UK Immigration News

The Scottish government is reassuring its citizens that although the country wants to boost its immigration numbers, it will work with current and future immigrants to make sure they are integrated into Scottish society. Scotland's first minister Jack McConnell last year introduced his "Fresh Talent" policy to attract more immigrants.

Immigration has boosted the UK's population by over one million since 1997, a new report says.

According to think-tank Migrationwatch UK, net migration had added more than 1.2 million to the UK population in the past seven years, accounting for 81% of the total population growth during that period.

The group says that that amounts to the population of Birmingham and Nottingham added together and is equivalent to an average growth in population due to immigration of 177,000 each year.

In the UK,the Liverpool football teams's failure to obtain a work permit forChilean footballer Mark Gonzalez earlier this month again highlightedthe unpredictable process of getting UK work permits for non-European players.

Starting on Tuesday, 30 August 2005, the British High Commission in Nairobi will be receiving applications for Family Reunion and related settlement entry clearance only on Tuesdays and Thursdays between 10.30 and 11.30 local time.

Immigration of skilled workers is 10 times more valuable to the economy than immigration of unskilled workers, new statistical research shows.

While unskilled immigrants produce many benefits for better-off residents in a country, they tend to reduce the wages the un-skilled native population can earn. They also tend to increase inequality and barely raise the return on capital.

The number of asylum applications to the UK has dropped, but the UK government said it is not removing failed applicants from the country fast enough. There were 6,220 asylum applications to Britain, excluding dependants, between April and June this year against 7,915 in the same period last year, a fall of 21%.

The figure is also an 11% drop on applications in the first quarter of this year.