EU-DIGEST

Premier Silvio Berlusconi last year dismissed any notion of a "multiethnic Italy." His conservative coalition, which includes the anti-immigrant Northern League party, has repeatedly cracked down on illegal immigration, sometimes drawing the ire of human rights advocates, U.N. officials and the Vatican.

With opinion surveys showing that many Italians blame immigrants for crime, tensions persist between citizens and foreigners - and sometimes erupt into violence, as they did these past days in Rosarno, a town in Calabria, an underdeveloped southern agricultural region with chronic unemployment.

Labels: EU, Immigration, Italy

Labels: EU, Immigration

Five years after Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh was murdered by a Muslim extremist in Amsterdam, where half the population is of immigrant origin, the city is grappling with social integration. Mohammed Bouyeri who shot, stabbed and cut the throat of virulent Islam critic Van Gogh on November 2, 2004, had been a resident of Slotervaart. Though of Moroccan origin, he was born and bred in the Netherlands. Bouyeri was jailed for life for the murder that stoked ethnic tensions in the Netherlands and raised fears of homegrown terrorism.

During his trial, Bouyeri said that "the law compels me to chop off the head of anyone who insults Allah and the prophet". "Muslims are afraid of losing their identity, and Dutch society is afraid of them," said the mayor of Amsterdam who encouraged the building of a western-style mosque in his neighbourhood where sermons are in Dutch and men and women pray together.

Note EU-Digest: Jean Tillie, a professor at the University of Amsterdam who specializes in migration and ethnic studies says his work shows that people are driven to embrace radicalism when they feel socially isolated. He says Language in the Netherlands underlines the nature of the problem. In Dutch, the word autochtoon means a native (usually white) Dutch person, whereas an allochtoon is a first- or second-generation immigrant. The terms are used by everyone, from academics to people in the street, mainstream politicians to those on the far right. What they often signify is: us and them. In America there is a similar situation, where the so called "Green Card" immigrants receive to work and stay in the USA before becoming a citizen identifies them as Alien. Today the Amsterdam municipality is encouraging teachers, youth workers and others to signal concerns about the 2 per cent of young Muslims seen as at risk to radicalization, the city has sought contact with mosques and religious organizations and tried to foster "social networks".

Labels: EU, Immigration, Integration, Netherlands

The heated Dutch debate about ethnic minorities and their integration could leave the impression that immigration in the Netherlands has been a complete failure. But a government report released this week says some progress has been made in the past ten years.Several statistics in the annual report point to improved integration of young Turks and Moroccans in the job market and education. The number of Turkish- and Moroccan-Dutch youngsters going on to higher education has doubled over the past ten years to 40 percent. During the same period the number of Turkish and Moroccan Dutch in the job market went up 10 percent to 55 percent. The number of unemployed has almost halved from more than 20 percent to 11 percent.
Home ownership too is up among Turkish and Moroccans Dutch: 14 percent of Moroccans now own their own home, and 26 percent of Turkish. Among native Dutch home ownership is 60 percent.

On the downside, youngsters from a non-Western background are still twice as likely to be unemployed as native Dutch. Youngsters from the Antilles and Morocco are still overrepresented in the crime statistics.

Labels: EU, Immigration, Integration, Netherlands

EU to table new immigration rules in September - by Lucia Kubosova

Brussels is finalizing fresh proposals on European Union immigration policy, including a potentially controversial system of re-distributing refugees and asylum seekers among the 27 member states to lighten the workload of the bloc's border countries. Both the re-location policy, which could see the transfer of people who land on the shores of Mediterranean countries to other EU states, and asylum policy reform, which could set quotas on the number of refugees for member states, are to be presented in September, Swedish immigration minister Tobias Billstroem has said, according to Agence France Presse.The application of the proposed policies would be voluntary, the Swedish minister added. Sweden, currently chairing the EU, is planning to organise a first discussion on immigration reform among foreign ministers by the end of October.

Labels: EU, Immigration

Greece moves to curb illegal immigration

The Greek government decided on Thursday (June 11th) that trafficking illegal immigrants will be considered a crime. At a session chaired by Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis, the cabinet agreed to establish special detention centers to house illegal immigrants for up to a year, rather than the current three-month limit. Interior Minister Prokopis Pavlopoulos says Karamanlis will seek discussion regarding the matter at the EU summit next week. His main requests will be in two-fold -- agreements with third countries for the repatriation of illegal immigrants, and obliging countries that have already signed such agreements to observe them. The opposition Communist Party of Greece compares the proposed new centres to "concentration camps".

Labels: EU, Greece, Immigration

Algerian Harraga changed sex and married men for residency papers

A young man from Batna (Algeria) who failed to succeed at the Baccalaureate exam in the ninetie and limke other Algerian youth who like exploring and discovering new horizons, decided one summer day in 1997 to take his suitcase and go into the unknown. Not recognizing the borders, nor laws, visa requirement and border police, he left Batna to Tunisia, then to England via Turkey, Greece and several other European and Arab countries including, Spain, Germany, Italy, Holland, Syria, Lebanon and Morocco. The young Harraga, in order to obtain the nationality papers changed his gender and became a women. By this way, he and his fellows joined homosexuals associations to enjoy their rights and benefits. Eventually he managed to get his residence in Holland.

