IMMIGRATION CONCERN

News, views and sources for research on why and how

IMMIGRATION MATTERS


A collection of material on immigration and related issues, mainly in the
United Kingdom, as well as lists of books and of web sites.

Details of other pages are at the end of this page



RECENT NEWS AND VIEWS

Extracts of recent news and views in date order - latest first

MULTICULTURALISM – POLITICS
Cabinet minister John Denham: poor whites have had a raw deal
Sam Coates
The Times, 1 December 2009.

     White working-class communities feel a justifiable sense of grievance and deserve additional help reserved for minority groups, a Cabinet minister told union leaders yesterday.
     John Denham, the Communities Secretary, sparked a row by saying that government agencies and councils should give more priority to poor white communities that feel hard done by because of immigration and the recession.
     The move is an attempt to head off support for the British National Party, which has gained popularity by suggesting that whites are treated like a minority in Britain. It comes two weeks after remarks by Alan Johnson, the Home Secretary, acknowledging that Labour had done too little to tackle Britain's immigration crisis. ...
     Mr Denham is implying that too much is being done for disadvantaged ethnic communities at the expense of the white working class – a claim likely to be rejected by some Labour politicians, who will argue that now is not the time to downgrade the fight against racism.
     Keith Vaz, chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee, said: "To suggest that ethnic minorities do not suffer from a disadvantage is a radical departure from government policy, not least in his own department, where hundreds of millions are spent helping ethnic minority groups. We need to know whether he is suggesting additional government spending supporting white working-class groups – or cuts to existing programmes." ...
     Mr Denham told the Trades Union Congress that government bodies and councils had been "blind" to the needs of white working-class communities and called for a new focus on the needs of poor whites affected by mass immigration.
     ... Mr Denham said state agencies charged with tackling inequality and disadvantage should no longer focus solely on ethnic minority groups.
     He said that areas with high immigration levels felt a sense of "insecurity and unfairness" because of the impact of new arrivals on jobs and public services.
     "Many local agencies have a clear and good commitment to tackling racism and race inequality. But on its own this is not enough. We can only challenge racism and race inequality as part of a strategy that tackles all forms of inequality and disadvantage.
     "This must include poorer white working class communities, as well as disadvantaged minority ethnic communities. Agencies that have thought their only remit was to address minority issues must reassess the way they work."
[Site link]

 

BENEFITS AND COSTS – ASYLUM, CITIZENSHIP
Council pays refugee family's £83,000 rent
Chris Irvine
Daily Telegraph, 30 November 2009.

     A family of former asylum seekers living in a £1.8 million home in central London is costing taxpayers more than £83,000 a year.
     Nasra Warsame, originally from Somalia, seven of her children and her mother moved into the six-bedroom home last month, while her husband, Bashir Aden, and an eighth child are living in an "overspill" property, also paid for by housing benefits.
     The couple claimed asylum in Britain after leaving Somalia in 1991.
     They have been granted citizenship and all their children, aged between two and 16, have been born here.

ASYLUM – PIRACY
Pirates set free in case they claim asylum
Nick Britten
Daily Telegraph, 30 November 2009.

     The Royal Navy has regularly been allowing Somali pirates to go free because of the risk they would claim asylum if prosecuted in Europe.
     Pirates terrorising ships in the Indian Ocean are often given medical checks and life jackets and fed after being caught, before being sent on their way.
     This is sometimes because, although they are carrying guns and even holding hostages, they have not been caught in the "act of piracy".
     More than 340 suspected Somali pirates have been captured by international navies in the past year and released.
     Julian Brazier, Conservative shipping spokesman, said: "The fault lies not with the hard-pressed naval commanders, but the ridiculous rules of engagement and operating instructions they are given by their political masters."

MULTICULTURALISM – ISLAM, SWITZERLAND, PUBLIC OPINION
Switzerland faces Muslim backlash after it bans minarets
Alexandra Williams
Daily Telegraph, 30 November 2009.

     Switzerland risked a Muslim backlash yesterday after its citizens voted overwhelmingly to ban minarets on mosques.
     The legally-binding referendum result had not been widely expected and was a serious embarrassment to the neutral Swiss government. ...
     ... Yesterday's results showed a swing to 57.5 per cent (1.53 million people) in favour and 42.5 per cent against. Of Switzerland's 26 cantons, or federal states, 22 were in support. ... ...
     Yesterday's referendum was born of planning application by Muslims in the town of Langenthal, in the canton of Bern, asking for permission to add a 30ft minaret to their mosque. What began as a debate about an architectural structure snowballed into an issue about the position of Muslims in Switzerland. ...
     Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf, the justice minister, said: "The initiative is a kind of proxy war. Its supporters say they are against minarets. But they want to fight what they consider creeping Islamisation and sharia law." About 400,000, or 5 per cent, of Swiss residents are Muslims. Only four of the country's 150 mosques have minarets.

TERRORISM – BORDER SECURITY
Al-Qaeda 'exploits sloppy security checks'
Duncan Gardham
Daily Telegraph, 28 November 2009.

     Al-Qaeda terrorists are exploiting loose visa and immigration rules to enter Britain, the security services fear.
     Counter-terrorism police and Whitehall officials believe dozens of extremists could have arrived here by posing as students or legitimate visitors.
     They are concerned both by the relatively lax checks that are made on the visitors before they arrive and by the ease with which they can overstay their visas without anyone noticing.
     As many as 13,000 visa applicants may have entered the country from Pakistan in a seven-month period from October last year, without any checks on their supporting documentation.
     The security services fear that because most do not mix with home-grown terrorists, they are able to operate under the intelligence radar, acting as sleeper cells until ready to launch attacks in Britain.
     Every year about 100,000 visitors arrive in Britain from Pakistan alone, which has been described by the Prime Minister as being part of a "crucible of terror" along with Afghanistan. ...
     The security services are also worried about arrivals from Somalia, Yemen and north Africa. ...
     Figures released in a series of parliamentary questions show that in the seven-month period from October 2008 until May this year, just 29 of the 66,000 applicants from Pakistan were interviewed and in 20 per cent of cases there were no checks at all on documents that gave qualifications, references or travel plans.

IMMIGRATION ABROAD – WORLD, CHINA
The World of China Inc.
Hannah Beech
Time, 7 December 2009.
[An article largely about Chinese involvement in Papua New Guinea (P.N.G.)]
[This magazine is published more than a week before the date it carries]

     Chinese companies investing abroad also tend to ship in nearly everything used on building sites, from packs of dehydrated noodles to the telltale pink-hued Chinese toilet paper. It's not only the contracted Chinese workers who show up, either. Within a few years, their relatives invariably seem to materialize to set up shops selling cheap Chinese goods that threaten the livelihood of indigenous entrepreneurs. Locals who do get work on Chinese-funded projects complain that their bosses don't heed national labor laws ensuring minimum wage or trade-union protection. Over the past three years, anti-Chinese riots have erupted everywhere from the Solomon Islands and Zambia to Tonga and Lesotho. Tensions are also simmering in India, where the Chinese are involved in several major infrastructure projects. Even high-level officials are speaking up. In Vietnam, plans for a $140 million Chinese-operated open-pit bauxite mine were publicly excoriated by none other than revolutionary hero General Vo Nguyen Giap because, he said, of "the serious risk to the natural and social environment." ...
     Last November, in a low point for Sino-P.N.G. diplomacy, the police raided the construction sites at Basamuk and Ramu and arrested 223 Chinese for immigration violations. The foreign workers, it turned out, had entered on visas that prohibited employment. ... ...
     Today, in major cities across P.N.G., the vast majority of so-called kai bars, or fast-food restaurants, are run by recent Chinese immigrants, as are nearly all the grocery stores. But few Chinese have the correct papers to run such businesses. ... ...
     In Papua New Guinea, at least, normal citizens can express their reservations about Chinese investment. But in many of the countries where China has made its biggest business forays, such democratic dissent is squelched by repressive governments that are taking the lion's share of any investment profits. ... China is also learning that it can't keep a lid on political scandals overseas as easily as it can clamp down on information back home. In P.N.G., for instance, the local press has widely covered a government investigation into claims that corrupt local officials allowed Chinese immigrants to buy passports.

CITIZENSHIP
600 passports given out each day
Tom Whitehead
Daily Telegraph, 27 November 2009.

     Migrants are being handed a British passport every two minutes after a sharp jump in approvals for citizenship, Home Office figures show.
     A total of 54,430 people were granted citizenship between July and September this year – the equivalent of around 600 people every day and a 69 per cent increase on the same period last year.
     The rise has been blamed on a rush of applications ahead of new rules to "earn" citizenship through a probationary period.

MULTICULTURALISM – DIVERSITY
Mapping out the strain on your NHS: 243 sick babies treated in one London hospital ward.... and just 18 mothers come from Britain
Sue Reid
Daily Mail, 27 November 2009.

     Countless red dots scattered across the world map on the wall of a NHS hospital reveal the story of the changing face of Britain.
     Each dot denotes the background of a mother with a baby in the neonatal ward of London's Chelsea and Westminster hospital. The map was put up by hospital administrators to 'celebrate the ethnic diversity' of the sick children treated there, each at a cost of £1,400 a day.
     It shows dramatically how the NHS now treats patients from every corner of the globe.
     The 243 mothers are from 72 different nations. They include Mongolia, the remotest regions of Russia, Japan, Africa, South America, swathes of Asia, Australasia and even Papua New Guinea.
     Only 18 mothers said they were from Britain. ...
     It is impossible to say how long each of the mothers has been in this country. But the fact is only a fraction of them declared themselves as having a British background.
     In theory, only a woman who has lived here legally for a year or has a student visa lasting more than six months is entitled to free NHS care when giving birth.
     Yet few hospitals are prepared to turn away a pregnant patient in the late stages of labour. Indeed, the Government recently issued an instruction telling them to admit such women without question.
     Health Minister Ann Keen pronounced in July: 'We remain firmly committed to the requirement that immediately necessary or urgent treatment should never be denied or delayed from those that require it.'
     Many nurses and doctors on the NHS frontline believe her words were dangerously naive, even an explicit invitation to heavily pregnant women to fly to Britain to have babies. Some have arrived at Chelsea and Westminster - and other London hospitals - straight from the airport with the ticket tags still on their suitcases. ...
     Today nearly 25 percent of babies in Britain have mothers who were born abroad. In London the figure is 50 percent. The boroughs of Newham and Brent have the highest percentage, 75 percent and 73 percent respectively. Even in Chelsea (an area less associated with immigration) the figure is 67 percent, according to a recent Government report.
[Site link]

IMMIGRATION – PUBLIC OPINION
Record numbers leaving UK but half a million migrants still arriving each year
Tom Whitehead
Daily Telegraph, 26 November 2009.
[The news appeared in the printed paper the following day]

     Eastern European workers returning home was behind the sharp rise in emigration but hundreds of thousands of new migrants continued to flock to the country.
     It meant, on balance, more people still arrived than left during 2008 and critics said the population remained on course to pass 70 million within two decades.
     Foreign migrants now account for a third of the population of London, the Office for National Statistics revealed.
     The figures show that while the recession is having an impact the UK continues to be a major attraction for foreign workers and migrants, pushing the population up yet further.
     It will pile further pressure on local authorities and communities already facing a heavy strain on resources by large and sudden influxes of people.
     And it came as a poll showed three quarters of the public are concerned about the impact immigration is having on Britain and a similar proportion do not believe the Government is open and honest about the scale.
     A record 427,000 people left the country during 2008 around two thirds of who had not been born in the UK, which was a 25 per cent increase on the 341,000 who left the previous year.
     However, at the same time, some 590,000 came to live in the UK in 2008, a rise of 16,000 on the previous year and just short of the record 596,000 arrivals in 2006.
     It meant a net immigration to the UK of 163,000, which was down by almost half on the previous year but still well above the 50,000 figure needed if the population is not to reach 70 million by 2029.
     Once Britons are removed from the figures, there was a net inflow of non-UK born migrants of 251,000 during the year – the equivalent of 688 foreign arrivals adding to the population every day. ...
     The rise in emigration was mainly driven by Eastern Europeans, 69,000 of who left last year compared to just 25,000 in 2007 but the former Eastern Bloc citizens, such as Poles and Slovaks, continue to arrive as well and there was a net inflow of 20,000 over the year.
     As for those leaving the UK, Poland was the most popular country of residence for foreign departees while Australia was top for British emigrants.
     Sir Andrew Green, chairman of the think-tank Migrationwatch, said the fact it was EU citizens, who have free movement, who were the main drivers in the departures made a mockery of the Government's claims of controlling immigration.
     A YouGov poll for his organisation found 72 per cent of people want net migration cut to 50,000 a year.
     Sir Andrew said: "Today's immigration figures confirm that unless we change direction, immigration will add another seven million to our population in the next 25 years – that's equivalent to seven cities the size of Birmingham."
[Site link]

DIVERSITY PROMOTION – POLITICS
Parties must list rejected applicants
Rosa Prince
Daily Telegraph, 26 November 2009.

