Immigration news

The British Dental Association has joined the Royal College of GPs in expressing concern about the UK government's proposed immigration reforms.

On May 8th 2013, the UK's Coalition government announced its intention to pass a law that would limit the access of recently arrived migrants to use the UK's free medical care system the National Health Service (NHS). The government stated that its proposed law would require doctors and dentists to check that patients are eligible for free health care before treating them. The law would also require visitors to the UK to pay a contribution towards any NHS treatment.

New Zealand is looking for workers from the UK to help with the reconstruction of Christchurch. The city, which is situated on New Zealand's South Island, was destroyed by an earthquake in 2010. The New Zealand government has undertaken to rebuild the city. It estimates that the cost of the rebuild will be NZ$8.5bn (£4.7bn).

Federal budget cuts in the US have caused lengthy queues at US airports because of a lack of immigration staff and it is likely that the problem will get worse over the busy summer months.

Democrats and Republicans in the US Congress have not been able to reach agreement over funding for the US's federal government and this has meant that many federal government departments have had to make cuts. Many federal staff have been having to work short hours and there has been disruption to many services.

It has been announced that the fee for each Australian temporary work '457' visa will rise from AUS$455 to AUS$900 from 1st July 2013. The announcement was made by the Australian Treasurer (as the Finance Minister is called in Australia), Wayne Swan as part of his 2013 budget. The change is expected to raise nearly $200m in revenue for the government over the next four years.

Over 20% of Canadians were born in other countries and have become Canadians by naturalisation, a national survey shows. This makes Canada the country with the highest proportion of immigrant citizens on earth. The National Household Survey was completed in 2011 by around 74% of the Canadian population. About 6.3m people out of Canada's population of about 33,000,000 were born citizens of other countries.