New Publications on Racial Violence; International Students; Irish Communities; Free Movement; Immigration and Integration

Racial Violence: Facing Reality
By Jon Burnett for the Institute of Race Relations.

Racial violence: facing reality warns that attacks on BME individuals are actually spreading to new areas of the country, as under the impact of globalisation and austerity measures, populations swiftly change; and points to the potential dangers in ‘decanting’ those affected by the benefits cap to towns and cities which have little history of ‘diversity’.
Attacks are often taking place in communities where BME families or workers are isolated, where there are few support services and such experiences often go unrecorded and become part of a repeat pattern.

[Download Full Report]

Open for business? Survey of international student perceptions of post-study opportunities in the UK.
By Warren, Adam P.; Windsor, George; Mavroudi, Elizabeth; and  Vasishta, Thalej

The research also revealed that only 11 per cent of overseas students said they would recommend the UK as a country for business opportunities. The results, from a groundbreaking online survey of 585 overseas students from the UKs 165 Higher Education Institutions between October and December 2012, found that government rhetoric over visas is a major contributor the perception that the UK is not a good place for overseas students to set up a business.

[Download Full Report] and [Download Briefing Paper]
(Source: Migrants’ Rights Network – International student perceptions – New study).

Under Pressure: a report into far-right and Loyalist attacks against Irish community parades/marches in Liverpool during 2012
Written by Ryan Erfani-Ghettani.

The report, Under Pressure, provides an account of recent anti-Irish racism in Liverpool, linking it to a history of institutional racism and far-right and Loyalist activity in the city. The activity of the British security services in the 1970s had led to the Irish being treated as a ‘suspect community’ through measures such as stop and search, and intimidating visits to the homes of activists who spoke against British government policy in Ireland. This was coupled with a hostile media campaign. This, according to CNE, effectively stamped out Irish community activity on the streets of Liverpool until the ‘90s, when, despite the best efforts of local Loyalists and Orange Order members, the Irish community fought back and its parades were re-established. Now, says CNE, that revived tradition is under attack.

[Download Full Report]
(Source: Institute of Race Relations: Liverpool’s Irish community under attack).

How free is free movement? Dynamics and drivers of mobility within the European UnionBy Meghan Benton and Milica Petrovic for the European branch of the  US-based Migration Policy Insititute
[Download Full Report]
(Source: Migrants’ Rights Network – MPI report says EU free movement is positive but benefits likely to be unevenly distributed).

Immigration -the Rational Debate North West Focus Group: Regional Economy and Jobs Market.  Friday 18th January 2013.
Produced by Migrant Workers North West.
[Download Full Report]
(Source: Migrants’ Rights Network – Migrant Workers North West publishes focus group report on migration in the region)

Practice to Policy: Lessons from Local Leadership on Immigrant Integration
Produced by The Maytree Foundation.

In our most recent publication, Practice to Policy: Lessons for Local Leadership on Immigrant Integration, four international policy experts explore the work that local governments are doing to welcome and integrate immigrants, the conditions that influence their work, and trends in local level immigrant integration.

Audrey Singer (Washington) paints a picture of shifting metropolitan immigration patterns in North America and internationally. Roland Roth (Magdeburg and Stendal) explores the ways that cities are recognizing immigrants as a key to urban prosperity, while Myer Siemiatycki (Toronto) explores the ways that integration influences and is influenced by our public spaces. Finally, Jan Niessen (Brussels) looks at the ways that national policy interacts with local policy by examining global policy trends and commenting on gaps and convergences.

[Download Full Report]
(Source: Migrants’ Rights Network – Lessons on integration for local leadership).

ESSHC Vienna: migration and ethnicy. Deadline May 15 2013.

*** Apologies for Cross-Posting ***

Dear all

The ESSHC is one of the most important venues for migration researchers. The next ESSHC will be held in Vienna in 2014.

http://esshc.socialhistory.org/news/call-papers

Registration for ESSHC 2014 is now open.

The deadline for pre-registration is 15 may 2013. To go directly to the registration form click

http://esshc.socialhistory.org/esshc-user/pre-registration

Ethnicity and Migration is the largest network at the ESSHC. There were over 40 sessions and 160 papers on migration and ethnicity at the last two conferences (Ghent 2010 and Glasgow 2012).