     Political parties will be forced to declare how many women, disabled people and ethnic minority applicants they reject as potential parliamentary candidates.
     The proposal by a committee headed by John Bercow, the Commons Speaker, looking at the lack of diversity in Parliament is likely to be accepted after winning support from all the main parties.

MULTICULTURALISM – EDUCATION, CRIME
Teaching of gender equality 'too broad'
Tom Whitehead
Daily Telegraph, 26 November 2009.

     Plans for gender equality lessons for every child were criticised yesterday as a "one-size-fits-all approach" to combat a social problem that only affects a minority of children.
     They would not resolve the pressing problem of honour-based crime, ministers were warned.
     The Government announced this week that children as young as five would be given the compulsory lessons to combat negative attitudes towards girls and women that could lead to a tendency towards violence in later life.
     The government strategy highlighted that certain groups of women, particularly those from ethnic minorities, face specific forms of violence, namely forced marriages, honour-based crime and female genital mutilation.
     It has led to concerns that a general policy for all children will fail to focus attention on those who would benefit most from it, and will worry other children needlessly.

BORDER CONTROLS
French border police discover 12 lorries packed with British-bound migrants
Ian Sparks
Daily Mail, 26 November 2009.

     In September, the French bulldozed a squatter camp in Calais called the Jungle. Of the 278 migrants arrested, early all were released on humanitarian grounds.
     Of the estimated 1,000 migrants in Calais, up to 50 a week are thought to be crossing the Channel illegally, with more arriving to replace them every day.
     More are also arriving on a daily basis in other ports on the northern French coast that have ferry links to Britain, including Dunkirk, Ouistreham and Cherbourg.
[Site link]

CRIME – BORDER SECURITY, EUROPEAN UNION
French film about illegal immigrant trying to enter Britain wins top EU award
Ian Sparks
Daily Mail, 26 November 2009.

     A French film about an illegal migrant who tries to swim across the Channel from Calais to Britain has won a top EU award for its celebration of 'integration' in Europe.
     The controversial movie called Welcome dramatises a 'likeable' migrant's illegal attempt to reach our shores.
     When released earlier this year the film was criticised by many who said it glamourised the illegal efforts of migrants to get into Britain.
     But MEPs in Brussels this week awarded it the EU's prestigious Lux Film Award.
     The annual prize is given by the European Parliament for the film which best illustrates 'the European integration process, topical European issues or cultural diversity in the Union'.
     The film centres on a Kurdish refugee who has failed to sneak aboard lorries and ferries to the UK - so decides to swim the 18 miles to the Kent coast instead. ...
     The film's director Philippe Lioret also whipped up a storm of controversy this year for likening the situation of Calais migrants to that of Jews under the Nazi occupation during World War Two.
     As well as the award - shaped like a Tower of Babel - Mr Lioret was handed a cheque for £80,000, part of which he must use to have the film subtitled or dubbed into all 23 languages of the European Union.
     A Calais police spokesman said after the film hit French cinemas in March: 'I think we would be disappointed if it made breaching frontier controls look like some kind of noble quest.'
     Council chiefs in Calais also said they hoped the film would not present sneaking into Britain as a 'worthwhile task'.
     A spokesman said: 'The idea of making a refugee very likeable, then to have the audience rooting for him to successfully swim to Britain goes against everything border patrols in France and the UK are trying to achieve.
     'Anyone with a genuine case for asylum should have it heard through the correct channels, and not try to side-step customs and security.'
     Mr Lioret said his film was aimed at criticising a French law that makes it a crime to help illegal immigrants.
     He said: 'To see that a decent guy can all of a sudden be charged and imprisoned for helping a migrant is crazy. It feels like it's 1943 and we've hidden a Jew in the basement.' ...
     The EU's website for the Lux film award says it is aimed at 'showing the process of building Europe in a different light'.
     It adds: 'As the European Union works on a new treaty, the artistic and narrative quality of the winning film will give the audience a glimpse of a submerged dimension of the European venture the individual, perhaps the intimate, dimension.'
     After receiving his award, director Mr Lioret said it showed that MEPs backed his film's controversial view of illegal immigration.
[Site link]

TERRORISM – CRIME
Students 'part of global bomb plot'
Duncan Gardham
Daily Telegraph, 25 November 2009.

     A group of Pakistani students suspected of planning a terrorist attack on Easter shoppers was believed to have been linked to al-Qaeda and part of a "very significant international plot", an independent report has found.
     Anti-terrorist police had no alternative but to arrest some of the suspected group members, according to Lord Carlile, the independent reviewer of terrorism legislation. ...
     In the end, none of the 12 arrested men was charged, although 10 were transferred to immigration custody.

TERRORISM – CRIME, BORDER SECURITY
Bogus colleges: Tougher penalties needed
Daily Telegraph, 25 November 2009.

     Tougher penalties are needed against those who operate bogus colleges, according to Lord Carlile.
     He said that most of the suspects in the alleged Easter bomb plot arrived in Britain from Pakistan on student visas. ...
     Lord Carlile said the case had "thrown up yet further examples of a known problem, that of bogus colleges, non-existent or merely vestigial courses and poor attendance records". He added: "The increase in courses and the high level of applications from non-UK nationals requires a higher level of vigilance from the authorities than has occurred hitherto."
     Those who provided courses at bogus colleges should be prosecuted and have "severe penalties imposed in serious cases".

POPULATION PRESSURE – FLOODS
What our country needs is 'Slow Water' – and less concrete
Clive Aslet
Daily Telegraph, 24 November 2009.

     The flash floods that Britain has experienced in recent years – at Boscastle, Cornwall (2004); Helmsley, Yorkshire (2005); Elford, Staffordshire (2007); Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire (2008) – suggest that it is impossible to predict where flooding in Britain will strike next.
     One thing, though, is certain: successive governments since the 1980s have been guilty of supreme folly in allowing new dwellings to be built on flood plains.
     Easing planning restrictions on flood plains released a supply of land in a way that seemed preferable to incurring the wrath of conservationists by building new towns. Inevitably, these recently built homes have often been the first ones to be flooded.
     Throughout history, builders prior to the Thatcher government did their best to site development away from low-lying areas that were close to rivers. Alas, they did not always succeed. ...
     For half a century, we have been putting more and more of Britain under concrete, reducing the amount of land available to soak up rain.

IMMIGRATION ABROAD – ITALY, POLITICS
Berlusconi fights to keep his allies together
Nick Squires
Daily Telegraph, 24 November 2009.

     Tension has been rising for months between the prime minister's allies Gianfranco Fini, the leader of a conservative faction, and Umberto Bossi, the head of the Northern League, over immigrants' voting and citizenship rights.
     It spilt over when Mr Fini, the speaker of the lower house of parliament, said that "anyone who discriminates against foreigners is a piece of ––."
     The remark was made in a speech on the outskirts of Rome to teenagers from countries including Eritrea, China and the Philippines.
     It incensed the Northern League, which is largely hostile to the nearly four million foreigners who live in Italy, both legally and illegally.
     "It is equally –––– to delude immigrants into thinking that our country is the land of plenty and work for all," said Roberto Calderoli, a minister from the League.

CRIME – COST, DEPORTATION
Foreign prisoners offered bribes to go
Tom Whitehead
Daily Telegraph, 23 November 2009.

     The taxpayer is having to pay millions of pounds a year to "bribe" foreign murderers, rapists and other prisoners to go home.
     One in four of the foreign criminals deported last year only went home after being offered a voluntary return package worth up to £5,000 – representing a 60 per cent increase in such agreements in one year. ...
     ... Some foreign prisoners can already have up to nine months slashed from their sentence if they are willing to go home.
     The Facilitated Returns Scheme started in October 2006 and encourages overseas offenders to return to their home country once they have passed the point in their sentence when they would be released if they were British.
     It is aimed at preventing lengthy and expensive legal battles against deportation and can result in inmates being given resettlement packages worth up to £5,000, including up to £500 in cash.
     In 2008, about 1,350 foreign criminals took advantage of the programme, with an average value per package of £2,500. That means the taxpayer faced a bill of £3.4 million last year.
     Those who received such a deal represent a quarter of the 5,400 foreign criminals that the Home Office boasted it had removed from Britain during the year. In 2007, 850 criminals, or 60 per cent fewer, took up the offer. ...
     Under a separate early removal scheme, foreign prisoners can be freed up to 270 days in advance of their release date so long as they are willing to return home.

IMMIGRATION ABROAD – FRANCE
France proposes closing companies that hire clandestine immigrants
Radio France Internationale, 23 November 2009.

     The French ministers of labour and immigration have joined forces to propose new measures to crack down on the demand side of illegal immigration. These range from fines to outright closure if companies are found to be knowingly employing undocumented workers.
     Undocumented immigrants are exploited by human trafficking cartels, Minister of Immigration Eric Besson said, but this practice is encouraged by the fact that "they find employers and exploiters on our territory who abuse their situation."
     Taking a page out of the American strategy to combat illegal immigration, Besson said Sunday that he will submit a bill to crack down on those who employ undocumented immigrants.
     Xavier Darcos, the Minister of Labour, said that the proposed law would give local authorities the power to fine, shame and eventually shut down businesses employing undocumented immigrants. ...
     Work carried out by undocumented immigrants is estimated to be worth four per cent of GNP or 60 billion euros, Darcos said, pointing out that this was the equivalent of the annual budget for national education.
     The opposition Socialists don't subscribe to this government strategy, which started by going after the supply half of the equation by setting deportation quotas and now moves to the demand side by going after employers.
     They propose a mass regularisation of undocumented immigrants, like those recently carried out in Spain and Italy, arguing that these people are an economic necessity because they work at jobs no one else will.
     Speaking on French radio over the weekend, Vincent Peillon, who represents the party in the European parliament, added that it's a moral imperative.
     "So that France is loyal to its image – a soldier for liberty, a country that defends human rights – I believe that today we have to be generous and welcome these people," said the politician who has already announced his intention to seek the Socialist nomination for President in 2012.
[Site link]

IMMIGRATION ABROAD – HAWAII, USA
Filipino Migration to Hawaii: A Tale of Tears
Alexander Martin Remollino
Bulatlat, 23 November 2009.

     Hawaii is a popular destination not only for tourists but also for migrants, and not without reason. ...
     Filipinos migrated in waves to Hawaii beginning in the very first years of the 20th century, when the island was a newly annexed territory of the US. Hawaii's economy then was dominated by the owners of big sugar plantations.
      ...
     Hawaii became the 50th state of the US on Aug. 21, 1959. In 1965, the Immigration and Naturalization Act was passed, allowing for the influx of petitioned relatives of previous migrants, as well as of occupational migrants (professionals like nurses and teachers). Filipinos went to the US, including Hawaii, within this particular wave of migration – which continues to this day.
     The Filipinos had to contend with racial discrimination, including by fellow Asians, in Hawaii as in the mainland US and in other US-annexed territories. ... ...
     Today, Filipinos in Hawaii number an estimated 175,147 out of a total population of 1.29 million, based on the American Community Survey of 2008, and make up one of the largest Asian ethno-racial groups on the island.
[Site link]

CRIME – HUMAN TRAFFICKING, USA
Forced labour and rape, the new face of slavery in America
Paul Harris
The Observer, 22 November 2009.

     Human trafficking has become a major issue in the Midwest heartland of America, causing some campaigners to dub it a modern form of slavery.
     Figures from the State Department reveal that 17,500 people are trafficked into the US every year against their will or under false pretences, mainly to be used for sex or forced labour. Experts believe that, when cases of internal trafficking are added, the total number of victims could be up to five times larger. And increasing numbers of trafficked individuals are being transported thousands of miles from America's coasts and into heartland states such as Ohio and Michigan.
     "It is not only a crime. It is an abomination," said Professor Mark Ensalaco, a political scientist at the University of Dayton, Ohio, who organised a recent conference on the issue. ... ...
     Trafficking represents a new challenge to law enforcement, especially in regions which have traditionally not thought of it as a major problem. That is especially true where it happens within an immigrant community. Languages are a problem as well as cultural issues and a natural fear that many immigrants – some of them possibly illegal – have of contacting the police.
     Kelly believes that is the case in Springfield, a town that is almost the Midwestern archetype. It was once featured in a story in Newsweek magazine entitled "The American Dream". But its 65,000 citizens also face all the problems of a modern America in the grip of a deep recession: an immigration crisis and profoundly changing demographics. The town now hosts several prominent minority communities who make up more than a fifth of its population, including Russians, Chinese, Latinos and Somalis. "There are a lot of people who distrust law enforcement. We need to break down those barriers. Our officers need training, especially in languages," said Kelly. "If you can't speak to people, you can't reach them."
[Site link]

IMMIGRATION ABROAD – FRANCE, CRIME
Why French Algerians' football celebrations turned into a battle
Andrew Hussey, the Dean of the University of London Institute in Paris
The Observer, 22 November 2009.

