Countries on Immigration

[Malcolm]

Seems that some countries have decided to review their immigration rules.  Following are some, there are others so feel free to add.

Australia plans to halve migrant intake, tighten student visa rules

Story by By Renju Jose  • 5h

File photo: People cross a street in the city centre following further easing of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) restrictions in Sydney, Australia, December 10, 2020. REUTERS/Loren Elliott/File photo© Thomson Reuters

By Renju Jose

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australia on Monday said it would tighten visa rules for international students and low-skilled workers that could halve its migrant intake over the next two years as the government looks to overhaul what it said was a "broken" migration system.

The decision comes after net immigration was expected to have peaked at a record 510,000 in 2022-23. Official data showed it was forecast to fall to about a quarter of a million in 2024-25 and 2025-26, roughly in line with pre-COVID levels.

"We've worked around the clock to strike the best balance in Australia's migration system," Home Affairs Minister Clare O'Neil said in a statement ahead of the formal release of the government's new migration strategy later on Monday.

"The government's targeted reforms are already putting downward pressure on net overseas migration, and will further contribute to this expected decline," O'Neil said.

O'Neil said the increase in net overseas migration in 2022-23 was mostly driven by international students.

Australia boosted its annual migration numbers last year to help key businesses recruit staff to fill shortages after the COVID-19 pandemic brought tighter border controls, and kept foreign students and workers out of the country for nearly two years.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese over the weekend said Australia's migration numbers needed to be wound back to a "sustainable level," adding that "the system is broken."

Long reliant on immigration to supply what is now one of the tightest labour markets in the world, Australia's Labor government has pushed to speed up the entry of highly skilled workers and smooth their path to permanent residency.

Under the new policies, international students would need higher ratings on English tests. It will also end settings that allowed students to prolong their stay in Australia.

A new specialist visa for highly skilled workers will be set up with the processing time cut to one week, helping businesses recruit top migrants amid tough competition with other developed economies.

(Reporting by Renju Jose in Sydney; Editing by Mark Porter)

 

[Malcolm]

   

Biden and Congress are mulling big changes on immigration. What are they and what could they mean?

A deal to provide further U.S. assistance to Ukraine by year-end appears to be increasingly out of reach for President Joe Biden. Republicans are insisting on pairing the funding with changes to America’s immigration and border policies. (AP Photo/Andres Leighton, File) Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

By Rebecca Santana, The Associated Press

Posted December 10, 2023 7:50 am.

Last Updated December 10, 2023 1:12 pm.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is taking a more active role in Senate negotiations over changes to the immigration system that Republicans are demanding in exchange for providing money to Ukraine in its fight against Russia and Israel for the war with Hamas.

The Democratic president has said he is willing to make “significant compromises on the border” as Republicans block the wartime aid in Congress. The White House is expected to get more involved in talks this week as the impasse over changes to border policy has deepened and the funds remaining for Ukraine have dwindled.

“It’s time to cut a deal that both sides can agree to,” Biden’s budget director, Shalanda Young, said Sunday on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”

Republicans say the record numbers of migrants crossing the southern border pose a security threat because authorities cannot adequately screen all the migrants and that those who enter the United States are straining the country’s resources. GOP lawmakers also say they cannot justify to their constituents sending billions of dollars to other countries, even in a time of war, while failing to address the border at home.

Republican Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma, who is leading the negotiations, pointed to the surge of people entering the U.S. from Mexico and said “it is literally spiraling out of control.”

“All we’re trying to do is to say what tools are needed to be able to get this back in control, so we don’t have the chaos on our southern border,” Lankford said on CBS.

But many immigration advocates, including some Democrats, say some of the changes being proposed would gut protections for people who desperately need help and would not really ease the chaos at the border.

Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy, the top Democratic bargainer, said the White House would take a more active role in the talks. But he also panned Republican policy demands so far as “unreasonable.”

“We don’t want to shut off the United States of America to people who are coming here to be rescued from dangerous, miserable circumstances, in which their life is in jeopardy. The best of America is that you can come here to be rescued from terror and torture,” Murphy said on NBC’s ”Meet the Press.”

Much of the negotiating is taking place in private, but some of the issues under discussion are known: asylum standards, humanitarian parole and fast-track deportation authority, among others.

A look at what they are and what might happen if there are changes:

HUMANITARIAN PAROLE

Using humanitarian parole, the U.S. government can let people into the country by essentially bypassing the regular immigration process. This power is supposed to be used on a case-by-case basis for “urgent humanitarian reasons” or “significant public benefit.” Migrants are usually admitted for a pre-determined period and there’s no path toward U.S. citizenship.