We invite you to submit ideas for a session or an abstract for a paper.

A session consists of four speakers, a chair and a commentator. The chair and the commentator can be the same person. The speakers are not to come from the same institute (best also not from the same country).

In the past organisers of sessions have successfully used H-migration for finding additional speakers, chairs and commentators.

We have a preference for the submission of complete sessions, but authors can also submit individual papers. We as network chairs will do our best to allocate them to sessions. It may not always be a perfect match.

Below please find some themes and questions that arose during the last network meeting in Glasgow. We would definitely welcome sessions and individual papers fitting in with these themes. We are going to encourage that the best sessions will lead to publications.

Your contribution might not fit into these areas, or cover very different ground. We will still consider them, since the ESSHC sessions are always open to new and exciting research and themes..

We are looking forward to your ideas and hope that with your participation the ESSHC 2014 will be as successful as the previous one.

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

The Chairs of the Ethnicity and Migration Network

Marlou Schrover            Leiden University, History Department,   m.l.j.c.schrover@hum.leidenuniv.nl <mailto:m.l.j.c.schrover@hum.leidenuniv.nl>

Dariusz Stola                  Institute of Political Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences stola@isppan.waw.pl <mailto:stola@isppan.waw.pl>

Phillipe Rygiel                 Université Paris I, Centre d’histoire sociale du XXe siècle, France, prygiel@ens.fr <mailto:prygiel@ens.fr>

Per-Olof Gronberg         Centre for Population Studies, Umeå University, Sweden, per-olof.gronberg@ddb.umu.se <mailto:per-olof.gronberg@ddb.umu.se>

Suggestions for sessions:

+ The Other Europeans. Migrations to and from eastern and central Europe in modern times

+ Forgotten makers of migrations.

Scholarly texts have for a very long time focused mainly on migrants and to a lesser extent states as primary forces determining migration patterns and volumes. We do however know that many other actors take part in the migration process and sometimes greatly contribute to its forms and patterns, be they churches, private companies, unions, and private actors providing means or resources to migrants for various reasons. The fact however has never really been theorized or historicized.

+ Defining the migrants

In any given context, deciding who is and who is not a migrant is a very demanding task. For various reasons a lot of people who cross border are not defined as such, but are called visitors, or tourists or students, or merchants, or expatriates, or illegal foreigners. The definition of these categories, changing over time, promises to shed light on the way state agencies and societies define and regulate the migration process.

+ Migrations and empires

Scholarship on migrations within imperial spaces tends to be divided along national lines (ie French, English, Portuguese, Dutch). Comparing the different experiences would be a first

+ Health and migrations in modern times

Migration control emerges quite often from the will to avoid the spread of diseases and uses some of the same techniques. Also, representations of migrants, quite often insist on them as plague carriers.

+ Transnational norms and migrations. An historical look

Historiography on migrations has been very nation and state centered, and ignored attempt to define international norms for migrations that sometimes, through very similar bilateral agreements, can be traced back to early modern times .

+ Public discourses, Migrations and Ethnicity

Do debates have any effect on the regulation of migration? Do they aim to? Who are the claim makers? Who sets the agenda?

+ Children and migrations

When and  why did children become a separate category of migrants/

+ In defense of migrants

Anti-migrants feelings, and policies, have been flaring up in recent years but they have also witnessed public manifestations of solidarity with targeted migrant or ethnic groups and intense political activism emanating from political actors defining the defense of migrants as an important part of their political agenda. If xenophobic or anti-migrants manifestations and activism has been well documented, the activities of their opponents has been generally overlooked.

+ gender and  migration

Studies which address gender seem to get stuck on the same issues: trafficking, prostitution and exploitation. Furthermore, they tend address femininity and women rather than making comparisons to masculinity and men.

+ selecting migrants

Much of migration policy today and in the past is based on the idea that it is possible to select migrants.

Other issues we would like to see addressed:

- regulating migration: visa policies and migration control

- migration and religion

- migrant cinema

- migration and mobility

- immigration and emigration: two sides of the same coin

- migration and professional networks

 

Re-blog: Ghostbusting with Panorama – National and Local debates on Immigration

Original Link: http://ramfelspeaksout.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/ghostbusting-with-panorama-national-and.html

Ghostbusting with Panorama – National and Local debates on Immigration

We are months of from Halloween but obviously Panorama likes to get in quick. Whether imagined or real there are ‘ghosts’ within all communities, people who for one reason or another are forced  to live in the shadows by the state apparatus that either conspires against them or is too incompetent to work with them.