     As the French nation prepared for the crucial World Cup qualifying match against Ireland on Wednesday evening, the streets of Paris were already in carnival mood long before the kick-off in the Stade de France. ... Most confusingly, with their green, white and red flags and football songs in Arabic, these supporters were obviously not French. They were in fact Algerians – several thousand of them – who were celebrating a 1-0 victory nearly 3,000 miles away in Khartoum.
     More specifically, the Algerians were celebrating that they had, for the first time since 1986, qualified for the World Cup. As the final whistle blew in the match against Egypt, there was near-delirium across Paris. As the evening went on, more than 12,000 Algerians poured on to the Champs Elysées, which was closed to traffic as youngsters danced on the roofs of cars, chanting "One, two, three, Vive l'Algérie", and throwing fireworks into the dank November night. ...
     ... Armed police had by now gathered around the Arc de Triomphe, trying to break up the crowds. They were met with taunts, stones and fireworks. The party soon degenerated into a riot ...
     There were 60 arrests, and similar scenes in Lyon and Marseille. The violence carried on and by Friday morning the police reported that more than 200 cars had been burnt in the suburbs of Paris. ...
     ...
[Site link]

RACISM – EDUCATION, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS
At U, future teachers may be reeducated
Katherine Kersten
Star Tribune [Minnesota], 22 November 2009.

     Do you believe in the American dream – the idea that in this country, hardworking people of every race, color and creed can get ahead on their own merits? If so, that belief may soon bar you from getting a license to teach in Minnesota public schools – at least if you plan to get your teaching degree at the University of Minnesota's Twin Cities campus.
     In a report compiled last summer, the Race, Culture, Class and Gender Task Group at the U's College of Education and Human Development recommended that aspiring teachers there must repudiate the notion of "the American Dream" in order to obtain the recommendation for licensure required by the Minnesota Board of Teaching. Instead, teacher candidates must embrace – and be prepared to teach our state's kids – the task force's own vision of America as an oppressive hellhole: racist, sexist and homophobic.
     The task group is part of the Teacher Education Redesign Initiative, a multiyear project to change the way future teachers are trained at the U's flagship campus. The initiative is premised, in part, on the conviction that Minnesota teachers' lack of "cultural competence" contributes to the poor academic performance of the state's minority students. Last spring, it charged the task group with coming up with recommendations to change this. In January, planners will review the recommendations and decide how to proceed.
     The report advocates making race, class and gender politics the "overarching framework" for all teaching courses at the U. It calls for evaluating future teachers in both coursework and practice teaching based on their willingness to fall into ideological lockstep.
     The first step toward "cultural competence," says the task group, is for future teachers to recognize – and confess – their own bigotry. Anyone familiar with the reeducation camps of China's Cultural Revolution will recognize the modus operandi.
     The task group recommends, for example, that prospective teachers be required to prepare an "autoethnography" report. They must describe their own prejudices and stereotypes, question their "cultural" motives for wishing to become teachers, and take a "cultural intelligence" assessment designed to ferret out their latent racism, classism and other "isms." They "earn points" for "demonstrating the ability to be self-critical." ...
     The goal of these exercises, in the task group's words, is to ensure that "future teachers will be able to discuss their own histories and current thinking drawing on notions of white privilege, hegemonic masculinity, heteronormativity, and internalized oppression."
     Future teachers must also recognize and denounce the fundamental injustices at the heart of American society, says the task group. ... In particular, aspiring teachers must be able "to explain how institutional racism works in schools."
[Site link]

RACISM – POLITICS
Tory objects to 'foreign' names of would-be MPs
Matthew Moore
Daily Telegraph, 21 November 2009.

     A Conservative councillor has been suspended after complaining that the party's would-be MPs do not have "normal" English names.
     Peter Hobbins, a former parliamentary candidate, wrote in emails to party members that applicants for the Orpington seat in Kent sounded "foreign".
     He also complained that candidates approved by Conservative Central Office all mention Africa on their CVs, calling their cover letters "ridiculous" and "pathetic".
     "I have been contacted by a Mr Dilon Gumraj and a Zerha Zaidi and others who are all on the approved Conservative parliamentary candidates list," he wrote in one email. "Not one of them has a 'normal' English name."
     He added: "Why are the candidates department so keen on these foreign names? Maybe I should change my name."
     His emails were condemned by the chairman of Orpington Conservative Association and last night Tory Central Office said his membership had been suspended. A party spokesman said: "There is no room for racism in the Conservative Party."

BORDER CONTROLS – EMPLOYMENT, HEALTH SERVICES
NHS Trust hired illegal immigrant
Channel 4 News, 19 November 2009.

     Channel 4 News can reveal that an NHS trust has hired dozens and possibly hundreds of illegal immigrants through one of its biggest private cleaning contractors. ...
     The UK Border Agency has uncovered hundreds of fake documents submitted to Kingston Hospital, including security passes, national insurance numbers and passports.
[Site link]

RACISM – EDUCATION, AUSTRALIA
Schools a hotbed of racism: study
Miki Perkins
The Sydney Morning Herald, 19 November 2009.

     More than two-thirds of young people are the victims of racism at school, with first-generation migrant women in years 11 and 12 most at risk.
     A national study has found that racism permeates Australian schools, with 80 per cent of secondary students from non-Anglo backgrounds and 55 per cent of students from Anglo backgrounds saying they had experienced racial vilification.
     Interviews conducted with 900 secondary school students across Australia also found Anglo-Australian youths displayed consistent prejudice towards other cultural groups, particularly towards darker-skinned students from places such as Africa and India.
     The report, released yesterday by the Foundation for Young Australians, showed racial abuse ranged from verbal insults to cultural stereotyping, with its impact influenced by gender, age and the type of school.
[Site link]

EXTREMISM – EDUCATION, RACISM, ASYLUM
The class debate: 'all whites are fascists'
Graeme Paton
Daily Telegraph, 18 November 2009.

     Pupils are being asked to debate whether "all white people are fascists" as part of classes to combat violent extremism.
     The lessons are being held in Lancashire, which has a high proportion of pupils from black and Asian families, before being expanded to other areas. Children are also required to challenge the view that "all Muslims are extremists".
     Teachers are encouraged to lead pupils as young as 11 in discussions about racist stereotypes to stop children being groomed by radical groups. ...
     Another exercise aims to dispel common "myths and stereotypes" surrounding asylum seekers. This includes views that they are a "drain on the UK economy".

CRIME – BORDER SECURITY
This man married his OWN daughter so she would be allowed to stay in Britain - and the Home Office knows about it
Sam Greenhill and Dennis Rice
Daily Mail, 18 November 2009.

     A Nigerian Home Office worker 'married' his own daughter to get her a British visa, the Daily Mail can reveal.
     The extraordinary scam was apparently executed by Jelili Adesanya while ministers turned a blind eye.
     Mr Adesanya, 54, has lived here for more than 30 years and holds a British passport, but wanted his daughter, her husband and their four sons to join him from Nigeria.
     He faked a wedding ceremony complete with a photograph of the happy 'couple' which helped fool immigration officials that his daughter, Karimotu Adenike, was really his wife.
     Miss Adenike, who is in her mid-30s, was duly granted permission to live in the UK.
     The pair are waiting for her to be granted a permanent right to remain before they undergo a quiet divorce and attempt to bring the rest of her family here.
     It is expected she would try to remarry her real husband to get them all visas.
     But despite being tipped off two years ago, the Home Office seems to have done nothing to stop the scam by one of their own workers.
     Until recently, Mr Adesanya was employed as an occupational health nurse for the Home Office, working with immigration officials at Gatwick airport.
     A whistleblower sent letters to the High Commission in Lagos and the UK Border Agency including specific details such as names, addresses, passport numbers and even a copy of the wedding photograph.
     When there was no response, he sent emails to then Home Secretary Jacqui Smith and ministers Vernon Coaker and Phil Woolas on February 1 this year. He heard nothing. ...
     David Burrowes, the Conservative MP for Enfield Southgate and Shadow Justice Minister, was also tipped off by the whistleblower and wrote to the Home Office.
     This time there was a reply, but it said that although the matter was 'under investigation', no further information would be provided because it could 'breach of our obligations under the Data Protection Act'.
[Site link]

POPULATION PRESSURE – ECOLOGY
Slower population growth to help environment: UN study
Richard Ingham
Yahoo! Green, 18 November 2009.

     Braking the rise in Earth's population would be a major help in the fight against global warming, according to an unprecedented UN report published on Wednesday that draws a link between demographic pressure and climate change.
     "Slower population growth... would help build social resilience to climate change's impacts and would contribute to a reduction of greenhouse-gas emissions in the future," the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) says.
     Its 104-page document emphasises that population policies be driven by support for women, access to family planning, reproductive health and other voluntary measures.
     "It really is the first time that a United Nations agency has looked hard at the connections between population and climate change," lead researcher Bob Engelman, vice president for programmes at the green group Worldwatch Institute, told AFP.
     "People are at the root of the problem and at the solution of it, and empowerment of women is the key."
     The report, the 2009 State of World Population, paints a grim tableau of the peril of climate change and the likely impact on humans, in terms of floods, drought, storms and homelessness.
     But it notably puts distance between a decades-long tradition in the UN arena whereby population growth and its part in environmental destruction were rarely – if ever – evoked.
     "Fear of appearing supportive of population control has until recently held back any mention of 'population' in the climate debate," the document admits.
     Things, though, are starting to change. More than three dozen developing countries have already included population issues in national plans on climate, it says.
     Negotiators, including the European Union (EU), have tentatively suggested that the question be considered in talks, designed to culminate in Copenhagen next month, for a 192-nation post-2012 global climate pact.
     Today, the world's population stands at around 6.8 billion. By mid-century, it will range between 7.959 billion to 10.461 billion, with a mid-estimate of 9.15 billion, according to UN calculations.
     The difference between eight billion and nine billion is between one and two billion tonnes of carbon per year, according to research cited in the report.
     That would be comparable to savings in emissions by 2050 if all new buildings were constructed to the highest energy-efficiency standards and if two million one-gigawatt wind turbines were built to replace today's coal-fired power plants.
     "[P]opulation growth is among the factors influencing total emissions in industrialised as well as developing countries," it says.
     "Each person in a population will consume food and require housing, and ideally most will take advantage of transportation, which consumes energy, and may use fuel to heat homes and have access to electricity."
     Mitigating population rise would have a double benefit, it says.
     It firstly reduces greenhouse-gas output, especially if the decline occurs in developed countries, whose per-capita emissions are up to 10 times those of poor countries.
     And it also helps countries – especially poor nations with high population growth – adapt to the impacts of climate change.
[Site link]

TERRORISM – COST
£600,000 handout for terror suspects
James Kirkup
Daily Telegraph, 17 November 2009.

     Some of Britain's most dangerous suspected terrorists have received more than £600,000 of taxpayers' money to pay for their living costs while they have been under surveillance by the security services.
     Twenty four suspects placed on control orders have on average received £25,000 each to spend on accommodation, council tax, utility bills and telephone costs, according to official figures.
     Since April 2007, the Home Office has spent £611,470 on "living costs" for people put under effective house arrest on the advice of MI5. In addition, the Government is also paying some of the suspects undisclosed sums in benefits.
     There are currently 13 suspected terrorists under control orders. Their movements and actions are restricted because the security services believe that they pose a threat to public safety. ...
     Separate figures released under the Freedom of Information Act showed that the total cost to the Home Office of the control orders regime since April 2006 is £9.4 million.

DISEASE – USA
Sex infections still growing in U.S., says CDC
Maggie Fox
Comcast, 16 November 2009.

     American squeamishness about talking about sex has helped keep common sexually transmitted infections far too common, especially among vulnerable teens, U.S. researchers reported Monday.
     Latest statistics on chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis show the three highly treatable infections continue to spread in the United States. ...
     The CDC's latest study on STDs found:
     * 1.2 million cases of chlamydia were reported in 2008, up from 1.1 million in 2007.
     * Nearly 337,000 cases of gonorrhea were reported. ...
     * Blacks, who represent 12 percent of the U.S. population, accounted for about 71 percent of reported gonorrhea cases and almost half of all chlamydia and syphilis cases in 2008.
     * Black women 15 to 19 had the highest rates of chlamydia and gonorrhea. ...
     Overall, CDC estimates that 19 million new sexually transmitted infections occur each year, almost half among 15- to 24-year-olds.
[Site link]

POPULATION PRESSURE – HOUSING
27 towns in battle to save Green Belt
Andrew Gilligan
Sunday Telegraph, 15 November 2009.

     The extent of plans to cut the Green Belt across large parts of England can be disclosed for the first time.
     The Sunday Telegraph has identified 27 towns and cities that have been chosen by Whitehall planners as locations where parts of the Green Belt should be reviewed or sacrificed to make way for house building.
     Ministers have expressed their determination to push ahead with the plans despite a series of successful court challenges that have delayed some of the most controversial proposals.
     John Healey, the Planning Minister, said: "The Green Belt principle is unchanged. But we are determined to see the new homes we will need."
     The move comes despite a promise by Gordon Brown two years ago to "robustly protect" the Green Belt.
     The changes to the Green Belt – open countryside around urban areas on which development is strictly controlled – are contained in the final versions of "regional plans" that have been imposed by Whitehall.

