Immigration news

Jason Kenney, for five years Canada's minister for immigration and multiculturalism, has moved on. He is now the minister for employment and social development after Prime Minister Stephen Harper reshuffled his cabinet on 15th July 2013. Mr Kenney will retain control of the multiculturalism brief.

Mr Kenney was a divisive figure. He became a popular figure with first generation Canadians and was dubbed 'the minister for curry in a hurry' by some commentators because he so frequently attended functions among minority ethnic communities.

Hundreds of thousands of immigrants to the US who have valid work visas could be prevented from taking up employment due to a faulty government database. The E-Verify system is a web-based database which is used by employers to check potential employees' immigration status.

Although they are not meant to, many employers use it as a screening system to weed out employees before offering them a job. This may mean that those who are wrongly listed as being ineligible for work never discover that their data is incorrect.

A recent UK Home Office report states that they wish to encourage figures from the arts with an international reputation to apply to come to live in the UK under a Tier 1 (Exceptional Talent) visa. There is a cap of 1,000 on the number of these visas which can be issued annually but in 2012, only about 50 visas were issued. The likely reason why so few visas were granted is because only a tiny minority of "top people" qualify under the Tier 1 Exceptional Talent Visa.

The Home Office, the government department responsible for policing immigration in the UK, has been accused of racism after immigration officers at several train and underground stations in London were seen 'stopping and questioning every non-white person' about their right to remain in the country.

The operations occurred on Thursday 1st August 2013 at Kensal Green and Cricklewood tube stations in north-west London and at Walthamstow and Stratford tube stations in east London.

Baroness Valentine, the chief executive of London business association London First, has criticised the UK government's 'ill-considered' immigration policy.

Baroness Valentine wrote a piece for the free London newspaper City AM on 1st August 2013, in which she severely criticised the Coalition government after it announced a plan to introduce security bonds for some international visitors.

The BBC has revealed that the UK's Home Office has identified 115 suspected war criminals who have been present in the UK in the last two years in various visa categories including indefinite leave to remain. 99 of these have lived in the UK for some time, sometimes for many years, and have applied for indefinite leave to remain in the UK or for citizenship.