There is good and bad in every community, but Panorama’s documentary ‘Immigration Undercover’ http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01q9vds would have us believe that all migrants are bad, fused with an inner evil that makes them prone to criminality. We need to recognise that it is the state system that doesn’t recognise them emotionally, financially or politically that can in some cases force people into such behaviour.

There is so much said and written at the national level, both by government and the growing industry of ‘think tank’ organisation’s  like British Future,  who claim to be promoting integration, and a better understanding of immigration. However, it’s a different dialect and approach to working at the local level, which dare I say is where most of the work needs to be done, especially in the run up to next year’s local council elections in London and the general election in 2015.

Tweeting endlessly about immigration, does no one any favours, it is a closet group of concerned activists, who share reports and diatribes amongst their own. Reaching Joe and Joanne, or for that matter Jagdeep and Jana public is far more difficult.

After the last election a group of funders got together and formed what they called the ‘Changing minds’ initiative. Absolutely what was needed at the  time and well meaning, interesting to see how such thinking has now become embedded at the national level but remains so disconnected from what is going on locally.

Immigration debates today at neighbourhood, ward meetings are not about the old issue of black and white racism they are as likely to be embodied with community tensions between different ethnic minority groups – a more complex system of Fugi’s and Freshies, ethnic minorities with rights and those with out.

So let’s take a local area like  Ilford and look at what last night’s Panorama means at the local level.

First the facts about Ilford. The issue of street sleepers from the Asian community has been an issue for some time in the borough. There is an issue around prostitution in the area, but not as defined by the Madame in the programme. The council along with various other agencies have tried time and time again to ‘deal’ with the situations, but it is a stop and start approach, fuelled by a hesitancy and lack of resources, and a definite lack of leadership.

The street sleepers spend the day either at our offices, those of another local charity or  opposite the local police station because that is where they feel safe. They come from all communities, and it is the best example of community cohesion and integration there is. Walk past the benches any time of the day or night and you will hear at least six or seven languages being spoken, and people joking and jostling with one another. To the outsider it can appear intimidating, can appear hostile, and alien, but that doesn’t make it criminal.

At the moment two shelters are being run in the borough to support these individuals the vast majority of whom are homeless. What is interesting about this is the way the local council chooses to support such activities. All the support and funding for the Cold winter Shelters locally is being ploughed into the Salvation Army (who are doing a fantastic and amazing job), however the council have said that they can’t and won’t support the main Gurdwara in the borough.

Reason because they work on the basis of Equal Opportunities! No we don’t understand it either.

At the moment RAMFEL is providing, (90% unfunded), legal advice services to those staying  both at the Salvation Army and Gurdwara. There must be at least 100 people sleeping every night across both sites. So far we have been able to get 2 people into private housing, have another 11 awaiting for properties (both in an out of the borough) got two people into employment and training and helped six opt for voluntary return back to their country of origin, whilst another 3 have possible immigration applications that need to either be made or looked into.

Last time Panorama came to Ilford was about operation Norman, when it looked at the issue of child trafficking in the Romanian Roma community. At the time even the signs on the A12 saying Ilford scared the council senseless – what would this do to the reputation of Ilford? house prices, and tensions between local communities.

A lot was said by all concerned including the police, but very little happened. The real issue is if the legislative framework which means that the Romanian Roma cannot access benefits, cannot get work or now even become self employed as easily means  fuelling tensions, based on false perceptions and a lack of understanding about immigration law. At the moment what  all we hear about nationally is the prospect of all of Bulgaria and Romania emigrating to the UK in January 2014.There is a rightful place and need for such debates and discussions, as the excellent Migration Observatory’s work shows (another Changing Mind’s initiative, but possibly only one of a few that has the power to actually change minds), but it does also need to be understood at the local level. We have all (national, local government and voluntary organisations) collectively missed a trick, we should be seeking to make the Integration guidance a part of the statutory framework, because there remains such a huge disconnect between the national media, national agencies and what is going on locally on the ground.

Ilford and Redbridge is not a bad borough because of migration, it’s a better borough for it, no ifs and no buts, but who apart from the us is going to stand up locally and say that.