ASYLUM
Welcome to heaven, how about a cup of tea? Mail on Sunday special investigation into why asylum seekers head to Britain
Edna Fernandes
Mail on Sunday, 15 November 2009.

     The latest figures from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) show asylum applications in industrialised nations rose by ten per cent in the first half of 2009 to 185,000, compared with the same period last year.
     Europe received 75 per cent of all asylum applications, although the United States remained the largest individual recipient with 13 per cent of the total number of applications filed in rich nations.
     France ranks as the second largest with 19,400 claims, followed by Canada (18,700), the United Kingdom (17,700) and Germany, ranked fifth (12,000).
     Over the whole of last year, Britain received 30,500 claims, including dependants. That figure has fallen from a peak of more than 80,000 eight years ago.
     Iraqis, Afghans and Somalis make up the biggest groups of claimants. Those heading to Europe are drawn by different factors ranging from personal to economic to which country offers the best chance of approval. ...
     Between 24 and 30 per cent of people claiming asylum in Britain win their case - and this includes their dependants. Greece, by contrast, has a one per cent approval rate for cases. Many of those whose applications are refused in Britain end up staying anyway, according to the UK Border Agency.
     Abdul Samad Samadi, chairman of the Afghan Association of London, says the traffickers are keenly aware of the commercial value of a one-way ticket to Britain. He estimates there are now 75,000 Afghans living here. He says 80 per cent of them used a trafficker.
     'The asylum seekers are big business for the traffickers. People are paying $10,000 to $20,000 per person to come to Britain,' he says. ...
     The lure of Britain is complex and there are many factors involved. But one commonly cited reason for it being a popular destination is that this country is a 'soft touch'. How true is this?
     Groups such as Migrationwatch UK, which lobbies for controls on immigration, argue that, under European Union law, asylum seekers are meant to lodge their claim in the first EU country they land in.
     In reality, many hold out for Britain where they believe they will get a better deal. Europe does not have a standard asylum procedure.
     Sir Andrew Green, chairman of Migrationwatch UK, says that in theory, an asylum seeker's first country of arrival is where their case should be decided. 'But that doesn't happen. Traffickers tell their clients not to allow themselves to be identified in any other country but the UK. They say, "Don't be fingerprinted until you get to the UK, until you arrive in El Dorado."' ...
     The cost to the British taxpayer in the last financial year was £478 million, down slightly from £485 million the previous year. ...
     Of the 30,000-plus cases a year, one third of claimants and their dependants are approved, one third go home either voluntarily or through enforced removals and one third remain here illegally. These 'failed asylum seekers' are a massive political headache. ...
     There are more than 140,000 failed asylum seekers still in Britain, says Migrationwatch UK's Sir Andrew. Each year, thousands more will join them.
[Site link]

TERRORISM – ISLAM, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS, USA
A nation in fear of being seen as anti-Muslim
Ruth Dudley Edwards
Sunday Independent (Ireland), 15 November 2009.

     There's a climate of fear in the US among the military, law-enforcers, policy-makers, the media, opinion-formers and many ordinary citizens. A major cause is the intimidating Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), which is dedicated to Muslim empowerment, receives substantial funding from Arab governments and has been accused by federal prosecutors of funnelling money to Hamas.
     So effective and ruthless is CAIR that anyone in authority worries before doing anything that can be misrepresented as anti-Muslim and lead to lawsuits citing religious or racial discrimination.
     There were plenty of people who might have prevented the psychiatrist Major Nidal Malik Hasan from murdering 12 soldiers and a policeman, but were too scared to do so. ... ...
     And how has the army responded to the massacre?
     "As horrific as this tragedy was," said the Chief of Staff General George Casey, "if our diversity becomes a casualty, I think that's worse." Well, I don't think the relatives of the dead are likely to agree. Worship of diversity, fundamentalist political correctness and terror of being accused of Islamphobia has obscured the simple truth that the US army is no place for anyone who believes the Koran should be interpreted literally. ...
     There have been other dodgy Muslim fundamentalists in the United States army, including Sergeant Hasan Karim Akbar, who in 2003 murdered two soldiers and wounded 14, but – with CAIR in mind – the army continues to run from anything that can be described as religious profiling.
     A good example of how CAIR has put the fear of Allah into American society is the case of the flying imams. Three years ago, at Minneapolis airport, some passengers and crew on US Airways Flight 300 were alarmed by six imams whose suspicious behaviour included praying loudly, changing seats and two of them demanding seatbelt extensions which they did not use; an Arabic-speaker on the flight heard two of them mention Osama bin Laden and condemn America for "killing Saddam". They were removed from the flight by airport police, detained, questioned and released.
     CAIR backed the imams' claim that they had suffered from religious discrimination and underwrote their lawsuits against the airline, the law-enforcers and unnamed passengers who had reported them to the crew. Congress banned the suing of airline passengers who report on suspicious activity, but after a bizarre judicial ruling that no competent law enforcer could have thought their treatment reasonable, the airline and the law-enforcers settled out of court last month. The consequences for airline security are terrifying.
[Site link]

IMMIGRATION ABROAD – REPUBLIC OF IRELAND, REPATRIATION
Irish government to pay immigrants to go home
Henry McDonald
The Observer, 15 November 2009.

     Ireland is offering money to immigrants to leave the recession-crippled Republic. The Irish Department of Justice has confirmed that it is opening an EU-funded project to persuade foreign workers and asylum seekers to return to their country of origin.
     A spokeswoman told the Observer this weekend that the scheme will only apply to non-EU nationals living in the Republic and would involve the department spending almost €600,000 this year to pay for immigrants and their families to return to nations outside the European Union.
     "The grants will not be given to individuals but rather the scheme will operate through projects and organisations," she added.
     "They [immigrants] can apply for the fund only through organisations and community groups. It is the first time we have introduced the scheme."
     The department has made it clear it had no projected figure in mind as to the number of immigrants the government hopes will take up the repatriation grants. ...
     The voluntary repatriation programme comes at a time of rising fears about the cost of immigration into Ireland. ...
     However, according to the Republic's central statistics office, about 18% of Ireland's inhabitants are now non-nationals.
     Most of them are from eastern Europe, China, Brazil and west Africa or are British citizens who have settled on the island.
     Some academics, such as Dr Bryan Fanning of University College Dublin, estimate that the real figure is more than 20%, meaning Ireland's "foreign" citizens make up over one fifth of the Republic's entire population.
[Site link]

IMMIGRATION ABROAD – JAPAN
Hatoyama says Japan should embrace migrants
channelnewsasia.com, 14 November 2009.

     Japan's Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama said Saturday that his country, which is battling low birth rates and an ageing population, should make itself more attractive to migrants.
     Japan has some of the world's strictest controls on immigration, and Hatoyama admitted that he was broaching a "sensitive issue".
     But he said that as well as introducing pro-family policies, Japan should attempt to encourage migrants to live and work there. ...
     "I am not sure if I can call this 'immigration policy', but what's important is to create an environment that is friendly to people all around the world so that they voluntarily live in Japan," he said.
     Japan has relatively few resident foreigners, although in recent years it has cautiously opened up its job market to nurses and care workers from some Southeast Asian countries.
     "First, we will improve support for child-rearing by offering cash allowances for families with children," before thinking about immigration to address the country's low birth rate, the premier said.
     Japan's population has been shrinking since 2005. Despite efforts to raise the birth rate, a woman's average number of offspring now hovers around 1.3, well below the 2.07 needed to maintain the population.
[Site link]

IMMIGRATION – POLITICS
Immigration hit family ties, jobs and pay in some areas, says Brown
Tom Whitehead
Daily Telegraph, 13 November 2009.

     Immigration had "cost" parts of Britain, impacting on jobs, wages and even family ties, the Prime Minister admitted yesterday.
     Gordon Brown said there were "significant" variations in how immigration had been felt around the country and accepted people's fears that it had undermined wages, affected job prospects for children and whether families could live near each other.
     In his first speech on the issue since entering No 10, Mr Brown announced a review of student visas to clamp down on those abusing the system and bogus colleges that allowed migrants to slip into the UK illegally.
     He also promised to create more jobs for British workers by reducing the number of skilled occupations that were open to foreign workers.

IMMIGRATION – POLITICS
Public misled by tough-sounding talk
Sir Andrew Green, chairman of Migrationwatch
Daily Telegraph, 13 November 2009.

     Gordon Brown's first speech on immigration was a seriously missed opportunity.
     He, himself, said that it was an issue to be dealt with at the heart of our politics but his own contribution was remarkably feeble.
     He claimed that he "get's it", yet he clearly doesn't. He seems to have no idea of the huge concern about how the whole nature of our society is being transformed by mass immigration – on which we have never been consulted.
     This should be a moment for overarching political leadership, not a laundry list of trivial measures, many of them re-announced. ...
     Yet again the public are being misled by tough-sounding talk, or they would be if they believed a word that this Government says on the subject. What is really needed now is a clear political commitment to ensure that our population will get nowhere near 70 million. Not a whisper of that, of course.

POPULATION PRESSURE – EDUCATION
Record number of primary pupils in supersize schools
Graeme Paton
Daily Telegraph, 13 November 2009.

     Record numbers of children are being taught in "supersize" primary schools, official figures show.
     The number of students enrolled at primary schools in England with more than 800 pupils has increased by more than 50 per cent under Labour.
     ... Councils are being forced to find thousands of extra places to meet extra demand caused by immigration and high birth-rates in some areas. ...
     Over the past 20 years, the number of schools with 500 pupils has increased fourfold from 99 to 400.
     Parents have claimed that the expansion of primary schools damaged children's education and left them feeling "lost".
     They also claimed that playing fields were being sacrificed for more buildings.

IMMIGRATION – POLITICS
Labour keen to make up for Tony Blair's lost ground on immigration
Francis Elliott
The Times, 13 November 2009.

     The issue of immigration has been a toxic one for Labour for nearly a decade. Tony Blair is said privately to acknowledge that he missed an opportunity to tackle the problem in 2002, distracted as he was by the war in Iraq.
     The introduction of a points system for would-be migrants to qualify for entry, based on their skills and the needs of the economy, was Mr Blair's belated attempt to counter a Tory attack during the 2005 general election. The issue was far more damaging to Labour than was realised at the time, undermining support in the party's heartlands.
     Cabinet ministers admit that the party has been running scared of immigration for most of this Parliament. Mr Brown's one attempt to reassure the voters that he understood their concerns, with a pledge to increase training, was reduced to a disastrous soundbite: British jobs for British workers.
     Now Alan Johnson, the Home Secretary, and Gordon Brown are making interventions. Counter-intuitively they believe that the BNP's success at the European elections in June has given them an opportunity to neutralise immigration partially as an issue at the next general election.
     Voters generally recoil from an overtly racist immigration policy, Labour strategists claim. "The reaction to the BNP has given us a chance to start a debate about the sort of immigration policy we should have based on the premise that a globalised economy will always require ebbs and flows," one strategist said. "All people have heard for years is the allegation that we've got an 'open door' immigration policy but they might to start realise that all three parties are more similar than they think."
     Specifically, Labour wants to draw the Conservatives into a discussion on whether there should be a cap, a policy that they think is economically naive.
[Site link]

IMMIGRATION – POLITICS
Immigration controls are a joke
Macer Hall
Daily Express, 13 November 2009.

     Gordon Brown faced furious accusations of being "in denial" last night after claiming to have grasped the depth of public anger over Labour's open-door immigration policy. ...
     But his speech, glossing over a decade of mass immigration under Labour, ignited a fresh wave of anger over the Government's refusal to heed warnings about the massive strain on public services caused by a population soaring towards 70 million.
     And ministers' "catastrophic" failure to control Britain's borders was starkly exposed again yesterday when it emerged that convicted foreign criminals are routinely walking free from an immigration removal centre in Kent.
     New figures revealed that overseas-born offenders were released from Dover Immigration Centre at the rate of one every day during last July. The Home Office refused to provide information for other months.
     The astonishing statistic – released from the Home Office under the Freedom of Information Act – led to the Government's policy on immigration being branded "a joke". Mr Brown's speech was greeted by widespread condemnation last night. ...
     Mr Brown wanted to "celebrate diversity" and insisted mass immigration had boosted the economy, while acknowledging local services were being over-stretched in some parts of the country.
     He claimed the Government's points-based system for assessing whether skilled migrants were needed in Britain had reduced immigration by 44 per cent over the last year, although the drop had coincided with the economic downturn. ...
     "As growth returns, I want to see rising levels of skills, wages and employment among those resident here, rather than employers having to resort to recruiting people from abroad," he said.
     Mr Brown fuelled anger by brushing aside complaints that critics of Labour's open-door immigration policy have been smeared as "racist." He said: "I have never agreed with the lazy elitism that dismisses immigration as an issue, or portrays anyone who has concerns about immigration as a racist."
     Mr Brown also risked incredulity by claiming Britain's population will not hit 70 million because of the points system "that is now being tightened". ...
     Former Labour Welfare Minister Frank Field and senior Tory backbencher Nicholas Soames, co-chairmen of the Commons Cross Party Group for Balanced Migration, said: in a statement: "While the Government is right to split economic migration from permanent settlement, it is clear that the Prime Minister misses the big picture.
     "The points-based system has no limit, affects just 20 per cent of immigration and will not stop the UK's population hitting 70million in 2029.
     "What is needed is a clear political commitment to make a very substantial reduction in immigration. In his four thousand-word speech, the Prime Minister has entirely avoided this central issue." Lib Dem home affairs spokesman Chris Huhne said: "Gordon Brown is attempting to shut the stable door long after the horse has bolted.
[Site link]

IMMIGRATION ABROAD – BAHAMAS
$1 million spent repatriating illegal migrants
Lindsay Thompson
Caribseek, 13 November 2009.