Labels: EU, Immigration, Morocco

MALTA-ITALY TENSION REACHES NEW HEIGHTS

Unconfirmed reports of a meeting between Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi and Opposition leader Joseph Muscat reached this newsroom yesterday, as high tension is building up between Malta and Italy on immigration. The two leaders discussed the situation on the latest incident in which Italian army boats warded off a Maltese patrol boat with 66 migrants from entering Lampedusa.
Tension is at its highest level ever since the 1980 Saipem incident, when a Maltese-commissioned Italian oil rig was stopped by Libyan gunboats.On Friday afternoon, Malta sent a note verbale to Italy, urging it to stop reneging on its international obligations for refusing to take in the migrants. A meeting also took place between Foreign Affairs Minister Tonio Borg and the Italian Ambassador to Malta, Paolo Andrea Trabalza.

Labels: EU, illegal immigrants, Immigration, Italy, Malta

From a Dutch reader comes this joke: "An Iranian refuge has been granted asylum in The Netherlands. Overjoyed, he approaches the first man he meets: “Mr. Dutchman, thank you for granting me asylum in your country!” The man looks puzzled. “Dutchman? Me? Come on, I ain’t no bleeding’ infidel. I am Moroccan, and proud of it!” The Iranian walks off. He spots another man. Again he thanks him for granting him asylum. This guy actually gets angry. “Who do you call a Dutchmen? I am Turkish!” The Iranian walks off again, and notices another man. He thanks him once more. This guy smiles, and says: “Look man, I’m black. I am not Dutch. I am from Suriname.” The Iranian is utterly confused. “But I am in Holland, right? Where are all the Dutch, then?”

Freedom of expression takes many forms and the best of that is being able to laugh about your own country or yourself.

Labels: Britain. EU, Immigration, Netherlands

Labels: EU, Immigration

In 2006, about three million foreign immigrants settled in a country in the EU27

In 2006, about three million foreign immigrants settled in a country in the EU27. These immigrants can be divided into two groups based on their citizenship: citizens of EU27 Member states (1.2 million persons) and non-EU27 citizens (1.8 million). EU27 citizens migrating to a Member State, of which they were not citizens, accounted for 40% of foreign immigrants. The remaining 60% of foreign immigrants were almost equally divided between citizens of countries in Europe outside the EU27, Asia, America and Africa, with each accounting for about 15%. In 2006, the largest foreign immigrant groups in the EU27 were citizens of Poland (about 290 000 persons), Romania (about 230 000), Morocco (about 140 000), the United Kingdom, Ukraine and China (each about 100 000) and Germany (about 90 000).

In 2006, the largest number of foreign immigrants was recorded in Spain (803 000 persons), Germany (558 500) and the United Kingdom (451 700), who together received 60% of all foreign immigrants in the EU27.

Labels: EU, Immigration

Secret plot to let 50 million African workers into EU - by Nick Fagge

More than 50 million African workers are to be invited to Europe in a far-reaching secretive migration deal, the Daily Express can reveal today.  A controversial taxpayer-funded “job centre” opened in Mali this week is just the first step towards promoting “free movement of people in Africa and the EU”. Brussels economists claim Britain and other EU states will “need” 56 million immigrant workers between them by 2050 to make up for the “demographic decline” due to falling birth rates and rising death rates across Europe. The report, by the EU statistical agency Eurostat, warns that vast numbers of migrants could be needed to meet the shortfall in two years if Europe is to have a hope of funding the pension and health needs of its growing elderly population.

Labels: Africa, EU, Immigration

Labels: EU, Immigration, Poltical

EU unanimously welcomes immigration pact

European Union nations unanimously welcomed Monday sweeping new guidelines for controlling immigration, and are on track to sign the pact in October, the EU's French presidency said. "The interior ministers gave their unanimous accord on the principles, the objectives, the presentation and the structure of the pact," said French Immigration Minister Brice Hortefeux. "This accord permits the perspective of a signature in mid-October" at a summit of EU leaders, he told reporters after hosting informal talks in the French Riviera resort city of Cannes.

Labels: EU, Immigration

Europe or Eurabia? - by Daniel Pipes

The future of Europe is in play. Will it turn into "Eurabia," a part of the Muslim world? "Will it remain the distinct cultural unit it has been over the last millennium? Or might there be some creative synthesis of the two civilizations? The answer has vast importance. Europe may constitute a mere 7 percent of the world's landmass but for five hundred years, 1450-1950, for good and ill, it was the global engine of change. How it develops in the future will affect all humanity, and especially daughter countries such as Australia which still retain close and important ties to the old continent. I foresee potentially one of three paths for Europe: Muslims dominating, Muslims rejected, or harmonious integration."

Labels: EU, Immigration, Islam

Indians top list of foreign skilled professionals in Norway

India has become the number one source of foreign skilled professionals working in Norway, with fellow colleagues from other countries faring way behind. According to Norwegian Immigration Department figures for 2007, Indian skilled professionals constitute one-fourth of the total foreign qualified professionals inducted in Norwegian firms in the given year. Employed mostly in sectors like IT, petroleum and health care, the figure stood at 618 the highest from any foreign nation, followed by Russia (254), US (231) and China (205).

