Immigration news

Speaking in a TV interview on Wednesday 30th January 2013, President Obama said that he expects comprehensive immigration reform legislation to be passed by the US Congress within the next six months. The President told Spanish language TV station Telemundo that he expected the legislation to be passed by the end of 2013 but said he would make every effort to ensure that it passed quicker. 'I can guarantee that I will put everything behind it' he said.

An Oxford professor of economics has written an open letter to the UK's Prime Minister, David Cameron, advising him to make immigration to the UK easier in order to improve the economy.

Professor Robert Hahn, a professor of economics at Oxford University, says that the UK government should pursue a three-point reform of the UK immigration regime which would revitalise the UK's economy.

Firstly, Professor Hahn says that the UK Border Agency should make visa applications for Tier 1 visas easier to complete and less bureaucratic.

The White House has announced that President Obama will be holding a series of meetings on Tuesday 12th February 2013 in support of his campaign to reform the US's immigration system.

Sir Christopher Meyer, the UK's ambassador to Washington between 1997 and 2003, has told UK newspaper The Daily Telegraph that the UK Border Agency is driving international students away from the UK to the 'excellent' universities in Canada, Australia and the US.

Interviewed by journalist Sue Cameron (no relation to Prime Minister David Cameron), Sir Christopher said 'David Cameron is always telling us that we are in a global race for business, but it is as if other countries are forging ahead while Britain is in a sack race'.

The chairmen and chairwoman of five influential UK parliamentary committees have signed an open letter to the UK's Prime Minister David Cameron asking him to remove international students from the UK immigration figures. They claim that this will help stimulate the UK's economy, particularly in university towns and will improve the country's balance of payments.

The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, has called on the UK government to act to limit the number of immigrants coming to the UK from Bulgaria and Romania next year when the 'transitional controls' on the free movement of citizens of those countries will be removed.