     The Immigration Department has spent $1 million repatriating illegal immigrants so far this year, Minister of State for Immigration the Hon Branville McCartney revealed. ...
     More than 4,000 migrants have been repatriated following their apprehension in The Bahamas this year, he confirmed.
     "Unfortunately, many seeking to enter the country are not invited, do not enter legally, and are poorly equipped to assist in our further development," he said. "Many are often in need of assistance in terms of health care, education and training.
     "The cost is becoming too exorbitant in terms of our limited financial resources. In tough economic times the burden is heavier.
     "We no longer have the capacity to assimilate the ever-increasing numbers of illegal migrants," Mr. McCartney said. ...
     "Some illegal immigrants are involved in the illicit drug trade," he said. "Others are concerned with the illegal gun trade and others into human smuggling connected to the sex trade.
     "The overwhelming majority of illegal immigrants come from Haiti, and The Bahamas "holds no malice against such persons," he said.
     "The Haitian people are our brothers and sisters," said Mr McCartney. "Our destinies have been linked by proximity, by trade, by family and by friendship.
     "But I would be remiss if I did not tell you that we as a country cannot sustain the current levels of illegal migrants from Haiti and elsewhere. In tough economic times, their competition for services and for jobs becomes even more unwelcome."
[Site link]

IMMIGRATION ABROAD – WORLD, USA, HUMAN TRAFFICKING
Human Trafficking Reaches to High Alert Around World
Kane Farabaugh
Voice of America, 13 November 2009.

     The U.S. State Department estimates that 800,000 human trafficking victims cross international borders each year. The United States is often a destination for many of these victims, where they are held in what many human rights activists consider modern day slavery. Some of those activists participated in the Human Rights Accords in Dayton Ohio, a two-day conference to help raise awareness about the problems victims face. ... ...
     Polaris Project, one of the largest anti-trafficking organizations in the United States, estimates as many as 17,500 foreign nationals are trafficked into the United States each year. They also estimate as many as 244,000 American youth are vulnerable to exploitation.
[Site link]

IMMIGRATION – PUBLIC OPINION, POLITICS
Gordon Brown's immigration speech seen as first shot in election campaign
Alan Travis
The Guardian, 12 November 2009.

     When both the prime minister and the home secretary make their first major speeches for some time on immigration you can be sure that the election campaign has started in earnest.
     Labour ministers have been spooked by private polling showing immigration as the single biggest issue sparking defections among the party's past voters.
     This anxiety has recently been fuelled by a meaningless "projection" from the Office for National Statistics that Britain's population will rise to 70 million and an unfounded Tory conspiracy theory that the 1997 Labour government deliberately let in millions of new migrants to ensure that there would never again be a Conservative government in Britain. If there is even a grain of truth in that conspiracy theory then the opinion polls all demonstrate it has manifestly failed.
     But either way, Labour believes it needs to reassure its core working-class voters on immigration. "So if people ask me, do I get it?, yes, I get it. I have been listening and I understand," says Brown, promising that new migrants will have to demonstrate their commitment to British values before being allowed entry to "our British family home".
     So we have the spectacle today of a Labour prime minister boasting in a speech in Ealing, Southall, the historic home of London's Indian community, that overall net immigration is down 44% on last year and promising that in the coming months thousands more jobs in shortage occupations will be closed to overseas skilled workers.
     Nearly all the measures to further tighten the new points-based immigration outlined today – such as raising the earnings entry threshold for graduate skilled migrants to £24,000 and doubling the period for jobs to be advertised first to British workers from two to four weeks – were recommended earlier this year by the government's own Migration Advisory Committee.
     But the Mac's chairman, Professor David Metcalf, while recommending the changes to ensure that British workers were not being undercut or displaced, also warned the government that it would be a mistake to make deep cuts in the number of skilled migrant workers at a time of recession. He implicitly criticised the idea that there was only a set number of jobs to go round and recognised that migration had actually boosted job growth and the economy over the past decade. ...
     At the same time, the extension of the points-based system to the 130,000 people who apply for a British passport each year will mean much tougher "citizenship tests", including questions on British history. ...
     The draft immigration "simplification" bill also published today should be regarded more as a first glimpse of the Labour 2010 general election manifesto than a serious piece of legislation. Its proposals for sweeping new expulsions for failed asylum seekers and illegal migrants look as though they would sit more comfortably in a party election broadcast than in what would be the eighth major immigration and asylum bill introduced since Labour came to power in 1997.
[Site link]

RACISM – CASTE, DISCRIMINATION
Asian caste discrimination rife in UK, says report
Sam Jones
The Guardian, 11 November 2009.

     Caste discrimination is rife in the UK, with more than half of those from traditionally lower-status Asian backgrounds finding themselves victims of prejudice and abuse, according to a report published today.
     The study, co-ordinated by the Anti Caste Discrimination Alliance (Acda), suggests that the caste system is still widespread and affects tens of thousands of people in the workplace, the classroom and even the doctor's surgery.
     Fifty-eight percent of the 300 people surveyed said they had been discriminated against because of their caste, while 79% said they did not think the police would understand if they tried to report a caste-related "hate crime".
     Almost half of the respondents (45%) said they had either been treated negatively by co-workers or had comments made about their caste. Nine per cent felt they had been passed over for promotion, and 10% said they had been paid less because of their caste. A further 5% said they had experienced threatening behaviour because of their caste.
     One woman said she had been demoted from her job at a radio station after her manager discovered her caste background, while one bus company decided to reorganise shifts so that a "higher caste" inspector would not have to work alongside a "lower caste" bus driver.
     The classroom also appears to be subject to caste divides: 7% of those surveyed said they had been the victims of threatening behaviour while aged under 12 at school, with another 16% suffering verbal caste abuse. According to the study, 10% of those responsible for caste discrimination against under-12s were teachers, and 42% fellow pupils.
     One of the most commonly reported forms of discrimination is caste-related name-calling. Almost three quarters (71%) of those questioned in the survey identified themselves as members of the Dalit community. Dalits, who were formerly known as Untouchables because of their low caste status, are sometimes referred to abusively as chuhra and chamar.
     "[Such] names [are] as derogatory as calling a black person a nigger, anyone from the subcontinent of Indo-Pakistani diaspora Paki, or someone of Jewish extraction a kike," says the report. ...
     A number of respondents also reported being asked – directly or indirectly – about their caste background by their family doctor, nurse or a community nurse. One elderly woman felt her care worker had discriminated against her on caste grounds, while a physiotherapist was also alleged to have refused to treat someone of low caste.
     The report says that the significant number of doctors from the Indian subcontinent now indicated "a potential for caste discrimination occurring in the healthcare sector".
     The Acda hopes its findings will persuade the government to amend the equality bill to make caste discrimination illegal.

IMMIGRATION – POLITICS, PUBLIC OPINION
Johnson: we need a debate on migration
Andrew Grice
The Independent, 9 November 2009.

     In a candid interview with The Independent, Mr Johnson admitted that Labour's failure to debate immigration had "probably" boosted the BNP's appeal.
     "People think we have shied away from a debate on it. They may well be right," he said. "My post bag is bigger on immigration than any other issue. It is a major public concern. The public deserves a rational debate on this, rather than what they sometimes get, which is at the extreme end of the scale."
     His call for a "real debate" about immigration marks a big shift in Labour's thinking. A week ago, Mr Johnson admitted that successive governments, including the present one, had been "maladroit" in handling the issue.
     In his interview he made clear that his comments were not a one-off but part of a concerted attempt to regain the initiative and try to convince the public that Labour has learnt from its mistakes and "completely transformed" the immigration and asylum systems. ...
     Mr Johnson's message is that "immigration has been a good thing for this country – culturally, socially and certainly economically". He believes passionately that places like London, Birmingham and Liverpool have been "enriched" by it. But he denied recent allegations that Labour pursued an "open-door" policy to create a multicultural society. "We don't have an open-door policy. It is misleading to say we have got one or that we have ever had one. We manage immigration."
     Mr Johnson believes public fears are shaped by an out-of-date picture and that Labour's reluctance to debate immigration has deprived it of the opportunity to show that the system has changed out of all recognition. He cites the Australian-style points system for non-EU entrants and introduction of electronic border controls which have led to 4,000 arrests, and will track individuals as well as numbers coming in and out so that "illegals" can be removed.
     Official net migration fell by 44 per cent from 209,000 in 2007 to 118,000 in 2008 – proof, he said, that migrants come to Britain for short periods, work, contribute to the economy and then return home.
     The backlog of asylum applications has dropped from 69,000 to 6,000 since 1995. The average length of time for claims peaked at 35 months, but now 60 per cent of cases are being decided within six months.
[Site link]

IMMIGRATION – MYTHS
The immigration debate we need
The Independent, 9 November 2009.
[Leading article]

     The Home Secretary, Alan Johnson, suggests in an interview with this newspaper today that the Government has "shied away" from the debate about immigration. In fact ministers have often seemed to talk about little else over the past decade. It may be that this debate has often resembled a dialogue of the deaf, but it seems bizarre to imply that it has somehow been brushed under the carpet of public life.
     However, the Home Secretary is correct when he suggests the Government would be a more credible participant in the discussion if it did a better job of emphasising the benefits that immigration brings to Britain. How often do we hear ministers heralding the crucial role migrants play in the National Health Service, or in looking after the elderly in our care homes? They should also do more to debunk the popular myths about the supposedly preferential treatment of migrants in the welfare system.
     It is still widely asserted, for instance, that new migrants jump the queue for social housing despite the fact that only 1.8 per cent of social tenants have moved to the country in the past five years. Gordon Brown even bolstered this myth when he announced plans in June to allow councils to "give more priority to local people". If Mr Johnson wants a more honest debate he might start by apprising the Prime Minister of the facts.
     There are plenty of other sensible points that ministers ought to be making. They should point out that tens of thousands of migrant workers from Central and Eastern Europe have left Britain since the recession hit; an illustration of the reality that substantial inflows of foreign labour throughout our history have been driven by strong economic growth.
     Yet if Mr Johnson seeks to make immigration into an election issue, he needs to tread with caution. It is all too easy for careless politicians to stoke popular anti-immigrant sentiment at a time of economic hardship.
     An honest debate in which the costs and benefits of migration are analysed would indeed be a relief. But the last thing the country needs is a continuation of the grotesque bidding war between politicians of all stripes over who can sound "tougher" towards immigrants.
[Site link]

EMPLOYMENT – FINES
A fine mess: illegal employers fail to pay
Daily Telegraph, 9 November 2009.

     More than four out of 10 fines imposed on companies for employing illegal workers have not been paid, figures show, raising questions about the Government's commitment to controlling immigration.
     Of the 3,164 illegal labour penalties handed out to companies – mainly restaurants and takeaways – by the UK Border Agency over the past 18 months, 1,301 remain uncollected. In total about £6.5 million is thought to have gone unpaid, prompting opposition politicians to claim that Labour's immigration legislation "isn't taken seriously" by rogue employers.
     Chris Huhne, of the Liberal Democrats, disclosed the figures, which were contained in the answer to a parliamentary question.

EXTREMISM – ISLAM, DISCRIMINATION
Non-believers should have their heads cut off, said army killer
Nick Allen
Daily Telegraph, 9 November 2009.

     Major Nidal Malik Hasan, the gunman who killed 13 at the Fort Hood military base in Texas, once gave a lecture to other doctors in which he said non-believers should be beheaded and have boiling oil poured down their throats.
     He also told colleagues at America's leading military hospital that non-Muslims were infidels condemned to hell who should be set on fire.
     The outburst came during an hour-long talk Hasan, an army psychiatrist, gave on the Koran in front of dozens of other doctors at Walter Reed Army Medical Centre in Washington DC, where he worked for six years before arriving at Fort Hood in July. ...
     Fellow doctors have recounted how they were repeatedly harangued by Hasan about religion and that he openly claimed to be a "Muslim first and American second". One Army doctor who knew him said a fear of appearing discriminatory against a Muslim soldier had stopped fellow officers from filing formal complaints. ...
     One of Hasan's neighbours described how on the day of the massacre, about 9am, he gave her a Koran and told her: "I'm going to do good work for God" before leaving for the base.