Labels: Immigration, India, Norway

EU - Labor Lackings and the blue card - by Janet Kersnar

For the first time in a long while long while, unemployment levels have begun to fall across Europe. Broadly speaking, of course, higher employment is a good thing, but European companies are facing a massive shortage of skilled labor. Some companies had hoped that the recent expansion of the European Union to include Poland and other Eastern European countries would alleviate the problem by attracting more foreign workers, but no such luck. Now hopes are pinned to an EU proposal unveiled last year to loosen immigration policies with a "blue card" program. It is certainly welcome news for the engineering and IT sectors. The EU reckons that for these sectors to compete internationally, 20 million skilled workers will be needed over the next 20 years. Proponents claim the blue-card program, like its green counterpart in the United States, will make it easier for skilled workers from outside Europe to get work permits, thus helping shift the global brain drain, which has historically flowed largely into the United States at the expense of Europe.

"It's a good initiative," says Marcel Berges Fox, secretary-general of Acieroid, a €200 million Spanish construction subsidiary of France's Bouygues conglomerate. The construction industry suffers from serious labor shortfalls, from manual workers to engineers, he says, not to mention qualified finance staff. However, if previous attempts to introduce national green-card-like systems are any gauge, the program will struggle to get off the ground.

Labels: EU, Immigration, Labor

Algerian youth risk lives seeking better life in Europe - by LAEED ZAGHLAMI

For a long time, nobody took their plight seriously. In the 1970s, the public contemptuously dismissed them as idlers or dealers in contraband goods while the government acted as if they did not exist. But now, the number of young people risking their lives to leave Algeria in search of a better life in Europe, or ‘harraga’ as they are known locally, has reached alarming levels and can no longer be ignored. Many risk their lives crossing the Mediterranean Sea in all sorts of ill-equipped vessels, determined to reach European shores. Some make it, others get arrested before they reach and are repatriated, yet others perish at sea.

“The authorities should act immediately to stop the ‘youth drain,’” says a parent whose son disappeared after leaving for Europe from Beni Saf on the west coast.

Labels: Algeria, EU, Immigration

EU- More than 900 Africans died in 2007 on way to Spain

At least 921 would-be immigrants died in 2007 in attempts to cross over clandestinely from Africa to Spain, a Spanish human rights group said in a report made public on Thursday. The figure only reflected officially confirmed deaths, the Asociacion Pro Derechos Humanos Andalusia (APDH-A) said, estimating the real death toll at a minimum of 3,500. The victims usually drowned or died of thirst, hunger and exposure on board their vessels. The APDH-A said 189 of the victims died off the Spanish mainland or the Canary Islands, and 732 off the West African coast.

Among the victims, 287 came from Maghreb countries such as Morocco or Algeria, 629 from other African countries and five from Asia.

Labels: EU, Europe, Immigration

EU set to woo Indian professionals with "blue Visa" - by Sam Daniel

The European Union is finally opening up its frontiers for professionals from countries like India. A blue card visa, that applies to all the 27 member countries is being planned by the Union. The target is to lure top IT and medical professionals and students. As per EU the idea is to let them work freely all across the European Union and to grant them a generous legal status for family reunification as well. Facing an acute shortage of high-end talent, this is the EU's attempt to check brain drain to countries like the US, Canada and Australia. ''There is a great need in certain sections like software, telecommunication, computer industry from Asia and especially from India and that's why the blue card is coming,'' said Shada Islam, European Policy Centre.

But the road to the blue card may not be so smooth. Even within the Union, immigration is still the prerogative of individual member countries.

Labels: Blue Card, EU, Immigration

'Nine in 10 UK jobs go to foreigners' - James Kirkup and Robert Winnett

The number of British people in work has slumped to the lowest level since Labour was elected in 1997, undermining claims made by Gordon Brown that employment was at a record high. Since 1997, some 1.4 million fewer Britons work in manufacturing, yet 113,000 more foreign-born workers are in the sector. Of the 1.7 million more people in employment since 1997, 1.5 million were born outside the UK, according to the Office for National Statistics. The figures have been uncovered by a former Labour minister who is urging the Government to urgently restrict immigration from eastern Europe to help young Britons gain employment.

Labels: Britain, EU, Immigration

U.S. Latino population could triple by 2050 - by Ruth Morris

Released Monday, a Pew Research Center study projected the nation's Latino population would triple in size by 2050, to 29 percent of the U.S. population. Broward County is already well on its way to that marker, with a Hispanic population of 22.8 percent. In Palm Beach County, the percentage of Latinos stands at 16.7 percent, according to census data, and is rising. Miami-Dade surpasses both, with a Hispanic population of 61.3 percent of the county's residents.

The black population, meanwhile, would likely remain more or less steady, at about 13 percent, the study projected.

Labels: Immigration, Latino's, US

Burning car on New Years Eve in the Netherlands

EU-Digest report on the Netherlands

The Netherlands: Dutch Youth and Country out of control? - What is happening to Holland?