Over the years, administrations, both Democratic and Republican, have used humanitarian parole to admit people into the U.S. and help groups of people from all over the world. It’s been used to admit people from Hungary in the 1950s, from Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos during the latter half of the 1970s, and Iraqi Kurds who had worked with the U.S. in the mid-1990s, according to research by the Cato Institute.

Under Biden, the U.S. has relied heavily on humanitarian parole. The U.S. airlifted nearly 80,000 Afghans from Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, and brought them to the U.S. after the Taliban takeover. The U.S. has admitted tens of thousands of Ukrainians who fled after the Russian invasion.

In January the Democratic administration announced a plan to admit 30,000 people a month from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela via humanitarian parole, provided those migrants had a financial sponsor and flew to the U.S. instead of going to the U.S.-Mexico border for entry.

The latest U.S. government figures show that nearly 270,000 people had been admitted into the country through October under that program. Separately, 324,000 people have gotten appointments through a mobile app called CBP One that is used to grant parole to people at land crossings with Mexico.

Republicans have described the programs as essentially an end run around Congress by letting in large numbers of people who otherwise would have no path to be admitted. Texas sued the administration to stop the program aimed at Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans.

WHAT MIGHT CHANGE WITH ASYLUM?

Asylum is a type of protection that allows a migrant to stay in the U..S. and have a path to American citizenship. To qualify for asylum, someone has to demonstrate fear of persecution back home due to a fairly specific set of criteria: race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group or political opinions. Asylum-seekers must be on U.S. soil when they ask for this protection.

They generally go through an initial screening called a credible fear interview. If they are determined to have a chance of getting asylum, they are allowed to stay in the U.S. to pursue their case in immigration court. That process can take years. In the meantime, asylum-seekers can start to work, get married, have children and create a life.

Critics say the problem is that most people do not end up getting asylum when their case finally makes it to immigration court. But they say migrants know that if they claim asylum, they essentially will be allowed to stay in America for years.

“People aren’t necessarily coming to apply for asylum as much to access that asylum adjudication process,” said Andrew Arthur, a former immigration court judge and fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies, which advocates for less immigration in the U.S.

Some of what lawmakers are discussing would raise the bar that migrants need to meet during that initial credible fear interview. Those who do not meet it would be sent home.

But Paul Schmidt, a retired immigration court judge who blogs about immigration court issues, said the credible fear interview was never intended to be so tough. Migrants are doing the interview soon after arriving at the border from an often arduous and traumatizing journey, he said. Schmidt said the interview is more of an “initial screening” to weed out those with frivolous asylum claims.

Schmidt also questioned the argument that most migrants fail their final asylum screening. He said some immigration judges apply overly restrictive standards and that the system is so backlogged that it is hard to know exactly what the most recent and reliable statistics are.

WHAT IS EXPEDITED REMOVAL?

Expedited removal, created in 1996 by Congress, basically allows low-level immigration officers, as opposed to an immigration judge, to quickly deport certain immigrants. It was not widely used until 2004 and generally has been used to deport people apprehended within 100 miles of the Mexican or Canadian border and within two weeks of their arrival.

Defenders say it relieves the burden on the backlogged immigration courts. Immigration advocates say its use is prone to errors and does not give migrants enough protections, such as having a lawyer help them argue their case. As president, Republican Donald Trump pushed to expand this fast-track deportation policy nationwide and for longer periods of time. Opponents sued and that expansion never happened.

WHAT MIGHT THESE CHANGES DO?

Much of the disagreement over these proposed changes comes down to whether people think deterrence works.

Arthur, the former immigration court judge, thinks it does. He said changes to the credible fear asylum standards and restrictions on the use of humanitarian parole would be a “game changer.” He said it would be a “costly endeavor” as the government would have to detain and deport many more migrants than today. But, he argued, eventually the numbers of people arriving would drop.

But others, like Schmidt, the retired immigration court judge, say migrants are so desperate, they will come anyway and make dangerous journeys to evade Border Patrol.

“Desperate people do desperate things,” he said.

___

[Malcolm]

In new breakthrough, EU countries agree new rules to manage future migration crises

By Jorge Liboreiro & Vincenzo Genovese

Published on 04/10/2023 - 13:02•Updated 10/10/2023 - 10:01

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The preliminary agreement reached on Wednesday paves the way for establishing common rules to manage an unexpected mass arrival of asylum seekers, a crucial element of the European Union's migration reform.