IMMIGRATION – POLITICS
Tories claim immigration cover-up
BBC, 9 November 2009.

     Shadow home secretary Chris Grayling has accused ministers of trying to "deliberately deceive" people about immigration policy.
     He accused them of breaking Freedom of Information laws and trying to cover up a policy of increasing immigration.
     His claim relates to notes between officials and ministers released more than four years after an FOI request.
     Minister Phil Woolas denied that laws had been broken and said the details had been published months ago.
     Mr Woolas told MPs the notes and e-mails related to a policy to clear a backlog of immigration cases between 2002 and 2004 - into which there had been a full inquiry at the time.
     Whistleblower Steve Moxon prompted the row in 2004; it resulted in the resignation of then immigration minister Beverley Hughes. He then requested details of documents in January 2005.
     Mr Woolas said that, under FOI law, ministers were allowed to withhold some details if there was a risk publishing them might prejudice the "free and frank exchange of views" between ministers and officials.
     Mr Moxon appealed and the case went to the Information Commissioner who, in March 2009, ruled more details should be released.
     "We then released that information in April 2009," Mr Woolas said.
     But Mr Grayling said: "More and more evidence is now emerging to suggest that this government broke Freedom of Information laws and tried to cover up a deliberate change of policy designed to encourage much higher levels of immigration, very probably for party political purposes."
     He said the documents showed that in 2002 rules were relaxed to clear immigration applicants waiting for more than 12 months "without any further investigation into their cases".
     The then head of Immigration and Nationality had e-mailed a minister to confirm the policy of "pragmatic grants", which meant "some risks would have to be taken", Mr Grayling said.
     Explaining his accusation of a cover-up, he said some copies of documents outlining the policy change were "clearly marked 'withhold' at the top".
     "Will he tell the House why ministers did break those [FOI] laws, laws this government itself passed?" asked Mr Grayling.
     "This is a government that has set out to deliberately deceive the British people and a government that has proved utterly incapable of telling them the truth about its policies on accusation."
     Mr Woolas told MPs the accusation that the government had broken the law was one "I absolutely reject".
     He said the policies in question had been the subject of a "thorough" investigation at the time and he dismissed Mr Grayling's attack as "his latest political gimmick".
     He added: "The allegation has been made, very seriously, that we broke the law - that was the phrase you used.
     "In fact, the ruling from the Information Commissioner was issued on March 5 2009 and on April 9 we disclosed, in line with that ruling, the information."
     The Sunday Times reported that the government had published the released documents on an "obscure" part of the Home Office website.
[Site link]

TERRORISM – ISLAM, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS, USA
What's behind America's politically correct 'love' of Islam? [part 1]
David Kupelian
WorldNetDaily, 9 November 2009.

     The second they heard about the Fort Hood massacre, millions of thinking Americans wondered in their gut: "Oh God, is this another crazy Muslim terrorist carrying out a one-man jihad, as has happened so many times before?"
     Then, when the alleged perpetrator's name and religion were made public (Nidal Malik Hasan, a lifelong Muslim) along with eyewitness reports he had shouted the obligatory pre-terror-attack proclamation, "Allahu akbar" ("Allah is greatest") before commencing his orgy of slaughter, their suspicions were confirmed: This was surely a major attack on the American homeland by a Muslim terrorist.
     Further evidence quickly rolled in: Hasan had reportedly refused to fight fellow Muslims, called the war on terror a "war on Islam," told a co-worker Muslims had a right to rise up and attack Americans, and ...
     In other words, although the Army had many warnings Hasan was a certifiable, America-hating, jihadist "ticking time bomb" waiting to go off, it did nothing to avert last week's terror attack. Why?
     And why, after the truth about Hasan became undeniable following his mass slaughter, does the government, as well as its mouthpiece the establishment press, agonize in their usual pathetic manner over what could possibly have motivated the Army psychiatrist to coldly, methodically murder 13 and wound 38 others?
     • Shortly after the attack, right on schedule, the FBI announced it wasn't terror-related.
     • Time magazine moronically blamed posttraumatic stress disorder – even though Hasan has never been deployed in a war zone.
     • The shooter's relatives insisted he had been the victim of religious harassment because of his faith, which must have made him snap.
     • According to the Washington Post, the problem was that Hasan was lonely. • Meanwhile, President Obama warned Americans against "jumping to conclusions" about what might have motivated the shooter.
     Why, after a Muslim commits a terrorist act, do authorities always announce almost instantaneously – before they could possibly know – that the attack was not terror-related?
     Why do the news media always torture themselves and their readers with the most wildly improbable explanations in their attempts to avoid the obvious truth?
     Before we answer these questions, lest you think I overstate the case, take a quick trip with me down jihad memory lane. ...
     This see-no-jihad, hear-no-jihad, speak-no-jihad mindset has become standard operating procedure for the establishment press. ...
     The U.S. government, not wanting to offend Muslim sensitivities, rarely mentions "Muslim" or "Islamic" when describing Islamic terrorism. For example, when a massive jihad plot to blow up 10 airliners over the Atlantic and kill thousands was foiled in 2006, then-Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff briefed his agency using only the word "extremists" to describe the plotters – no mention of Islam. All of the two dozen would-be terrorists were Muslims.
     ...
[Site link]

TERRORISM – ISLAM, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS, USA
What's behind America's politically correct 'love' of Islam? [part 2]
David Kupelian
WorldNetDaily, 9 November 2009.

     Do we dare admit what is really at play here? The truth is actually very simple.
     We are afraid of Islam.
     We are intimidated by Islam.
     And because we are afraid of and intimidated by Islam, Islam is changing us – in two distinct and profound ways.
     First, as is appallingly obvious, we're afraid to criticize Islam openly, for fear of having our head cut off or having a fatwa put out on us like the director of the new "2012" film, or we're afraid of being sued by some of the very litigious Islamic organizations like CAIR, or we're afraid of being called a racist, extremist, hater or "Islamophobe" thanks to the tyranny of political correctness, or we're afraid of offending those in power and thereby risking our position, stature or other advantage. This reaction, while perhaps selfish and cowardly, is more-or-less conscious and strategic.
     However, for some it goes much deeper: Being intimidated by Islam (or by anything, for that matter) actually causes some of us to mysteriously grow sympathetic toward it, to defend it, to side with it, even to convert to it. This unconscious shift in attitude, in response to fear of being hurt, is called the Stockholm syndrome, named after the 1973 Swedish bank robbery during which the four terrorized hostages sided with their criminal captors while disparaging the police risking their lives trying to save them.
     We need to understand that a certain percentage of us, when we're intimidated and upset, start to emotionally gravitate toward and agree with whatever is intimidating us. Not just superficially, as a temporary tactic of placating a bully so he won't hurt us, but more profoundly, deep down in the inner sanctum of our being where our thoughts and feelings germinate and our loyalties bloom.
     Intimidation – that is, causing others to react with upset and fear – is a fundamental principle of mind control, fully capable of causing the victim's loyalties to shift toward the intimidator, whether a schoolyard bully, gang leader, child molester, hostage-taking bank robber or Islamic radical.
     "Political correctness" – which is basically a low-grade Stockholm syndrome playing out on a broad societal stage – is actually a subtle form of brainwashing. Even establishment mouthpiece Newsweek, in its famous Dec. 24, 1990, cover story on the then-new phenomenon of political correctness on college campuses (titled "Thought Police") conceded this truth when it reported: "PC is, strictly speaking, a totalitarian philosophy."
     Bottom line: We're intimidated, bullied, threatened, terrorized – and so we capitulate, not just in word and deed, but in thought. Get it?
     Most of the time, of course, this occurs below the radar of our own consciousness. We don't understand what's really happening. So we interpret our growing sympathy and affinity for whatever intimidated us as evidence of our loving, open-minded, enlightened nature. In reality, it's the result of craven weakness on our part. ...
     Although they were horrified, "One Army doctor who knew him said a fear of appearing discriminatory against a Muslim soldier had stopped fellow officers from filing formal complaints," ...
     Are you with me? "A fear of appearing discriminatory" caused 51 brave American soldiers to be shot by an Islamist monster, 13 fatally.
     This inordinate fear, implanted in us by the lords of politically correct attitude, the subtle brainwashers of modern, secular society, is to blame.
[Site link]

RACISM – CHINA, SOUTH KOREA
China's Race Problem
Reihan Salam, a fellow at the New America Foundation
Forbes, 9 November 2009.

     Is racism universal? Since the end of the colonial era, the rising powers of the developing world have been quick to condemn Western racism. Ethnocentrism and color prejudice can be found in virtually all human societies, going back centuries if not thousands of years. ...
     ... It is also true, however, that Americans have been fairly forthright in confronting this legacy. The same can't be said of the new racism that is taking shape in Asia. ...
     Like the rich nations of the West, South Korea also has a low birthrate and, as a direct result, a rapidly aging population. This begs the question of whether South Korea should embrace large-scale immigration. ...
     In a fascinating article published in The New York Times last week, Choe Sang-Hun described the intense discrimination faced by a small but growing number of migrant workers from impoverished Asian countries. A number of Koreans have expressed serious concerns about the end of the country's ethnic homogeneity, arguing that a larger influx of migrant workers would lead to a rise in the level of crime and social tension.
     These anxieties have the air of self-fulfilling prophecy. Given that many if not most Koreans prize ethnic homogeneity, migrant workers will remain on the margins of society. This, in turn, will fuel alienation and resentment among this class of permanent second-class citizens. And so South Korea's major cities could very well see the rise of segregated ethnic slums. It's worth noting that anti-foreigner sentiments are flourishing in a time when South Korea is experiencing rapid economic change, including a new social and economic inequality. Just as racism provided the basis for solidarity among whites in U.S. history, it could be playing a similar role in South Korea.
     Next to China's race problem, South Korea's pales in significance. ...
     Moreover, as the political scientists Valerie Hudson and Andrea van den Boer noted in their book Bare Branches, China also has tens of millions of so-called "surplus males" thanks to a strong cultural preference for male children. This means that large numbers of Chinese men will have a difficult time finding wives in the near future. One obvious way for the China of 2025 to address this dilemma would be to embrace mass immigration. Because China remains a poor and populous country, the idea that it will become a magnet for immigrants seems faintly ridiculous, not least because millions of Chinese are desperate to emigrate. Of course, the same was once true of Ireland, which is now one of Europe's most diverse countries.
     But like South Korea – and, for that matter, Japan – China is not terribly hospitable to ethnic outsiders, including members of non-Han minorities native to China. Observers tend to overstate the level of ethnic homogeneity in China, not least because the Han category masks tremendous cultural diversity. "Hanness" is as broad and contingent a category as "whiteness."
     ... The dislike and distrust of Europeans was always mixed with envy and admiration. The disdain for dark-skinned foreigners, in contrast, was and remains relatively uncomplicated. Maoist China railed against Western imperialism, and saw itself as a leader of the global proletariat of Africans and Asians.
     Now, as China emerges as an economic and cultural superpower, those notions of Third World solidarity, always skin deep, seem to have vanished. It is thus hard to imagine China welcoming millions of hard-working Nigerians and Bangladeshis with open arms. This could change over the next couple of decades as China's labor shortage grows acute. I wouldn't bet on it.
[Site link]

IMMIGRATION
Home Office covered up immigration risk [part 1]
David Leppard
The Sunday Times, 8 November 2009.

     Labour's "open door" immigration policy knowingly risked allowing dangerous people to settle in Britain unchecked, according to documents seen by The Sunday Times.
     The Whitehall correspondence, which was illegally withheld by the Home Office for four years, shows how ministers were told by the country's most senior immigration official that his staff were to be "encouraged to take risks" when granting visas, work permits and extended residency to hundreds of thousands of new migrants.
     The cover-up of this policy of risk-taking was so concerted that Richard Thomas, the then information commissioner, sent a team of investigators into the Home Office to trawl all the relevant papers. Earlier this year he rebuked the department for breaking the law and ordered it to release the material under the freedom of information (FoI) law.
     The documents help to explain the huge rise in the flow of migrants into Britain as the Home Office rushed to clear a backlog of 45,000 cases.
     Officials agreed to fast-track 337,000 applications with minimal checks. This led to a rapid rise in immigration. In 1999, 170,000 visas were granted; by 2002, this had risen to 300,000.
     As officials were being ordered to take risks, several potentially dangerous people entered the UK. In late 2001, more than 20 Taliban, who had fled from Afghanistan after their defeat by American and British forces, were allowed to stay in the UK. ...
     ... The documents indicate that, far from being a mistake, there was a deliberate policy – apparently endorsed at the highest level in the Home Office – to promote concerted risk-taking by immigration staff whose job was to decide whether non-European Union migrants applying to work, study or marry in Britain were genuine.
     A key figure in the scandal was Sir Bill Jeffrey, who was the director-general of the Immigration and Nationality Directorate, Britain's most senior immigration official. ...
     The other key figure was Beverley Hughes, then minister of state for citizenship and immigration. She was later forced to resign after it emerged she had misled MPs about whether she had been warned that Romanian and Bulgarian crime gangs might want to exploit the UK's decision to open its borders to those seeking work from eastern Europe.
     In March 2003, shortly after the 2001 entry permits to the Taliban had come to light – to an outcry in the press – Jeffrey spelled out the policy in a note to Hughes.
     "We are still in a situation where some risks have to be taken, and staff should feel that if they are encouraged to take risks they will be supported when something does go wrong," he wrote.
     The minister's office replied by e-mail three days later:
     "Beverley Hughes has seen and noted your submission of 7 March . . . Beverley feels the basic point is that while staff have to take some risks, this was a decision that flew in the face of common sense."
     The e-mail was copied to David Blunkett, then home secretary, and Sir John Gieve, his most senior mandarin. The words "to be withheld" were later scribbled across the top, an apparent instruction not to comply with an FoI request for its release.
     The same words appear on a note, prepared by Jeffrey, sent to Hughes a few day later. In it, in response to Hughes's insistent complaints about the need to clear the 45,000 backlog, he outlined the new "risk-taking" policy. This involved fast-tracking all 337,000 applications, with little or no regard as to whether they were merited.
[Site link]

IMMIGRATION
Home Office covered up immigration risk [part 2]
David Leppard
The Sunday Times, 8 November 2009.

