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Immigration News Blog

Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Political pressures put immigration overhaul in doubt

Political pressures put immigration overhaul in doubt
By Carolyn Lochhead
The big immigration overhaul promised by Democrats and the Bush administration this year is foundering before it even gets off the ground. Last year's Senate effort to create a guest worker program and a path to citizenship for the nation's estimated...

 

Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Bill Gates demands more H-1B visas

Bill Gates demands more H-1B visas
When the world's richest man asks for something everybody listens. Earlier this month, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates, speaking before a senate committee on labour and education, asked Congress to increase the number of H-1B visas.It is a visa required

 

Immigrant minors see 'double standard' in care (Houston Chronicle)

Immigrant minors see 'double standard' in care (Houston Chronicle)
Blue-jeaned boys chase a soccer ball in the sun. Girls hang out in their dorm, one crocheting an American flag wall-hanging, others grooving to music and gabbing about an upcoming spring break dance in the gym.

 

Contractors To Check Employees' Immigration Status

Contractors To Check Employees' Immigration Status (CBS 2 Los Angeles)
The Mission Viejo City Council Monday cleared the way for the city to become the first in the state to require city contractors to verify their employees' immigration status as a condition of doing business.

 

Hispanic-focused Businesses Take Heat from Immigration Debate

Hispanic-focused Businesses Take Heat from Immigration Debate
HispanicBusiness.com, CA -
Hosts of conservative talk radio shows and opponents of illegal immigration seized on the story, creating a buzz and major backlash. ...

 

Migrant workers face new slavery in Britain

Migrant workers face new slavery
BBC News
The modern day incarnation of slavery - which sees unscrupulous gangmasters exploiting migrant workers with threats of violence - is alive and well in 21st Century Britain.

 

England: Migrant labour

Migrant labour
YORKSHIRE is now so reliant on tens of thousands of eastern European workers that the region's economy would be plunged into crisis without them, a damning study has revealed. The new, cheap and readily available workforce has become so vital to scores

 

Spotlight - immigration reform in the United States

Spotlight - immigration reform in the United States
Workpermit.com, UK -
The subject of immigration reform encompasses the debate about securing America's borders, what to do with the millions of illegal immigrants already in the ...

 

Monday, March 19, 2007

Language skills build up job safety

Language skills build up job safety
LeapFrog-based system offers Spanish-speaking workers a way to learn industry-specific English words, expressions Geovany Hernandez delivers roofing materials and equipment to work sites around South Florida. But, until recently, the Spanish-speaking truck driver was dependent on others for English-language translations.

 

Latin Migrants Sent $62 Billion Home in 2006

Latin Migrants Sent $62 Billion Home in 2006
NPR audio:
The Inter-American Development Bank estimates that migrant workers from Latin America sent home $62 billion last year -- more than all foreign aid and investment in the region. The number could hit $100 billion by 2010.

 

Communities Struggle with Immigration Rules as Bush Returns from Mexico

Communities Struggle with Immigration Rules as Bush Returns from Mexico
SAN FRANCISCO, Mar 17 (OneWorld) - Politicians in Washington are debating the issue of immigration this week. Many Democrats want to create a guest worker program through which undocumented immigrants would be able to earn legalization over time.

 

Black immigrants collect most degrees

Black immigrants collect most degrees
WASHINGTON -- Do African immigrants make the smartest Americans? The question may sound outlandish, but if you were judging by statistics alone, you could find plenty of evidence to back it up. In a side-by-side comparison of 2000 census data by

 

US authorities hold tougher line on hiring illegal immigrants

US authorities hold tougher line on hiring illegal immigrants
Criminal arrests, often of executives, quadrupled in a year. But is it a tactic to pass a guest-worker program?

 

Economist testifies for Hazleton in immigration trial

Economist testifies for Hazleton in immigration trialThe News Journal, DE -
George Borjas, a Harvard University economist who advocates for more restrictive immigration policies, conducted a 20-year study that found the wages of ...

 

Thursday, March 15, 2007

Immigration Misery

Immigration Misery
New York Times, NY -
As the country waits for Congress and the president to enact immigration reform, the indecency of existing policies is becoming intolerable. ...

 

Ageing and globalisation put legal immigration on EU agenda

Ageing and globalisation put legal immigration on EU agenda
Indian Muslims, CA -
Brussels, March 15 (DPA) Once a taboo subject in most European Union capitals, legal immigration has climbed up the agenda as the 27-nation bloc struggles ...

 

Senator Kennedy on New Bedford sweat shop raid

Senator Kennedy on New Bedford sweat shop raid
By Peter Rousmaniere
Senator Kennedy is using the New Bedford raid as a platform for moving immigration reform forward. I have posted below his statement, in which he allegaes that Homeland Security's ICE unit swiftly transfered hundreds of the arrested workers to holding areas in Texas while not caring for some children left in New Bedford. Meanwhile, the owner of the employer, Michael Bianco, Inc, is free on bail and vacationing in Puerto Rico.