 

The deal on the so-called Crisis Regulation was sealed during a meeting of ambassadors in Brussels, who were tasked with finishing the work that interior ministers were unable to conclude last week when Italy unexpectedly blocked the draft text.

Italy contested a small part of the legislation centred on the search-and-rescue services provided by NGO vessels in the Mediterranean Sea, which Rome considers a "pull factor" that attracts more migrants to European shores.

Germany, whose vote was necessary to achieve the required qualified majority, defended the NGO vessels, arguing that saving lives at sea is a legal, humanitarian and moral duty. Italian officials had previously criticised the German government for providing state funding to these NGOs.

The stand-off between Rome and Berlin thwarted last week's attempt to strike a deal, despite the hopes raised by a new compromise text tabled by Spain, the country currently holding the EU Council's rotating presidency.

Following consultations with their national governments, ambassadors managed to break the impasse early Wednesday afternoon.

Hungary and Poland, the two leading detractors of the EU's migration reform, voted against the text while Austria, the Czech Republic and Slovakia abstained, diplomatic sources told Euronews.

"Deal! EU Ambassadors have reached an agreement on the regulation addressing situations of crisis and force majeure in the field of migration and asylum," the Spanish presidency said on X, formerly Twitter.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen celebrated the deal as a "real game changer" while Ylva Johansson, the European Commissioner for home affairs, said it had been achieved "with pragmatism, commitment and unity."

The Council will now use this preliminary agreement as its joint position in the negotiations with the European Parliament.

What is the Crisis Regulation?

The Crisis Regulation sets out rules that would apply in exceptional times when the bloc's asylum system is threatened by a sudden and massive arrival of migrants, as was the case during the 2015-2016 migration crisis.

To cope with this unexpected influx, member states would be allowed to apply tougher measures, such as keeping asylum seekers at the border for up to 20 weeks while their requests for international protection are being examined. 

The detention of rejected applicants could also be extended from the regular limit of 12 weeks to a maximum of 20 until the process of return is completed.

NGOs believe these derogations could lead to large-scale confinement, degrade the quality of asylum procedures and increase the risk of refoulement (sending migrants back to countries where they face serious harm).

Germany had voiced similar concerns, particularly regarding the rights of children and family members, and had until recently blocked the law by choosing to abstain.

The recital that had pitted Berlin against Rome now reads: "Humanitarian aid operations should not be considered as instrumentalisation of migrants when there is no aim to destabilise the Union or a Member State."

In its original version, the Crisis Regulation also foresaw the possibility of fast-tracking the asylum requests of people who are fleeing a situation of extraordinary danger, such as an armed conflict. The special scheme would have granted refugees swifter access to residence, employment, education and social assistance.

However, in the compromise text approved on Wednesday, that article has been heavily edited and no reference to "immediate protection" can be found.

A comprehensive reform

The Council's position on the Crisis Regulation was the only one missing from the puzzle known as the New Pact on Migration and Asylum.

The New Pact was presented by the European Commission in September 2020 to replace the ad-hoc crisis management of the past decade with a set of clear-cut rules applicable to all member states.

The five-pronged reform treads a delicate line between solidarity and responsibility to ensure frontline nations, like Italy and Greece, are not left to fend for themselves.

Its central piece is a system of "mandatory solidarity" that offers countries three different options to manage migration flows: welcome a number of successful asylum seekers in their territory, pay €20,000 for each migrant they refuse to relocate, or finance operational support, such as infrastructure and personnel.

This system, which was preliminarily agreed upon in a breakthrough moment in June, is supposed to function on a regular basis while the Crisis Regulation would be triggered only in extraordinary situations that threaten the EU's asylum system.

The Crisis Regulation would also apply when migration is "weaponised" by a foreign government in an attempt to meddle with the bloc's internal affairs, a lesson learned during the border crisis that Belarus instigated in the summer of 2021.

The protracted impasse on the Crisis Regulation risked undermining the EU's migration overhaul and frustrated the European Parliament, which last month decided to pause negotiations on two separate elements of the New Pact until member states unlocked the remaining piece.

Following Wednesday's deal, talks will resume with the goal of wrapping up all five elements of the New Pact before the 2024 European elections.

"The Spanish presidency is the window of opportunity to conclude the Pact on Migration: it's now or never," Juan Fernando López Aguilar, the socialist MEP who acts as rapporteur for the Crisis Regulation, told Euronews last week.

This article has been updated with more information about the preliminary deal.

[Jaydee]