     The policy, codenamed Brace, meant that officials had to make quick decisions based on the paperwork in an applicant's file, regardless of whether it was complete. No further follow-up checks were to be made.
     Jeffrey said staff were given guidance that "Brace is about pragmatic (ie not pursing every angle that could conceivably justify refusal) grants rather than pragmatic refusals".
     In other words, the official policy was in principle to grant applications rather than to refuse them.
     This telling exchange – and equally significant evidence of a concerted cover-up – is buried deep in a batch of documents that ministers tried desperately to prevent being made public.
     Their illegal activity followed an application by a Whitehall whistleblower, Steve Moxon, to force them to release the material under the Freedom of Information Act.
     An immigration case worker whose ultimate bosses had been Jeffrey and Hughes, Moxon was sacked after telling The Sunday Times about the fast-tracking process in 2004. He has spent five years trying to obtain the truth about the policy, which Hughes always claimed publicly was implemented by junior officials without her knowledge.
     Not only do the papers expose her claim as untrue; they go further in showing that Hughes and Jeffrey were happy to encourage the culture of deliberate risk-taking.
     When an FoI application was made to see their exchanges, ministers argued that the material was exempt from disclosure because policy advice given by officials to their political masters should remain confidential.
     In official correspondence with the information commissioner, the Home Office said that "a Home Office minister" had ruled that the documents should not be released.
     But in March this year, Thomas ruled: "The public interest in favour of maintaining the exemption does not outweigh the public interest in disclosure.
     "The commissioner requires the (Home Office) to disclose the information which has been withheld . . . In failing to release information, the commissioner finds that the (Home Office) breached sections 1 and 10 (of the Freedom of Information Act."
     The government reluctantly conceded, placing the documents on an obscure part of the department's website, apparently in the hope that nobody would notice.
     Yesterday, the Tories said they would be demanding an urgent explanation of the documents from the government.
     Chris Grayling, the shadow home secretary, said: "This is shaping up to become one of the major political scandals of recent times. Ministers quite clearly broke the law and deliberately misled the public to cover up a policy which most reasonable people would say was utterly irresponsible."
     Why did new Labour secretly open Britain's borders, while pretending to control the numbers under its so-called "managed migration" policy? ...
     Chris Mullin, a former minister, recalled in his memoirs that ministers had "barely touched the rackets that surrounded arranged marriages . . . terrified of the huge cry of 'racism' that would go up
     . . . There is the added difficulty that at least 20 Labour seats, including Jack (Straw's), depend on Asian votes".
     With up to 80% of ethnic minorities voting Labour, it is obvious that the more immigrants who get the right to vote, the greater is Labour's electoral share. Perhaps Mullin has stumbled on a smoking gun.
[Site link]

POPULATION – RELIGION, SOCIETY
Couples are now 'too selfish to have children' says Chief Rabbi
Martin Beckford
Daily Telegraph, 6 November 2009.

     Europe is "dying" because its secular population is too selfish to have children, according to the leader of Britain's Jewish community.
     Lord Sacks, the Chief Rabbi, claimed that the continent's population was in decline because people cared more about shopping than the sacrifice involved in parenthood.
     He blamed atheist "neo-Darwinians" for Europe's low birth rate and said religious people of all denominations were more likely to have large families.
     "Parenthood involves massive sacrifice of money, attention, time and emotional energy," he said.
     "Where today in European culture with its consumerism and instant gratification – 'because you're worth it' – will you find space for the concept of sacrifice for the sake of generations not yet born?
     "Europe, at least the indigenous population of Europe, is dying.
     "That is one of the unsayable truths of our time. We are undergoing the moral equivalent of climate change and no one is talking about it. ..." ...
     The Chief Rabbi gave warning that secular Europe was at risk, however, because its moral relativism could be defeated easily by fundamentalists.
     And he claimed that its population was in decline, compared with every other part of the world, because non-believers lacked shared values of family and community that religions have.
     "Wherever you turn today – Jewish, Christian or Muslim – the more religious the community, the larger on average are their families," said Lord Sacks. ...
     He said people were wrong to suggest that religion was dying. Rather it was "liberal democratic Europe" that was in danger – "demographically and in its ability to defend its own values."

IMMIGRATION ABROAD – SWEDEN, REPATRIATION, DEPORTATION, COST
Sweden to pay more asylum seekers to leave
The Local, 6 November 2009.

     Sweden has decided to expand a programme which gives unsuccessful asylum seekers money to voluntarily return to their homelands, at the same time as the number of refugee applications continues to drop.
     For the past two years, citizens from Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, as well as from the West Bank and Gaza who have had their asylum claims rejected have been able to apply for funds from the Swedish Migration Board (Migrationsverket) to help pay for the return trip home.
     "We've had this option for nearly two years and have been reviewing it along the way, and based on that we've chosen to go ahead and open it up to more countries," Caroline Henjered, head of the agency's division for asylum reception, told the TT news agency.
     Since November 1st, an additional 20 countries have been added to the programme. Most of the countries are in Africa, but asylum seekers from parts of Russia and Kosovo can now also apply for the repatriation funds.
     Migration authorities estimate that around 18,000 repatriation cases will be carried out in 2009. About 42 percent of cases are expected to end in voluntary return, with Iraqis making up the bulk of those willing to return on their own.
     At the same time, about 10,000 cases will likely be handed over to police, who will then be charged with carrying out deportation orders for people who are unwilling to leave Sweden after having their applications for refugee status rejected.
     According to a recent report from the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), 10,000 asylum seekers came to Sweden in the first six months of 2009, down from 12,000 applications during the first half of 2008, Sveriges Radio (SR) reports. ...
     Through August, the agency has handed around 7,000 cases to the police, with about 56 percent of them thought to involve people who have decided to go underground to avoid deportation.
     The Migration Board hopes that by allowing unsuccessful asylum seekers from more countries to apply for repatriation funds, it can also lower the number of people who go into hiding. ...
     The cost of the current repatriation assistance programme is calculated to be between 40 and 50 million kronor ($5.7 to 7.2 million).
     However, it remains unclear how much costs may increase after more countries are added to the programme, or how the costs would compare with those incurred by having the people remain in Sweden.
     "Off the top of my head, I'd guess that it won't be cheaper or more expensive," said Henjered.
[Site link]

RACISM – EDUCATION
Institutional racism keeps black teachers out of top posts - report finds
Jessica Shepherd
The Guardian, 6 November 2009.

     Researchers at Manchester University and analysts at Education Data Surveys quizzed 556 state school teachers from ethnic minorities for their report.
      ...
     Ethnic minorities make up 10.1% of the population of England but only 1% or fewer of the headteachers in primary and secondary schools, according to data gathered by the teaching unions.
     Only 2.6% of teachers are Asian, while 1.7% are black and 0.8% are of mixed race, data from the Department for Children, Schools and Families from last year shows.
     Some 44% of the teachers quizzed said they had suffered discrimination because of their ethnicity and 70% said it was harder for teachers from ethnic minorities to become headteachers than it was for white teachers. ...
     The study, The leadership aspirations and careers of black and minority ethnic teachers, which was commissioned by a training college for aspiring headteachers – the National College for Leadership of Schools and Children's Services – and teaching union Nasuwt, concludes that the findings are "indicative of an endemic culture of institutional racism".
      ...
     The two main barriers to promotion were the perception that headteachers are overworked and a lack of confidence in their ability to take on a headteacher's role.
     "When depicting teachers in leadership posts, black and minority ethnic role models should be used wherever possible, in order to create an image of an inclusive profession and to challenge the dominant cultural perceptions that black and minority ethnic teachers do not make good leaders," one of the co-author's of the study, Professor Olwen McNamara, said.
     Chris Keates, general secretary of the Nasuwt, said: "This report reveals the true extent of the problem of racism and discrimination that, regrettably, is still all too pervasive in our schools."
     She said the government and local authorities should "systematically monitor" the career paths of BME teachers so that barriers could be identified and removed. ...
     Others said the findings did not show schools were institutionally racist.
     Steve Munby, chief executive of the National College, said: "While there is no doubt that some of those sampled had experienced discrimination, which is obviously unacceptable, this does not mean that the system is institutionally racist.
     "Although discrimination on the grounds of race was cited by all as in the top ten barriers to achieving career aspirations, workload and confidence were the first and second most cited barriers overall."
     Martin Ward, deputy general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: "This research shows that the number one barrier to leadership for black and minority ethnic teachers is the same as for non-black and minority ethnic groups, and that is excessive workload. ...
     Almost two-thirds of the teachers polled were from secondary schools with just under a third from primary schools. The rest were from special and other schools. Just under three-quarters of the teachers were women. Two-thirds were of Indian, Afro-Caribbean, African or Pakistani origin. The mean age of teachers in the sample was 38.
[Site link]

IMMIGRATION – TALIBAN, AFGHANISTAN
Fighting the Taliban 'helps stem immigration'
Tom Whitehead
Daily Telegraph, 5 November 2009.

     British forces are fighting in Afghanistan partly to help control immigration to Britain, Phil Woolas, the Immigration Minister has claimed.
     Mr Woolas said that the number of asylum seekers would "significantly increase" if the Taliban regained power, but this aspect of the military's role was "not aired strongly enough".
     ... Mr Woolas was appearing before the Commons home affairs select committee, which also heard that the Home Office may have unwittingly granted asylum to members of the Taliban.
     Mr Woolas said he could not confirm this because those claiming asylum "tend not to tell us if they were in the Taliban".

IMMIGRATION ABROAD – SPAIN
Spain: despite crisis, foreign residents increase 10%
ANSAmed.info, 5 November 2009.

     Despite the crisis, the number of foreigners in Spain with resident or stay permits has increased 10.31%. In September there were 4,715,757 people, and 38.86% of them were from EU countries. According to data published today by the Ministry of Labour's Immigration and Emigration Service, there are about half a million (exactly 444,936) foreigners who've declared residence in the country in the last twelve months, a 1.96% increase in the third quarter compared to the previous one. In terms of origin, the Moroccan community remains the largest, with 758,174 residents in Spain; followed by Romanians (728,580), Ecuadorians (441,455), Columbians (228,255), British (221,073), Chinese, Italian, Peruvian, Bulgarian, and Portuguese. Of the total foreign residents, 53.49% are male. The European Union is the geographic area of origin for the majority of foreigners (38.86%), followed by Latin America (30.71%), Africa (20.84%), Asian countries (6.28%), Non EU Europe (2.84%), North America (0.43%) and Oceania (0.04%).
[Site link]

RACISM – ANTI-RACISM
Claude Lévi-Strauss
Daily Telegraph, 4 November 2009.
[An obituary of the famous social anthropologist, Claude Lévi-Strauss]

     The sage's views were never predictable. Asked to deliver the 1971 Unesco lecture on the causes of racism, he took the opportunity, even while condemning all forms of discrimination, to attack anti-racist propaganda for undermining "ancient individualism" and for driving humanity towards the insipid goal of a world civilisation.

IMMIGRATION – POLITICS
Our immigration mistakes, by minister
Tom Whitehead
Daily Telegraph, 3 November 2009.

     The Home Secretary has admitted for the first time that the Government has been inept over its handling of immigration, which has increased pressure on local jobs and services.
     In his first speech on the subject, Alan Johnson said that some parts of the country had been "disproportionately affected" by the influx of migrants and that his predecessors had ignored for "far too long" problems that led to backlogs of asylum seekers and foreign prisoners. Labour had been "maladroit" in its handling of immigration, he said.
     But he insisted that halting immigration altogether was "no sensible argument" and rejected claims that the increase in migrants over the past 10 years was partly due to a politically motivated effort to boost multi-culturalism. ...
     "The legacy problems with unreturned foreign national prisoners and asylum seekers may have accumulated under previous administrations, but they continued to be ignored for far too long on our watch."
     He criticised Tory plans for a cap on migrant numbers as "arbitrary".