The silence is deafening.

Event: Immigration Detention Seminar Series

*** Apologies for Cross Posting ***

Source: Forced Migration Discussion List.

Dear all

I’m pleased to announce a new seminar series exploring everyday practice and resistance in immigration detention. The first seminar, on the theme of ‘Supporting Immigration Detainees’ is scheduled to take place in London, at Resource for London, on the 1st February 2013, 9-4pm, and the speakers include:

- Dr. Lauren Martin (Oulu University, Finland), expert on US detention system,

- Dr. Adeline Trude, Research and Policy Director, Bail for Immigration Detainees,

- Ali McGinley, Director, Association of Visitors to Immigration Detainees,

- John Speyer, Director, Music in Detention,

- Dr. JoAnn McGregor (University College London), expert on British immigration removal centres,

- Prof. Heaven Crawley (Swansea University, Centre for Migration and Policy Research), expert on child and family detention.

- Gill Baden, Campaign to Close Campsfield and the Bail Observation Project.

Our capacity for the event is limited, so places will need to be booked (before Friday **18th January** please). We’re reserving a proportion of the places for practitioners, asylum seekers and former detainees. In the case of the latter two, there are some funds to help with attendance. Please contact me ( n.m.gill@exeter.ac.uk ) to reserve a place or to find out more about these funds.

The seminar series will also involve events in York (‘The Politics of Detention’, lead organiser Alexandra Hall), Birmingham (‘The Relation Between Prison and Detention’, lead organiser Dominique Moran), Oxford (‘The Everyday Experience of Immigration Detention’ lead organiser Mary Bosworth) and Lancaster (‘Activism in and Around Detention’ lead organiser Imogen Tyler). There’s more information available at the seminar series website, including information about the objectives of the series: http://immigrationdetentionseminarseries.wordpress.com/ . The series is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council.

Best wishes

Nick

Dr. Nick Gill
Senior Lecturer in Human Geography
University of Exeter
n.m.gill@exeter.ac.uk

 

New Publications on Immigration Detention; Campaigning; UKREN; Immigration

Border Watch

Border Watch: Cultures of Immigration, Detention and Control.
Written by Alexandra Hall and published by Pluto Books.
From the product description:

Questions over immigration and asylum face almost all Western countries. Should only economically useful immigrants be allowed? What should be done with unwanted or ‘illegal’ immigrants? In this bold and original intervention, Alexandra Hall shows that immigration detention centres offer a window onto society’s broader attitudes towards immigrants.

Despite periodic media scandals, remarkably little has been written about the everyday workings of the grassroots immigration system, or about the people charged with enacting immigration policy at local levels. Detention, particularly, is a hidden side of border politics, despite its growing international importance as a tool of control and security. This book fills the gap admirably, analysing the everyday encounters between officers and immigrants in detention to explore broad social trends and theoretical concerns.

This highly topical book provides rare insights into the treatment of the ‘other’ and will be essential for policy makers and students studying anthropology and sociology.

[Further Details]
(Source: Migrants’ Rights Network)

Campaigning Toolkit: An aid to understanding the asylum and immigration

Campaigning Toolkit

systems in the UK, and to campaigning for the right to stay.
Produced by the National Coalition of Anti-Deportation Campaigns.

The Campaigning Toolkit is a comprehensive printed and online resource for people at risk of removal, and the groups working to support them.

The Toolkit aims help migrants understand the asylum and immigration systems, to know their rights, and to be as well-equipped as possible to make a successful application. In the case of a refusal, we hope the Toolkit enables migrants to know what a campaign is, whether it’s right for them, and to be at the centre of the campaign and of all of the decisions made.

[Download Full Report]
(Source: Migrants’ Rights Network)

People of African Descent in Europe,
A UKREN Briefing Paper – June 2012
By Amy Clarke.
[Download Full Report]
(Source: Network Ebulletin)

Report: Britain’s ‘70 Million’ Debate: A Primer on Reducing Immigration to Manage Population Size.
Produced by the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford.[Download Full Report]
(Source: Network Ebulletin)

 

New Publications on Livelihoods; Immigration; Roma; British Social Attitudes; Statistics; Children; EASO; and Climate Change.

Livelihoods in protracted crises

Livelihoods in protracted crises.
Written by Simon Levine and published by Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations
[Download Full Report]
(Source: ODI).

