Immigration newsletter 21 Sep 2005

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UK trade unions announced this week that they do not support a new EU rule that allows firms to pay migrant workers poverty wages. Unions are opposed to an EU directive that will enable migrant workers to be paid in their country of origin. This would allow companies to pay workers from Eastern Europe the average wages in their own countries, which would be far less than the British minimum wage. The vote denotes a marked shift towards Euro scepticism by the unions, which have mostly supported the EU in recent years, believing closer ties would deliver better working conditions.

The Australian Immigration Department announced that will be returning 8000 visas to foreign students who had lost the right to study because of poor grades or low class attendance. Schools or colleges must tell the department of immigration if foreign students are not attending at least 80 per cent of courses or are failing too many subjects. In such cases the colleges ultimately issue a notice - copied to the department - ordering the student to report to the department within 28 days. It was decided that this law was too restrictive, and 8000 students whose visas had been taken away will now be returned.

Australia's Immigration Department will invest an additional $100 million on IT over the next five years on technology, after the department was found to have over 200 wrongful detention cases. Biometrics are at the top of the agenda for the department, which has been embarrassed by the unlawful detentions and deportations this year. The department mistakenly identified people as non-Australian citizens, due in part to inadequate identification systems.

France's minister for overseas affairs caused outrage on 17 September when he said that illegal immigrants were giving birth on French territory to ensure their children had French nationality. By law, a child born on French ground is French, no matter who the parents are. Francois Baroin called for a debate on France's birthright laws. The move came as a sign that mainstream politicians are starting to follow the anti-immigration trend in France.