CRIME – CHILD-TRAFFICKING
Revealed: hidden misery of children trafficked to Britain
Robert Verkaik
The Independent, 3 November 2009.

     Hundreds of children trafficked to Britain each year are being failed by social workers, teachers and doctors, it is claimed today in a report which uncovers the hidden misery of the international trade in young labour.
     The findings suggest that when trafficked children try to escape from imprisonment in Britain, their cries for help are ignored or negligently handled by UK agencies. The report, by the Children's Society charity, found that those who managed to escape their captors were often returned to domestic imprisonment, where they were forced to work as prostitutes in brothels or as slaves in British homes. ... ...
     The United Kingdom Human Trafficking Centre (UKHTC) is aware of 325 children from 52 countries who may have been trafficked in 2008. But the Children's Society, which looked closely at 46 cases in the UK, said these figures did not account for young people who feel they have no choice but to keep their ordeals a secret. ...
     Even when a child is identified as being at risk of exploitation and taken into care, they still face kidnapping by traffickers. In May this year, it was discovered that 77 children had gone missing from a single children's home near Heathrow since March 2006. It is estimated that 1.2 million children worldwide are trafficked each year, in a trade worth ú16bn annually. ...
     The study's disturbing findings will add to growing pressure on the Government to introduce a law making domestic servitude and forced labour an offence in the UK for the first time. Last week, ministers backed down and dropped opposition to a new anti-slavery offence punishable by 14 years' imprisonment. Some of the children living on the streets of the world's poorest cities are picked up by criminal gangs before being sold on to traffickers who take them to countries including Britain. Others are sold to traffickers by their parents. The most common countries of origin are China, Vietnam, Bangladesh, India, Afghanistan and Nigeria.
[Site link]

IMMIGRATION – WORLD, DESIRE TO MIGRATE
700 Million Worldwide Desire to Migrate Permanently
Neli Esipova and Julie Ray
Gallup, 2 November 2009.

     Every day, migrants leave their homelands behind for new lives in other countries. Reflecting this desire, rather than the reality of the numbers that actually migrate, Gallup finds about 16% of the world's adults would like to move to another country permanently if they had the chance. This translates to roughly 700 million worldwide – more than the entire adult population of North and South America combined.
     From its surveys in 135 countries between 2007 and 2009, Gallup finds residents of sub-Saharan African countries are most likely to express a desire to move abroad permanently. Thirty-eight percent of the adult population in the region – or an estimated 165 million – say they would like to do this if the opportunity arises. Residents in Asian countries are the least likely to say they would like to move – with 10% of the adult population, or roughly 250 million, expressing a desire to migrate permanently.
     The United States is the top desired destination country for the 700 million adults who would like to relocate permanently to another country. Nearly one-quarter (24%) of these respondents, which translates to more than 165 million adults worldwide, name the United States as their desired future residence. With an additional estimated 45 million saying they would like to move to Canada, Northern America is one of the two most desired regions.
     The rest of the top desired destination countries (those where an estimated 25 million or more adults would like to go) are predominantly European. Forty-five million adults who would like to move name the United Kingdom or France as their desired destination, while 35 million would like to go to Spain and 25 million would like to relocate to Germany. Thirty million name Saudi Arabia and 25 million name Australia.
     Roughly 210 million adults around the world would like to move to a country in the European Union, which is similar to the estimated number who would like to move to Northern America. However, about half of the estimated 80 million adults who live in the EU and would like to move permanently to another country would like to move to another country within the EU – the highest desired intra-regional migration rate in the world.
     ... Eighty percent of those in developing countries who would like to move permanently to another country would like to move to a developed country, while 13% of respondents in developed countries would like to move to a developing country. ...
     Results are based on aggregated telephone and face-to-face interviews with 259,542 adults, aged 15 and older, in 135 countries from 2007 to 2009. The 135 countries surveyed represent 93% of the world's adult population.
[Site link]

BENEFITS AND COSTS – CHILD BENEFITS, EUROPEAN UNION, PUBLIC OPINION
We pay benefits for 37,000 Polish children ... still living in Poland
Rebecca Lefort
Sunday Telegraph, 1 November 2009.

     British taxpayers are funding child benefit payments for 37,900 children who live in Poland, Treasury figures show.
     The money is going to support those who have remained behind in their homeland while one or both of their parents lives and works in this country. The cost is estimated at more than £20 million a year.
     The number of claims has risen by 20 per cent in the past year, despite a slowing in the rate of immigration from eastern Europe. ...
     The findings come as an ICM poll for The Sunday Telegraph shows today that two thirds of voters believe the number of immigrants in Britain is too high.
     Poles make up the majority of the 50,600 children, from more than 30,000 families, living outside Britain who are supported with child benefit payments from British taxpayers. ...
     The Treasury has refused to put a figure on the cost of supporting children abroad.

POPULATION PRESSURE – HERITAGE
Planning changes 'threaten our history and countryside'
Andrew Gilligan
Sunday Telegraph, 1 November 2009.

     Tens of thousands of listed buildings and large swaths of the countryside could be destroyed after two key planks of the planning system were quietly dismantled by ministers.
     In previously unreported plans, the Government is to downgrade protection on old buildings and those in conservation areas in order to "benefit developers" and "reduce the number of applications for planning permission rejected on heritage grounds".
     The professional body representing town planners described the proposal as "unfit for purpose".
     In a separate development, the Infrastructure Planning Commission (IPC), a new quango that has been created to speed up planning decisions on "major infrastructure projects", was described as a threat to "valuable landscapes".
     The changes to historic building protection are contained in a draft Government "planning policy statement" slipped out during the summer holidays. ...
     Martin Willey, the President of the Royal Town Planning Institute, described the policy as "a charter for people who want to know buildings down". ...
     The IPC is made up of unelected commissioners who have been given 'draconian' new powers to grant planning permission, cancel Green Belt protection, allow developers to seize private land, remove footpaths and close roads. ...
     The Campaign for the Protection of Rural England described the IPC as a "mockery of democracy" that will "threaten valuable landscapes".

EXTREMISM – EDUCATION
Funds for 'extremist' schools suspended
Andrew Gilligan
Sunday Telegraph, 1 November 2009.

     Schools run by members of Hizb ut-Tahrir, an Islamic extremist group, have had their public funding suspended and will be placed under investigation after the payments were exposed by The Sunday Telegraph.

MULTICULTURALISM – RACE
It's a wonderful, mixed-up world
Aarathi Prasad
Sunday Telegraph, 1 November 2009.
[Aarathi Prasad presented a programme, "Is it Better to be Mixed Race?", on Channel 4 television on 2 November 2009]

     As a person from the Indian ethnic minority in this country, ... ...
     ... my daughter, and approximately 400,000 other children in Britain today, is mixed race. Families like mine are on the rise – nearly one in 10 British children now lives in a mixed-race family, a figure that is six times higher than it was when I was a child. In fact, mixed race people are the fastest-growing minority in this country, a trend that is set to continue. Even in my community, traditionally inward-looking when it comes to choosing partners, the proportion of mixed marriages has increased from 3 per cent to 11 per cent in the space of just 14 years.
     A report in January 2009 produced for the Equality and Human Rights Commission noted that this rise in interracial relationships can be "taken to be a thermometer of ethnic relations". ... ...
     If inbreeding is bad, then the opposite – outbreeding – should be good. It makes sense, some suggest, that people might be genetically better off if they were mixed race. The anecdotal evidence is writ large in the over-representation of Britain's tiny mixed-race population in the arts, music, modelling and sport. Mixed-race people account for 30 per cent of the current England football team in a country where they make up only 2 per cent of the general population.

IMMIGRATION ABROAD – SOUTH KOREA, RACISM
South Koreans Struggle With Race
Choe Sang-Hun
New York Times, 1 November 2009.

     South Korea, a country where until recently people were taught to take pride in their nation's "ethnic homogeneity" and where the words "skin color" and "peach" are synonymous, is struggling to embrace a new reality. In just the past seven years, the number of foreign residents has doubled, to 1.2 million, even as the country's population of 48.7 million is expected to drop sharply in coming decades because of its low birth rate. ...
     For most South Koreans, globalization has largely meant increasing exports or going abroad to study. But now that it is also bringing an influx of foreigners into a society where 42 percent of respondents in a 2008 survey said they had never once spoken with a foreigner, South Koreans are learning to adjust – often uncomfortably. ...
     In South Korea, a country repeatedly invaded and subjugated by its bigger neighbors, people's racial outlooks have been colored by "pure-blood" nationalism as well as traditional patriarchal mores, said Seol Dong-hoon, a sociologist at Chonbuk National University.
     Centuries ago, when Korean women who had been taken to China as war prizes and forced into sexual slavery managed to return home, their communities ostracized them as tainted. In the last century, Korean "comfort women," who worked as sex slaves for the Japanese Imperial Army, faced a similar stigma. Later, women who sold sex to American G.I.'s in the years following the 1950-53 Korean War were despised even more. Their children were shunned as "twigi," a term once reserved for animal hybrids, said Bae Gee-cheol, 53, whose mother was expelled from her family after she gave birth to him following her rape by an American soldier.
     Even today, the North Korean authorities often force abortion on women who return home pregnant after going to China to find food, according to defectors and human rights groups. ...
     For many Koreans, the first encounter with non-Asians came during the Korean War, when American troops fought on the South Korean side. That experience has complicated South Koreans' racial perceptions, Mr. Seol said. Today, the mix of envy and loathing of the West, especially of white Americans, is apparent in daily life. ...
     The Foreign Ministry supports an anti-discrimination law, said Kim Se-won, a ministry official. In 2007, the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination recommended that South Korea adopt such a law, deploring the widespread use of terms like "pure blood" and "mixed blood." It urged public education to overcome the notion that South Korea was "ethnically homogenous," which, it said, "no longer corresponds to the actual situation."
     But a recent forum to discuss proposed legislation against racial discrimination turned into a shouting match when several critics who had networked through the Internet showed up. They charged that such a law would only encourage even more migrant workers to come to South Korea, pushing native workers out of jobs and creating crime-infested slums. They also said it was too difficult to define what was racially or culturally offensive.
[Site link]


Recent news and views

Recent news and views (this page, above).
These extracts are ones not yet included in any of the following pages which are updated less often than this page.

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These are the more notable or substantial items, omitting ones that are more lightweight or ephemeral. These can be found also in the main collections shown in the pages described below (bydate.htm and bysub.htm), but are copied here for those who want to skip the less important material. Some items are, of course, borderline but have to be either included or excluded. The extracts are in reverse date order, so the latest are at the top of the page. In the two summary lists described below the titles of these selected items are shown in bold.

News and views in date order

Extracts of news and views in date order (bydate.htm).
Extracts of news and views in reverse date order, so the latest are at the top of the page. Items that are less important or more ephemeral are included along with those that are more notable. If you prefer to read by starting at an earlier date and working forwards, you can do so either by using the "Up" links provided or by going through the summary list (see below) in the desired order and using the hyperlink from each item there to the relevant extract.

List of items in date order (dlist.htm).
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News and views in subject order

Extracts of news and views in subject order (bysub.htm).
These are the same extracts as given elsewhere in date order, but they are presented here by subject. To avoid having too many subject headings, 'multiculturalism' here includes multiracialism and multiethnic issues; 'population' includes overpopulation.

List of news and views in subject order (sublist.htm).
A list of the extracts in subject order, with brief details and a link to each. Scan this list of extracts and use the hyperlink (click on the symbol @) to go to extract that is of interest. Titles in bold type indicate the more notable items.

Publications

A list of some publications on immigration and related matters (pubs.htm).

Links to other sites

Links to relevant other sites of possible interest (sites.htm).


Notes:
Some reports here do not mention immigration or immigrants, but their relevance is indicated elsewhere. For example, a report on the consequences of population pressure is relevant since the rise in the UK's population is largely due to mass immigration. A report on the level of knife crime might not at first seem relevant here, since there is usually no mention of immigration. However, other reports indicate that it is a significant factor. An item on education can be relevant because inadequate education in the UK is a reason given by some business managers for employing foreigners.

Where longer extracts of an article are divided into several parts, this is almost always done only for convenience of presentation here.

Where no website link is provided, the source is usually, with the exception mainly of older extracts, the printed publication. In these cases, many but not all of the full reports can be found on the publishers' websites. However, if searching for the full report, note that it is not unusual for the heading and the text to have been modified. For example, the heading "British television is hideously white, says equality chief", printed in The Daily Telegraph, is or was "Britain's most popular television programmes 'too white', says Trevor Phillips" on the newspaper's website.

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Please report errors and omissions to contact @ immat.info - thank you.


Number of recent news items on this page: 69
This page was updated on 1st December 2009


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