Immigration and population growth in the UK
By the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Migration (UK).
[Download Full Report]
(Source: DocuBase)

Italy: On the edge: Roma, forced evictions and segregation in Italy.
By Amnesty International.
[Download Full Report]
(Source:  Amnesty International press release – Italy’s Roma still segregated and without prospects)

British Social Attitudes Survey29th edition 2012.
Editors: Alison Park, Elizabeth Clery, John Curtice, Miranda Phillips
and David Utting.  Produced by NetCen.
[Download Full Report]
- See also, specific section on attitudes to immigration: [British Social Attitudes Survey 29 - Immigration]
(Source: Guardian Online – British Social Attitudes Survey – how what we think and who thinks it has changed.)

Annual Mid-year Population: Estimates for England and Wales,
Mid 2011.
Produced by the Office for National Statistics.
[Download Full Report]
(Source: The Telegraph – Population growing by 1,000 a day, Office for National Statistics shows).

Into the unknown: Children’s journeys through the asylum process.
New report produced by The Children’s Society.
[Download Full Report]
(Source: The Telegraph – Children fleeing wars facing ‘culture of disbelief’ – charity.)

European Asylum Support Office Newsletter – September 2012.

EASO Newsletter

Produced by the European Asylum Support Office, (EASO).
[Access to Newsletter]
(Source: European Asylum Support Office, (EASO).).

‘Because I am a stranger’: Urban refugees in Yaoundé, Cameroon.
UNHCR New Issues in Refugee Research – Research Paper No. 244.
By Emily Mattheisen.
[Download Working Paper]
(Source: UNHCR)

Communicating Climate Change and Migration: A Report by the  UK Climate Change & Migration Coalition, (UKCCMC).
[Download Full Report]
(Source: UK Climate Change & Migration Coalition – New research investigates communicating climate change and migration).
See Also: Migrants’ Rights Network – Report: Communicating Climate Change and Migration

In the first report of its kind, analysis reveals that the media debate around climate change and migration has not yet become entrenched. The UK Climate Change and Migration Coalition, who carried out the research, have used the analysis to produce the first ever guidance for organisations on effectively communicating the complex connections between climate change and migration.

Both climate change and migration attract a significant degree of public and media attention. Together they represent a potentially explosive combination that could inflame already heated debates. The report released today argues that without a concerted effort to communicate the issues effectively the debate could be hijacked by political interests opposed to human rights and action on climate change.

 

New Publication: Public Accounts Committee – Seventh Report Immigration: The Points Based System-Student Route

The UK House of Commons Public Accounts Committee has just published its latest report om immigration and the points based system.  further details are as follows:

Immigration: the points based system – student route seventh report of session 2012-13 report, together with formal minutes, oral and written evidence.
House of Commons papers 101 2012-13.
Published by the Great Britain Parliament House of Commons Committee of Public Accounts.

There is a press release [here] and the actual report can be accessed at the following link:  http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201213/cmselect/cmpubacc/101/10102.htm

From the press release, The Rt Hon Margaret Hodge MP, Chair of the Committee of Public Accounts, has said:

“It is extraordinary that the UK Border Agency introduced its new points based system for students before proper controls were in place to replace the old ones.

The result of the Agency’s poorly planned and ill-thought out course of action was chaos: an immediate high level of abuse of the new system and a surge in the number of student visas. In 2009 the number of migrants who abused the student route to work rather than study went up by as much as 40,000 to 50,000.

Since then, the Agency has been playing catch-up, continually adjusting the rules and procedures in order to try and tackle abuse.

The result has been to create a huge amount of bureaucracy for universities and an increasingly complex system for students to navigate. A bad situation has been made worse by the poor customer support being provided by the Agency.

Genuine international students make a valuable contribution to life in the UK and to our economy, and the Agency must reduce the burden on those students and institutions who pose a low risk.

Despite the surge in the number of people abusing the student route, the Agency has not done enough to remove those who are here illegally. Even where it has been told by colleges that so-called students are not studying, it has been unacceptably slow to act.

The Agency must take urgent enforcement action to remove them. This would also send a message to other would-be migrants that the student route is not an easy option for those with no intention of studying.”

