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The new Quebec Skilled Worker Program has been modified to make it easier for nurses to qualify because of a shortage of skilled nurses in the province.
Applicants under the Quebec Skilled Worker Program are assessed according to a 'points grid' which awards points for various skills, qualifications and attributes. Single applicants must score 49 points to be successful and those with partners (whether of the same or the opposite sex) must score 57 points.
The UK's Office for National Statistics has released figures which show that the number of Romanians and Bulgarians working in the UK rose by 26% in the second quarter of 2013. There were 141,000 Bulgarians and Romanians working in the UK by June 2013 compared to 112,000 in March.
Canada has introduced changes to the country's Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP). The changes came into force on 31st July 2013. The main change is the introduction of a $275 processing fee for each application for a 'Labour Market Opinion' (LMO) made by a Canadian employer.
If a Canadian employer wishes to employ a foreign worker, it must first obtain a 'positive LMO' which will show that there are no Canadians available who could do the job and that a foreign worker is therefore required to do it.
The UK's independent chief inspector of immigration, John Vine, has issued a report in which he congratulates the UK's immigration service for having made improvements to the service it offers to applicants for UK visas such as Tier 2 skilled worker visas, Tier 4 student visas and Tier 1 'high value migrant' visas.
Dr Martin Ruhs, an advisor to the UK government on immigration, has warned the government against engaging in policies which 'have an element of spectacle'. He warned that these policies are 'not necessarily the most effective'.
Dr Ruhs is an economist based at Oxford University. He sits on the independent Migration Advisory Committee which advises the Home Office on immigration matters.
Newly released figures show that the UK's population rose by 419,900 in the year to June 2012. Of this rise, about 40% (165,000) was caused by immigration and the rest by a baby boom in the UK. But analysis of the figures shows that many of the babies in that baby boom were born to first generation mothers and so immigration is responsible for a considerable proportion of this rise too.
There were 813,200 births over the year. More than 25% of these babies had mothers born outside the UK.