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John Vine, the UK's Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration, has agreed to renew his contract. Mr Vine was first appointed in 2008 and has been credited by MPs with exposing many failings of the UK's former immigration authority, the UK Border Agency (UKBA) which was abolished in March 2013.
The Federal Court of Canada has ruled that a company that employed 200 Chinese miners under the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP) in 2012 was acting lawfully.
Two Canadian unions had challenged the decision by the Canadian government to allow HD Mining, a 55% Chinese-owned company, to employ Chinese workers in its operations in British Columbia when there were unemployed Canadian miners who could have done the job.
The UK's Business Secretary, Vince Cable, has told an international educational conference that the inclusion of international students in the UK's immigration statistics and negative anti-immigration remarks in the UK has led to bad publicity in India. In recent years more Indian students have decided to study in countries other than the UK.
Humza Yousaf, the Scottish government's external affairs minister, has criticised the UK government for its immigration policy which, he says, is damaging the Scottish economy. Mr Yousaf said that Scottish society opposed UK immigration policy. He said 'There's no doubt that the UK government's restrictive immigration policies are damaging Scotland's economy….Immigration is one of the only policy issues that I can think of that unites Scottish business, the trade unions, politicians, the universities because they're all feeling the impact of restrictive immigration policies'.
The European Commission (EC) announced on Thursday 30th May 2013 that it intends to sue the UK government in the European Court of Justice over alleged discrimination against immigrants from the EU in the UK's benefits system. The EC argues that the UK's 'right to reside' test, which EU citizens living in the UK must pass in order to qualify for benefits, is discriminatory because it treats EU citizens differently from UK citizens, something which is not allowed under European law.
By Alex Owen
Washington commentators are predicting that President Obama's promise to introduce sweeping immigration reform in his second term may be defeated by Republican members of Congress.
Shortly after being re-elected in November 2012, the President said that he would make comprehensive immigration reform one of the major priorities of his second term. The White House announced in January that the President was happy to leave the drafting of the reform law to Congress.