Further details on this publication can be found online at The Stationary Office (TSO) website where hard copies (paid for) of the report can be ordered.  The link for this report can be found [here] and the following is taken from the report’s abstract:

There is tension between the twin goals of ensuring a flow of high quality students into the UK and ensuring and maintaining public confidence in the immigration system. The Home Office, through the UK Border Agency, introduced Tier 4 of the Points Based System for student immigration in March 2009 to control the entry of students from outside the European Economic Area. The Agency, however, implemented the new system before proper controls were in place and removed the controls it relied on under the old system. The controls gap enabled a surge in student visas and, in 2009 an estimated 40,000 to 50,000 additional migrants came to the UK to work rather than study. The Agency has had to spend the subsequent three years amending rules and procedures in an effort to reduce abuse.

 

New Publications on Schengen; UK Labour Market; Housing; Morocco; Inspections; Immigration

Schengen and solidarity:the fragile balance between mutual trust and mistrust.
A new policy paper by the European Policy Centre.
[Access]
(Source: Migrants’ Rights Network)

Immigration and the UK Labour Market: The Latest Evidence from Economic Research.
By the Centre for Economic Performance
[Download Full Report]
(Source: Migrants’ Rights Network)

Benefits and Housing in the UK: A Guide for Refugees Living with HIV.
By the National Aids Trust.
[Download Full Report]
(Source: Migrants’ Rights Network)

Responses to irregular migration in Morocco: Promising changes, persisting challenges.
By the Institute for Public Policy Research, (IPPR).
[Access]
(Source: Migrants’ Rights Network)

An Inspection of the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Local Immigration Team.
A new inspection report the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration
[Download Full Report]
(Source: Migrants’ Rights Network)
See Also – UKBA Response to the Independent Chief Inspector’s report

Parochial and Cosmopolitan Britain: Examining the Social Divide in Reactions to Immigration.
By Robert Ford.
Transatlantic Trends Immigration Focus Paper.
[Download Full Report]

Statement of Changes in Immigration Rules (HC 194).
House of Lords Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee: 6th Report of Session 2012-2013.
[Download Full Report]

 

Event: Globalization, immigration, transformation, Society for Historical Archaeology Annual Conference 2013

Globalization, immigration, transformation

Globalization, immigration, transformation, Society for Historical Archaeology Annual Conference 2013

46th Annual Conference on Historical and Underwater Archaeology

January 9-12, 2013 Leicester, Great Britain

Globalization, immigration, and transformation
Leicester is a multicultural city that has been transformed since the middle of the 20th century through its interaction with global networks, particularly immigration from South Asia, Africa, and the Caribbean—a pattern of immigration that reflects the once-global nature of the former British Empire.
These issues of globalization, immigration, and the transformations brought about by those processes are central to historical and postmedieval archaeology, whether they entail the global spread of European capitalism alongside the expansion of European colonialism, the willing or forced migration of millions of individuals from their original continents to new homelands, and the local, regional, and national transformations (both within Europe and across the world) brought about by all of these processes. The 2013 Conference Committee particularly welcomes submissions that relate to these themes.

The deadline for online abstract submission is July 10, 2012. Mailed submissions must be postmarked on or before July 10, 2012.

For further information, see http://www.sha.org/meetings/annual_meetings.cfm

Download the : Call For Papers.

New Publications from the TSO on the UK Border Office; Immigration and The US-UK Extradition Treaty

The following reports have recently been published by the UK Stationary Office:

Work of the UK Border Agency

Work of the UK Border Agency (August–December 2011):  HC 1722, Twenty-first Report of Session 2010-12 – Report, Together with Formal Minutes, Oral and Written Evidence.
Author: House of Commons – Home Affairs Committe

‘Immigration: The Points Based System – Student Route: Home Office: UK Border Agency (HC 1827)’ examines how students from countries outside the European Economic Area can study in the UK, provided they are sponsored by educational institutions licensed by the UK Border Agency. This points-based route is known as “Tier 4″.
(Source: The Stationary Office)

[Access]
(Source: The Stationary Office)

The US-UK Extradition Treaty

The US-UK Extradition Treaty: HC 644, Twentieth Report of Session 2010-12 – Report, Together with Formal Minutes, Oral and Written Evidence.
Author: House of Commons – Home Affairs Committee.

