent years. This is likely to cause Congressional opponents of immigration reform to harden their stance against immigration bills in Washington this autumn.

The Pew Hispanic Research Center says that it believes that the number of illegal immigrants in the US has risen by 400,000 since 2009. In 2009, according to the Pew Hispanic Trends Project, there were 11.3m people living illegally in the US.

The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has issued a warning about a phone scam being carried out in the US at the moment. The victims are people who are currently waiting for a response from USCIS. It has warned people expecting contact from USCIS never to make any payments to anyone claiming to be from USCIS over the phone.

It seems that the scammers have somehow got hold of the names of people who are expecting a response from USCIS. This makes them exceptionally vulnerable to being conned.

A union which represents Canadian immigration officers stationed at embassies and consulates around the world has come to a pay deal with the Canadian government after four months of industrial action.

It has announced that overseas visa staff will now work to clear a backlog of visa applications as quickly as possible.

The Professional Association of Foreign Service Officers (PAFSO) began a series of one-day strikes in June 2013 which has continued ever since.

The actions took place at Canadian visa centres around the world particularly in China, India, the Philippines and Mexico.

A spokesman for the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has said that the processing of immigration paperwork should not be greatly affected by the failure of Congress to agree a federal budget for 2013/14. Christopher Bentley told American broadcaster ABC that USCIS staff is 95% paid for by fees charged and so the department is not likely to have to lay staff off.

A new report commissioned by New Zealand's Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment has found that temporary immigration has had, overall, a positive effect on employment and wages for native New Zealand workers.

The report looked at figures gathered by Statistics New Zealand and New Zealand's Inland Revenue to compare the wages and rates of employment of New Zealanders over the decade running from 2001 to 2011.

The report examined the impact of all temporary workers on the New Zealand economy. Temporary workers include