Immigration News: February, 2002 - Volume #9

NORTH AMERICA

Anti-Terrorism
Federal payments of up to $1.6 million are available to the families of those who died in the September 11 attacks

INS: Border, Sanctions
Apprehensions of unauthorized foreigners along the Mexico-US border fell in January 2002

Census, INS: Data
The Census Bureau estimated there were 8.7 million illegal foreigners in the US in 2000, more than twice as many as the 3.8 million in 1990.

Mexico: Legalization, Returns, Economy
Mexico and the US resumed their migration dialogue in January 2002, as Mexican Foreign Minister Jorge Castaneda met with U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell.

Labor: UI, NLRB, Welfare
The US unemployment rate rose to 5.8 percent in December 2001, the highest level in six years.

California, Texas
The University of California Board of Regents in January 2002 agreed that 200 to 400 unauthorized foreigners who spent at least three years in California K-12 schools

Canada : Deportation, Points
Elinor Caplan was moved from Minister of Citizenship and Immigration to Minister of Customs and Revenue in a Cabinet reshuffle

Latin America
Dominican migrants in the US have ordinarily been blue-collar workers, but a new wave of Dominican migrants with college degrees is settling in south Florida.

ASIA

China, Hong Kong, Taiwan
China is expected to receive $40 billion in FDI in 2002, helping to continue a construction boom that adds factories as well as infrastructure

Japan, Korea
There were 636,548 Korean nationals in Japan in 1999; 233,920 ethnic Koreans obtained Japanese nationality between 1952 and 1999.

Southeast Asia
Malaysia reported that it had 789,120 foreign workers on September 1, 2001, including 291,448 in manufacturing

EUROPE

EU: Trafficking
European Justice Ministers plan to sign an agreement on February 28, 2002 to launch an EU drive against human trafficking.

Germany: Politics, Asylum
Germany's Edmund Stoiber, who will be the conservative challenger to chancellor Gerhard Schroeder in September 22, 2002 elections, said

UK: Immigration, Asylum
Home Secretary David Blunkett wants to increase immigration, saying that immigrants contributed L2.5 billion more in taxes than they consumed in tax-supported services in 2001.

Russia, Eastern Europe
Deputy Interior Minister Alexander Chekalin estimated that there were 10 million unauthorized migrants in Russia

Scandinavia: Denmark
On January 17, 2002, the new Liberal-Conservative Danish government proposed several restrictive measures aimed at reducing the number of refugees and immigrants arriving in the country.

Italy, Greece
The Italian government plans to toughen immigration laws, allowing non-EU migrants to remain in Italy only if they have an employment contract, and only for its duration.

Turkey
Turkey is seeking to be the 13th candidate to join the EU.

OTHER

Australia: Immigration Up
Australia expects 93,000 immigrants in 2001-02, the most in a decade, and 53,500 will be admitted under the point system.

Israel: Remove Illegals
Israeli police, labor and interior officials mounted a major campaign in January 2002 whose goal was to apprehend and remove 1,000 unauthorized foreigners

Africa: Zimbabwe, South Africa
President Robert Mugabe and his ruling Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front, or ZANU-PF have been in power since independence in 1980.

UN: Refugees, Trade
UN High Commissioner for Refugees Ruud Lubbers said that UNHCR must move away from its western origins