During the new year celebrations hordes of Dutch youngsters and hooligans set fire to cars in many urban areas of the Netherlands. They also threw rocks at ambulances trying to bring people wounded by fireworks to the hospital and at policemen trying to arrest people who were setting fires to cars and acting in a disorderly way. Nearly all of these vandals were "original" Dutch citizens.

The Netherlands is not what it used to be and the Dutch are leaving the country in hordes. This past year the number of Dutch emigrants going to other countries has been unprecedented as well as ‘extraordinary’, according to NIDI (Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute) researcher Harry van Dalen.

Government coalition PvdA spokesman for Migration and Integration, Jeroen Dijsselbloem agrees that violence has increased in the Netherlands and that the government isn’t doing enough to combat small crimes such as theft and vandalism. As a result many people are leaving Holland. In 2005 92,000 immigrants arrived whereas 121,000 Dutch citizens left the country.

However Dutch emigrants do return yearly to the Netherlands, in 2005 21,110 emigrants returned and in 2004, 19,447 emigrants. Despite the numbers coming back, the Netherlands continues to be faced with an exodus of mainly well educated people.

With great job opportunities and living conditions in other parts of the EU, and no more work permits required for EU Citizens, most of the young and well-educated Dutch emigrants are now moving to areas which can provide them with the security and quality of life they once had in Holland. France, Belgium, Germany, Italy and Spain are high on the list of these emigrants. Today even large numbers of highly educated second generation Dutch citizens of Turkish descent are returning to Turkey, were they can expect to earn higher salaries and best of all more respect and a better climate. As one Shell employee working at its the Hague headquarters said,"if Total France offers me a job I will be out of here immediately". The Dutch government better take note, because you can't run a country with hooligans in control.

Labels: Emigration, EU, Hooligans, Immigration, Netherlands, The Netherlands, Vandalism

Britain: Most crowded nation in Europe

Blame it on immigration, Britain is poised to become the most crowded country in Europe. Figures released by the Office for National Statistics revealed that the number of people crammed into each square mile was due to overtake levels in Holland and Belgium, and may already have done so. In Britain in 2006, there were as many as 390 people for every square kilometre, as opposed to 387 in 2005. Holland, based on these figures, which had 393 people for every square kilometre in 2005 and a population growing at a much slower rate than Britain has now dropped to second place.

Around 70 per cent of population growth in Britain is a result of immigration, and much of the rest is accounted for by higher birthrates among recent immigrants. Large-scale immigration is also increasing pressure on services, such as public transport.

Labels: EU, Immigration

Europe Without Borders Threatens US Ex-Pats Without Visas

Ever since the fall of communism, the Czech capital Prague has been a magnet for young Americans. The rents were cheap, the beer was good, and ex-pats needed only to hop across the border every three months to renew their status as "tourists." But that situation is set to change on Jan. 1, when the Czech Republic, together with eight other newer EU members, becomes party to the Schengen agreement.Ex-pats will now have to depart the Schengen zone -- the nearest countries being Switzerland, Ukraine and Romania -- in order to officially leave the Czech Republic. And tourist visas will only permit holders to reside within the zone for three months in any six-month period.

Labels: EU, Immigration, US

The Netherlands: Polish problem' will resolve itself say experts

Recently released figures show that an estimated 100,000 Eastern Europeans, most of them Polish, are currently working in the Netherlands. Social Affairs Minister Piet Hein Donner saw no cause for alarm in these figures because they roughly matched his own ministry's estimates. However, several parties in parliament were alarmed and held pleas to keep Romanian and Bulgarian workers waiting at least a little longer. These are the same knee-jerk reflexes that were on display soon after Poland joined the European Union. Malgorzata Bos, editor-in-chief of the website Polonia.NL, also subscribes to the so-called factor-4 rule of thumb. This economic principle states that people will go looking for work abroad as soon as the wage level there is four times higher compared to their own country, but return home as soon as the difference is reduced.

Note EU-Digest: That is very optimistic thinking. Reality usually is quite different. On the other hand, why should the Polish immigrants return home after a while. They can only be an asset to the aging Duth population. Therefore we say Przyjąć z zadowoleniem!

Labels: EU, Immigration, Poland, The Netherlands

Latvia: Passport-free future to blow dust from Old Europe - by Gunta Gasuna

Optimists call it the end of the Iron Curtain. Pessimists fear a "Fortress Europe" or a wave of illegal immigration from December 21, when passports will be checked at fewer European borders. When the European Union's passport-free Schengen zone expands to include nine mostly former communist states, travellers in the EU will not need a passport to cross land and sea borders in an area about one-third the size of the United States, from Narva in Estonia to Narbonne in France. From next March the extended zone will also include airports in a total of 24 European countries, where more than 400 million people live.

Labels: Economy, EU, Immigration

EU work permit 'blue card' faces opposition - by Renata Goldirova

The European Commission's plan to attract non-EU workers has run into difficulties, as several member states question whether Brussels' bureaucracy should play a role in the area. On Thursday (6 November), interior and employment ministers from the 27-nation bloc failed to give complete backing to a set of ideas tailored to tackle one of Europe's major dilemmas - how to fulfil its economic need for guest workers, while alleviating the pressure of illegal migration. Berlin fears that the blue card would be the first step towards Brussels setting out the specific numbers of economic immigrants able to enter the territory of an individual member state.