The report ‘The US-UK Extradition Treaty (HC 644)’ urges the Government to act immediately to deal with growing public unease about the fairness of the US-UK Extradition Treaty as highlighted by the cases of Gary McKinnon, Richard O’Dwyer and Christopher Tappin.
(Source: The Stationary Office).

[Access]
(Source: The Stationary Office)

Immigration: The Points Based System – Student Route

Immigration: The Points Based System – Student Route: Home Office: UK Border Agency: HC 1827, Report by the Comptroller and Auditor General, Session 2010-12.
Author: National Audit Office (NAO).

‘Immigration: The Points Based System – Student Route: Home Office: UK Border Agency (HC 1827)’ examines how students from countries outside the European Economic Area can study in the UK, provided they are sponsored by educational institutions licensed by the UK Border Agency. This points-based route is known as “Tier 4″.
(Source: The Stationary Office).

[Access]
(Source: The Stationary Office)

News: Reports on Immigration and the UK Labour Market

Further to my post from yester (RSQ Advance Access Articles and Pub. on Displacement in Pakistan and Legal Aid) which reference the new report form National Institute of Economic and Social Research regarding the links between immigration and unemployment in the UK labour market. , there has been significant discussion in the UK media on this issue.  Especially as a new report by the Migration Advisory Committee of the UKBA seemed to provide contradictory evidence provided by the National Institute of Economic and Social Research report.

Press coverage has included:

• The Metro (London):  One ‘British’ job is lost for every four immigrants
• The Guardian – Migrants do not affect jobless levels, say researchers
• The Guardian – Report on non-EU immigration and unemployment will dominate debate
• The Guardian – Non-EU immigration linked to unemployment, says report
• The Telegraph – Immigation does keep Britons out of jobs, government committee admits 
• The Independent – Immigration does not cause unemployment 

The Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) report on the Analysis of the Impacts of Migration (10 January 2012)

In May 2011 the Government asked the MAC to ‘research the labour market, social and public service impacts of non-EEA migration; and to advise on the use of such evidence in cost-benefit analysis of migration policy decisions.’
[Download Report]
(Source: Migration Advisory Committee).

Examining the relationship between immigration and unemployment using National Insurance Number registration data.

A new discussion paper published by the National Institute of Economic and Social Research.  The abstract for this paper argues that:

 Immigration has been central in recent UK policy debates and has attracted significant concern over its possible adverse effect on labour market outcomes. This paper contributes to the evidence on this issue by presenting initial results on the impact of migration inflows on the claimant count rate using previously unused data on National Insurance Number registrations of foreign nationals. Our results, which appear robust to different specifications, different levels of geographic aggregation, and to a number of tests, seem to confirm the lack of any impact of migration on unemployment in aggregate. We find no association between migrant inflows and claimant unemployment. In addition, we test for whether the impact of migration on claimant unemployment varies according to the state of the economic cycle. We find no evidence of a more adverse during periods of low growth or the recent recession.

[Download Paper]
[National Institute of Economic and Social Research – Press Release]
(Source: The Guardian – Migrants do not affect jobless levels, say researchers).

New APPG Reports

The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Migration, (APPG),  has recently published a number of reports of relevance to this list.  Full details of the relvant publications are as follows:

• APPG Migration Briefing 1 – Student immigration reforms and their anticipated economic impacts (2 March 2011)
• APPG Migration Meeting 1 Follow up notes – Student immigration reforms and their anticipated economic impacts – Note on meeting (16 March 2011)
• APPG Press Release – Economic assessment of student immigration reforms is urgently needed (17 March 2011)
• APPG Migration Briefing 2 – Twelve months of Coalition Government immigration policy: Looking back, moving forward (18 May 2011)
• APPG Migration Meeting 2 Follow up notes – Twelve months of Coalition Government immigration policy – Note on meeting (20 May 2011)

Further details and information can be found on the APPG website at : http://appgmigration.org.uk/frontpage

New Publication : IDC Handbook on Alternatives to Immigration Detention

The Immigration Detention Coalition (IDC) have just published a report on immigration detention entitled: `There Are Alternatives : A handbook for preventing unnecessary immigration detention.’

Further background information on the launch of the report can be found on the IDC website along with instructions on how to download a copy.  A link to the IDC can be found here : IDC website.

This publication has also been reviewed on the Migrants’ Rights Network – link here.