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Figures released by the UK's Office for National Statistics show that there are now 1.3m British graduates living and working overseas. This is more than any other developed country. Germany comes second with a mere 865,000. Only 400,000 US graduates live abroad even though the population of the US is about 5.5 times that of the UK.
American movie star Matt Damon has told the British national broadcaster The BBC that his new film, Elysium, is a metaphor for immigration. Mr Damon was speaking to the BBC television's Breakfast programme.
As of 1st August 2013, Sweden will be part of the EU's blue card work permit scheme. Sweden is the 24th country in Europe to sign up to the scheme.
The Blue Card is a European work permit. While its name is clearly based on the US's 'green card' permanent resident visa, the two cards are not actually very similar. The EU 'blue card' for example, is not a permanent immigration visa. The EU says that the intention of the Blue Card is to allow 'high-skilled non-EU citizens to work and live in any country within the European Union'.
The UK's opposition immigration spokesman has been forced to withdraw claims that British firms Next and Tesco used cheaper foreign workers at the expense of UK-born workers.
Chris Bryant, the Labour opposition's shadow immigration minister made a speech on August 10th 2013. He had been intending to use the speech to criticise British firms for their failure to employ British workers.
The director general of the Institute of Directors, Simon Walker, has said that immigrant workers are vital for the UK's economy. Mr Walker was responding to a speech by the opposition Labour Party's immigration spokesman, Chris Bryant.
Mr Bryant made a speech on Tuesday 12th August 2013 in which he bemoaned the fact that over 1m Britons aged under 24 were unemployed. In the original draft of the speech, he criticised large British employers like supermarket Tesco and clothes retailer Next for employing foreign workers to cut costs.
Charlie Mullins, the millionaire founder of London's Pimlico Plumbers, has said that there are so many immigrant workers in the UK because there are insufficient British workers to fill the available vacancies. He says 'To my mind, it is simply a supply and demand situation…There is not enough UK talent to fill the jobs which is creating opportunities for migrants'.