Note EU-Digest: Europe with its dwindling population needs a good mix of well and mid/lower-level educated immigrants which need to meet specific criteria to enter the EU. The Blue card is one of the instruments which can provide the proper controls to regulate this immigration process.

Labels: EU, Immigration

Race and politics in France - Trouble in the court of Sarkozy

The first Muslim to hold such a top government job, and a woman to boot, Ms Dati has become emblematic of an effort to open up the French elite. This makes her controversial judicial reform a test of the new France in more ways than one.She was adopted by Mr Sarkozy when he was interior minister (she had written to him cold, and demanded a meeting) and has worked in his team ever since. Since she was appointed rather than elected, Mr Sarkozy's centre-right party is seeking to boost her standing by putting her top of the list for the next municipal elections in the bourgeois 7th arrondissement of Paris. Ms Dati's ascent prompts as much admiration as it does resentment. Her appointment did not prevent another eruption of street violence in the heavily Muslim banlieues last month. In the same week that rioters torched cars, the country's justices also took to the streets during a strike to protest against her plans to amalgamate courts.

Dominique Sopo, head of SOS Racisme, an anti-discrimination group, says hostility to her reform is because she is “young, a woman, and of North African origin. Unfortunately, this profile creates resentment among a French elite made up of white men over 55.”

Labels: EU, France, Immigration, Poltical

EU set to insist on rights for temps

Britain could be set to lose a Brussels battle over giving temporary workers the same rights as permanent staff. Despite union pressure, the UK is resisting new EU regulations to extend employment protections over pay and conditions to all workers. However the government looks set to lose its fight to persuade fellow member states to delay the change, which the private sector fears could put 250,000 jobs at risk.

Only four of the 27 EU members are now opposed, meaning Britain will be forced to comply under qualified-majority voting at a council of ministers meeting on Wednesday.

Labels: EU, Immigration, Labor

Have sex, get UK visa!- by Nabita Sircar

A probe has been launched following a newspaper report that staff at Britain's biggest immigration centre was giving UK visas to attractive foreigners in return for sex. A former employee told the Sun tabloid that workers at the centre in Croydon, south London, used their influence to seduce pretty asylum seekers whereas "ugly" migrants would see their applications rejected.

The whistleblower, Anthony Pamnani, a former administration worker at Lunar House centre which deals with 300,000 visa and asylum applications a year made the claims. 23-year-old Pamnani said, "One girl came in and told us an administrative officer had visited her flat and they slept together. She got indefinite leave to stay." Staff treated Brazilian girls most favourably, he claimed. They would allow them to stay twice as long in Britain as their male counterparts. However, he said unattractive women would receive the opposite treatment.

Labels: EU, Immigration, Sex

Dutch court allows Srebrenica lawsuit against UN, Netherlands to proceed

A court in the Netherlands ruled Tuesday that the families of approximately 8,000 Bosnian Muslims who were killed in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre [BBC timeline; JURIST news archive] can proceed with their class action lawsuit [JURIST report; case backgrounder] against the United Nations and the Netherlands filed June 4, according to lawyer Marco Gerritsen, who represents approximately 6,000 family members of victims in the lawsuit. Gerritsen said the court ruled the case can proceed in spite of the UN's claim of immunity [JURIST report; press briefing transcript] under Article 2 Section 2 of the Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations [PDF text], which says that the UN's property and assets "shall enjoy immunity from every form of legal process except it has expressly waived its immunity." The thousands of Srebrenica survivors who filed the lawsuit allege that both the Netherlands and the UN are liable for their failure to protect civilians, many of whom were refugees that relocated to the Srebrenica enclave declared [S/Res 819, PDF] to be a "safe area" by the UN Security Council in 1993.

Labels: Britain, China, Elections, Energy, EU, France, Immigration, Iran, Netherlands, Russia, Sarkozy, Sex, Trade, US

E. Africa bloc signs interim trade agreement with EU

Five East African countries agreed a new trade deal with the European Union on Tuesday, weeks before a preferential trade pact is due to expire, EU officials said. Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi -- which form the East African Community trading bloc -- and the European Commission inked an interim deal, covering goods and fisheries. The move was a step towards a new Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) covering issues such as services and investment to be reached by mid-2009, the Commission said.

Labels: Britain, China, Elections, Energy, EU, France, Immigration, Iran, Netherlands, Russia, Sarkozy, Sex, Trade, US

Number of New HIV Cases in European Union Nearly Double Since 1999, Report Says

The number of new HIV cases recorded in European Union countries has nearly doubled from 28.8 cases per one million residents in 1999 to 57.5 cases per one million residents in 2006, according to a report released on Friday by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, BBC News reports. More than 50% of cases are through heterosexual transmission, although men who have sex with men are at higher risk of infection, ECDC said (BBC News, 11/23). The EuroHIV data, published in ECDC's journal Eurosurveillance, found that in 2006, a total of 86,912 new HIV cases were reported across 50 of the 53 countries of the World Health Organization European Region. A total of 26,220 cases, or 30%, reported in E.U. countries, according to the data. The average rate of new HIV diagnosis across Europe is about 111 cases per one million residents, and the rate among countries in the European Union is 67 cases per one million residents (ECDC release, 11/23). According to the report, the number of HIV cases is continuing to rise in non-E.U. areas of Europe, with 288 cases per one million residents in Ukraine and 275 cases per one million residents in Russia (BBC News, 11/23). The data indicate that former Soviet countries had the highest number of new HIV cases in 2006, primarily because of drug use, Reuters reports. Former Soviet countries reported 59,866 new HIV cases in 2006, which is more than all of the new cases in Western and Central Europe combined (Reuters, 11/23).