 

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Bush says he's optimistic for a breakthrough on immigration, and ...

Bush says he's optimistic for a breakthrough on immigration, and
San Diego Union Tribune, CA -
US immigration laws were a prime topic for Bush. The president said his most important ally in getting Congress to overhaul immigration rules may be a ...

 

New OECD Working Papers on Immigration

OECD Social, Employment and Migration Working Papers (recent additions)
http://www.oecd.org/document/4/0,2340,en_2649_33729_2380420_1_1_1_1,00.html

No. 46: Minimum Wages, Minimum Labour Costs and the Tax Treatment of Low-wage Employment (2007)Herwig Immervollhttp://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/30/34/37930738.pdf[full-text, 24 pages]

No. 47: The Labour Market Integration of Immigrants in Germany (2007)Thomas Liebighttp://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/28/5/38163889.pdf[full-text, 66 pages]

No. 48: The Integration of Immigrants into the Labour Market: The Case of Sweden (2007)Georges Lemaîtrehttp://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/28/8/38164205.pdf[full-text, 51 pages]

No. 49: The Labour Market Integration of Immigrants in Australia (2007)Thomas Liebighttp://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/28/12/38164878.pdf[full-text, 62 pages]

No. 50: The Labour Market Integration of Immigrants in Denmark (2007)Thomas Liebighttp://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/8/28/38195773.pdf[full-text, 79 pages]

No. 51: What Works Best in Reducing Child Poverty: a Benefit or Work Strategy? (2007)Peter Whiteford and Willem Ademahttp://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/30/44/38227981.pdf[full-text, 54 pages]

 

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

More on expose about current guest worker programs

More on expose about current guest worker programs
By Peter Rousmaniere
The Southern Poverty Law Center posted on its website today a summary of its report that Bob Herbert of the NY Times wrote about. “The report — Close to Slavery: Guestworker Programs in the United States — comes as Congress is about to begin debating immigration legislation that could greatly expand guestworker programs to cover hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of new temporary foreign workers.

 

Monday, March 12, 2007

New expose on H-2A and H-2B guest worker programs.

New expose on H-2A and H-2B guest worker programs.
By Peter Rousmaniere
Bob Herbert of the New York Times devoted his Monday, March 12 column to a forthcoming report by the Southern Poverty Law Center about guest worker program abuses. The title of the report: “Close to Slavery: Guestworker Programs in the United States.” I have not been able to find it yet so am posting below Herbert's column. Herbert is talking about The H-2A and H-2B programs.

 

Organic Peach Farmer Calls for Immigration Reform

Organic Peach Farmer Calls for Immigration Reform
NPR audio:
American farmers depend on immigrant labor to cull their crops. Organic peach farmer David Mas Masumoto says it's time for Congress and the White House to enact real immigration reform.

 

Friday, March 09, 2007

sweat shop in New Bedford MA busted, 350 illegal workers out of work

sweat shop in New Bedford MA busted, 350 illegal workers out of work
By Peter Rousmaniere
Workers Comp Insider, the best workers comp blog in the country, reports on and analyzes a story in the Boston Globe about a raid on a sweast shoop which made military supplies.
According to jon Coppelman of Workers Comp Insider, "Affidavits allege that Insolia preferred to hire illegal immigrants because they were desperate for jobs and willing to put up with atrocious working conditions. He even helped them secure forged identity papers, referring them to vendors who would produce the documents for about $120. As for the working conditions, workers were routinely denied overtime pay, docked 15 minutes for every minute late and fined for talking on the job or spending more than two minutes in the plant's "squalid" rest rooms. Sure, but at least the vests and backpacks were made in America!"

 

Regional sources of Mexican workers in U.S.

Regional sources of Mexican workers in U.S.
By Peter Rousmaniere
The Atlantic Monthly (subscription required) has an article in its April 2007 edition called “The Mexican Connection.” I have posted on this before (search for “remittance”). The main contribution of this article is to pinpoint the regional sources of many of U.S. based workers -- states immediately northwest of Mexico City: “ Five predominantly rural Mexican states—Guanajuato, Jalisco, Michoacán, San Luis Potosí, and Zacatecas—send a disproportionately large number of emigrants to the United States. Their links to the U.S. date back a century, to when American mining and railroad companies recruited workers from these regions to offset reductions in Chinese and Japanese immigration. Home to less than a third of Mexico’s population, they receive 44 percent of Mexico’s remittances.”

 

Thursday, March 08, 2007

Two of three new construction jobs go to Hispanics

Two of three new construction jobs go to Hispanics
By Peter Rousmaniere
The Pew Hispanic Center released a factsheet that examines recent trends in the employment of Latino workers in the U.S. labor market and focuses specifically on the construction industry.
Hispanic workers landed two out of every three new construction jobs in 2006, according to the analysis. They benefited from strong employment growth in the industry even as the housing market endured a year-long slump. Indeed, the construction industry continues to be a key source of jobs for Hispanics and especially for those who are foreign born and recently arrived.