Labels: Britain, China, Elections, Energy, EU, France, Immigration, Iran, Netherlands, Russia, Sarkozy, Sex, Trade, US

UK broadband network 'lagging behind the rest of Europe' - by Gary Cleland

The broadband network needs urgent improvement or it will fall behind the rest of Europe, industry experts have claimed. Telecommunications leaders said internet access needed a faster broadband network to cope with rising demand for services. They claimed at a Government-organised summit that the flagging network could be left behind by other countries. Almost nine out of 10 British internet users connect via broadband yet they have to put up with some of the slowest broadband speeds in Europe - worse than Poland, Slovakia and Hungary.

Labels: Britain, China, Elections, Energy, EU, France, Immigration, Iran, Netherlands, Russia, Sarkozy, Sex, Trade, US

EU to get its own GPS system: Galileo to be partially funded through EU farming subsidies

Following months of disagreements, the EU has reached a funding compromise and resolved the crisis around its Galileo satellite navigation system. Two thirds of the missing 2.4 billion euros will be provided from EU farming pots alone. This was announced by the Portuguese Chair of the European Council in Brussels on Friday night following more than 12 hours of budget negotiations for 2008 by the EU Ministers of Finance or their representatives. Germany could not uphold its reservations against fully funding Galileo from the EU budget, reported EU diplomats. Berlin didn't want to put the EU's long-term financial plan on the line, which runs until 2013. According to German Minister of Finance Peer Steinbrück, the German government was also apprehensive of straining its national budget by an additional more than 500 million euros. European Commissioner for Financial Programming and Budget Dalia Grybauskaite spoke of an "important decision". As she had suggested, farming subsidies would for the first time be used to improve the EU's competitive position. The current Chairman of the Council of Ministers, Portuguese State Secretary of Finance Emanuel Augustos Santos, said that farming subsidies had not been exhausted this year, and that therefore nothing would be taken away from anybody.

Unlike the US system GPS, the European Galileo satellite navigation system is intended mainly for civilian purposes. It was initially planned to be available this year. The planned start has been postponed to 2013. Apart from the European Union, both China (COMPASS) and India (IRNSS) plan to launch their own satellite navigation systems into the earth orbit. The Russian GLONASS system is planned to be fully functional again from 2009.

Labels: Britain, China, Elections, Energy, EU, France, Immigration, Iran, Netherlands, Russia, Sarkozy, Sex, Trade, US

Dollar down, euro up, so what - by John M.Berry

The U.S. dollar is still at the center of the world's financial system, and its importance isn't fading in the face of exaggerated claims to the contrary.Nevertheless, the dollar continues to dominate foreign-exchange markets, U.S. financial markets are the world's deepest and most liquid, and Treasury securities remain the globe's premier risk-free investment. And, of course, the US is a market second to none, to which foreign companies supplied more than $2.2 trillion worth of goods and services last year.

Labels: Britain, China, Elections, Energy, EU, France, Immigration, Iran, Netherlands, Russia, Sarkozy, Sex, Trade, US

A New French Revolution - by Fareed Zakaria

In an essay in the current issue of The American Interest, Brookings scholar Philip Gordon writes that Sarkozy might well be able to make France a larger player in the world, "punching above its weight," the way Tony Blair did during the 1990s and early 2000s. Blair, and Thatcher before him, were able to create a new image for Britain and made the country a modern world power. But that transformation rested on the revival of the British economy, which became a symbol of success in a globalized age. France currently ranks 18th in the World Economic Forum's annual competitiveness rankings. That's not bad, but it is nowhere near commensurate with the place that the French imagine for themselves in the world.

Labels: Britain, China, Elections, Energy, EU, France, Immigration, Iran, Netherlands, Russia, Sarkozy, Sex, Trade, US

Ukraine - Shell terminates MoU Ukraine Deal, confirms Regal

Shell has terminated a Memorandum of Understanding covering interests in Ukraine signed with oil explorer Regal Petroleum last week, Regal said Monday. “The company is considering its options for the development and commercialization of its Ukrainian assets,” said Regal this morning. The agreement with Shell over a sale of a 51% stake in its Ukraine interests was announced last Wednesday.

Labels: Britain, China, Elections, Energy, EU, France, Immigration, Iran, Netherlands, Russia, Sarkozy, Sex, Trade, US

Archbishop of Canterbury says "US is‘worst’ imperialist - by Abul Taher

In a wide-ranging interview with a British Muslim magazine, the Anglican leader linked criticism of the United States to one of his most pessimistic declarations about the state of western civilization. He said the crisis was caused not just by America’s actions but also by its misguided sense of its own mission. He poured scorn on the “chosen nation myth of America, meaning that what happens in America is very much at the heart of God’s purpose for humanity”. He went on to suggest that the West was fundamentally adrift: “Our modern western definition of humanity is clearly not working very well. There is something about western modernity which really does eat away at the soul.”

Williams suggested American leadership had broken down: “We have only one global hegemonic power. It is not accumulating territory: it is trying to accumulate influence and control. That’s not working. He contrasted it unfavourably with how the British Empire governed India. “It is one thing to take over a territory and then pour energy and resources into administering it and normalising it. Rightly or wrongly, that’s what the British Empire did — in India, for example. “It is another thing to go in on the assumption that a quick burst of violent action will somehow clear the decks and that you can move on and other people will put it back together — Iraq, for example.

Labels: Britain, China, Elections, Energy, EU, France, Immigration, Iran, Netherlands, Russia, Sarkozy, Sex, Trade, US

Forget a US green card the European Union wants you to try Blue instead!

The European Union is working on offering “Blue Cards” to entice the needed highly skilled migrants that are so desired for the growth of various members who total 27 nations.

They plan on offering housing and financial benefits as well as guaranteeing at least three times the minimum wage in the country concerned plus health insurance, as this is a requirement for an applicant to apply. Furthermore they will fast track the issuance to those who apply as long as they have a contract for one year’s labor and meet the salary and healthcare requirements. This is the exact opposite of the United States system where thousands of companies hire illegal immigrants and are given a wink and a nod from the immigration service. The government is not the least bit interested in what wage these migrants receive or how they are housed. Their only goal is to allow, even in violation of US law, for cheap labor to be attainable for agricultural and construction companies so they might exploit these so-called illegal aliens and strengthen their bottom line. Within 6 months of employment the worker in the EU could have their family members join them even without a permanent residence permit. They would also be treated and have the same benefits as EU nationals now receive including social assistance, pensions and tax benefits, as well as access to public housing.

Labels: EU, Immigration

Migrating to Europe? Avoid Latvia like the plague

Going by the newest league table, potential migrants to Europe should head for Sweden and avoid Latvia like the plague. The study, whose results were released on Monday in Brussels, was a European Union-financed project conducted by the Migrant Integration Policy Index with the British Council. Examining 140 key factors that affect the lives of immigrants, the study found the five countries with the largest 'foreign' populations - the UK, Spain, Germany, Italy and France - are in the top half of the league table, with Italy leading. But Sweden, overall, won more points than any other European country.

There are estimated to be 21 million immigrants in the EU's 25 member states, excluding Romania and Bulgaria.

Labels: EU, Immigration, Latvia

Africans and more rap on wet Mediterranean doors(154 died in June Alone)- by Camelia Paraschiv

llegal immigration and the state(s) of southern Europe - a seemingly never-ending waiting-process - for Warsaw-based EU border control agency Frontex to strengthen its network of coastal patrols, for funds, and for bilateral treaties to be established between Europe and African countries
As they wait, key regions - the Canary Islands, the Andalusian coast, Spanish enclaves in Morocco Ceuta and Melilla, and Mediterranean islands Lampedusa (Italy) and Malta – continue to 'welcome' pateras (Spanish for flat-bottomed wooden boats) in their waters. After the first en masse arrival-cum-crisis of illegal immigrants in the Canary Islands in 2002, the problem reached boiling point in 2006, climaxing with a peak in worldwide media interest. All the while, the cost of human lives remains tragically high: 154 African immigrants died on their way to Europe in pateras in June 2007 alone.

Labels: EU, Immigration

Immigration: More Americans heading North to Canada - by Tim Harper

An analysis of immigration statistics done by the Montreal-based Association for Canadian Studies showed the number of Americans who moved to Canada in 2006 hit a 30-year high, almost double the number who moved north in 2000 when Bush was elected for a first term as U.S. president. The day after Bush was re-elected president, there were 191,000 hits on Canada's immigration website, six times its average traffic, most of it from the U.S.

The analysis also showed the southward brain drain is being narrowed somewhat, and most of the American migrants are highly educated people who may be moving to Canada for quality of life and social reasons.For 34-year-old labour organizer Tom Kertes, the move last April from Seattle, Wash., to Toronto was based on human rights. "The words `human rights' are foreign words in the U.S.,'' Kertes said. "They only apply to other countries.''He also cited the war in Iraq and the torture of Iraqi prisoners by Americans – and the failure of the Bush administration to clearly disavow such practice – as contributing factors to what is a major decision.

Labels: Canada, Immigration, Liberty, US

Africa, Europe cosy up on migration, progress - by Axel Bugge

At an African Union (AU) summit in Ghana, where leaders debated integration similar to that achieved by the EU, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso called on Europe and Africa to develop partnerships in energy and climate change. Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates, whose country took over the six-month rotating presidency of the EU on Sunday, said it was “incomprehensible” that Africa and Europe had not had a permanent, institutional dialogue. “This hurts Europeans and Africans,” Socrates told AU leaders at their summit — the first to invite the leader of the rotating EU presidency state to speak.

Labels: Africa, EU, Immigration

Labels: EU, Immigration

The EU's strength is its diversity - by Alan Massie

The impetus towards European union came first from Britain in a speech made by Churchill in Zurich on September 19, 1946: "There can be no revival of Europe without a spiritually great France and a spiritually great Germany. The structure of a United States of Europe, if well and truly built, will be such as to make the material strength of a single state less important. Small nations will count as much as large ones and gain their honour by their contribution to the common cause."

Labels: EU, EU 50, Immigration

Germany allows thousands of long-term immigrants to stay legally

Germany's lower house of parliament passed legislation according to which long-term immigrants are allowed to stay legally if they can find jobs.

The law, which passed with 398 legislators voting in favor and 170 against and five abstentions, was the result of several years debate over how to better integrate the estimated 15 million people living in Germany who have a foreign background.Other key points of the bill include raising the legal age that a spouse can enter the country from 18 to 21, in an effort to clamp down on forced marriages; requiring proof of basic German language skills for newcomers; and a requirement that some foreigners entering the country submit a digital photograph and fingerprints.

Labels: EU, Germany, Immigration

Labels: EU, Immigration, The Netherlands

Labels: Immigration

Europeans' flight from Europe - by Paul Belie

Last year more than 155,000 Germans emigrated from their native country. Since 2004 the number of ethnic Germans who leave each year is greater than the number of immigrants moving in. While the emigrants are highly motivated and well educated, "those coming in are mostly poor, untrained and hardly educated," says Stephanie Wahl of the German Institute for Economics.

Labels: Germany, Immigration

Even in death, migrants were let down by Europe - by Peter Popham in Rome

The bodies of 21 would-be migrants picked up from the Mediterranean by a French frigate 120 miles south of Malta were left to rot on board the ship while Maltese, French and Libyan authorities argued for hours over where the bodies would be taken for burial.

The corpses, initially suspected to have come from a boat crammed with Eritreans that was photographed by a Maltese surveillance plane 10 days ago before disappearing without trace, were already in an advanced state of decomposition when La Motte Picquet plucked them from the sea in the Gulf of Sirte. 'They had clearly been in the sea for several days,' said Emmanuel Dinh, a spokesman for the French Maritime Authority."

Labels: EU, Immigration

The Dutch Immigration Disaster: Is It happening also in the US? - by Bruce Allen Roberts

An Islamic imam calls homosexuals "pigs." One homosexual responds that Islam is "a backward religion," and that the country should close its borders to Muslim immigrants. This exchange took place in the Netherlands in mid-2001.

This event, though a microcosm of immigration-influenced tensions, was but a blip on the radar screen. Since then, the Netherlands has continued a policy of internationalism, importing massive numbers of Muslim immigrants. The Dutch government now "subsidizes mosques," supports separate social and welfare arrangements for immigrant minorities; and has established a separate consultation system with community ‘leaders.’ Some of these "leaders" have even advocated that sharia law apply to civil disputes between Muslims. Inevitably, this coupling of immigration and multicultural politics has triggered resentment among native Dutch, an unfolding drama to which When Ways of Life Collide devotes a considerable portion of its pages.

US readers might wonder at face value, if America’s immigration dilemma differs from that of the Netherlands’?

Labels: Immigration, Integration, Muslims, Netherlands

After Lifetime in Germany, Turks Still Alone and Torn - by Mark Landler

The last cups of Turkish black tea had been drained, the platters of olives and goat cheese cleared, but the snowy-haired Turks lingered at the table.Four decades after the first Turks arrived as guest workers, they are reaching retirement in a land that still feels foreign. For Mr. Mermer and many others, it is a bleak time with the recognition that they will live out their days in a place where they had planned to stay only a few years.

Germany never planned on them staying, either, and now faces a looming social and financial burden. Of its 2.7 million people of Turkish origin, 320,000 are of retirement age. That is expected to double by 2020.

Labels: Germany, Immigration, Integration, Turkey

Hundreds of Gypsies Left Romania for Turin, Italy

Hundreds of Gypsies Left Romania for Turin, Italy - by Gabriella Mladin

About 350 people from the village of Rau de Mori, in Romania, Hunedoara County, live now in make-shift shelters and mobile homes on the outskirts of Turin, Italy, some 800 meters from the city’s Orbassano district. Seven years ago they were about ten people in the colony of Gypsies; last year some 100 people had left their village in Romania, and the rest joined the group after the country’s accession to the European Union on January 1st.

Labels: Immigration, Integration

Labels: Immigration, Integration

Visa rules to ease under FTA with India, says EU

Freer movement of Indian professionals in the 25 European Union member countries would become a reality with the successful conclusion of EU-India free trade negations, reports quoting director-general for trade of the European Commission Davis O'Sullivan as saying.

The issue of free movement of professionals, which is critical for India, is likely to become a reality in the near future, as this will be a key point of negotiations in the proposed free trade agreement with EU, he said. India, in return, should also relax restrictions on foreign ownership in services of interest to Europe like retail, financial sector and telecom, he pointed out.

Sullivan said the India-EU FTA negotiations would start in April after the council of ministers of Europe grants the mandate to the European Commission.

Labels: Immigration