IMMIGRATION BULLETIN

1.  RUSSIA EXPELLING FOREIGN LABOUR

Our congratulations to the government of Vladimir Putin, who is
putting the Russian people first by expelling the hordes of foreign
labour, riddled with criminals and Islamic terrorists, who have
taken jobs and depressed wages in Russia.  Russia is still
desperately poor, by Western standards, and struggling to recover
from the economic collapse brought about by the capitalist extremism
that followed communism.

http://insider.washingtontimes.com/articles/normal.php?StoryID=20070123-122536-3314r

Thousands of migrant workers from the Caucasus, Central Asia and
China are leaving Russia as the government institutes tough new
measures aimed at cracking down on illegal immigration.

Campaigners against illegal immigration are welcoming the measures,
saying low-paid migrants were distorting the job market and
taking work from Russian citizens. But critics say the moves
are ill-advised because they will drive up retail prices and
create a labor shortage that could hurt Russia's booming economy.
About 12 million people, mostly citizens of impoverished ex-Soviet
republics who do not require a visa to enter the country, are
currently working illegally in Russia, according to analysts.
The new rules set the quota for legal foreign workers at 6 million,
while at same time imposing fines of up to $30,000 on companies
that employ foreigners illegally. Also, as of this month,
only 40 percent of workers in Russia's retail markets are
allowed to be foreigners, and none should be by April 1.

Foreign workers have traditionally dominated in Russia's
retail markets, with people from Azerbaijan, for example,
selling fruits and vegetables, and Chinese selling cheap
manufactured goods. Illegal migrants, mostly from Uzbekistan
and Tajikistan, are also heavily employed as laborers in the
construction industry.

'We aren't wanted anymore, so I guess we'll be going home,'
said Artak, an Armenian who sells cigarettes and alcohol
at a kiosk in central Moscow. 'I'll be surprised if they can
find a Russian who is willing do this work all day for
what they pay me.'

With illegal migrants difficult to track, it's not clear
exactly how many are leaving Russia. But Russian police have
been out in force to enforce the new laws, and signs are
that few are taking the risk of staying.

Many stalls at food markets across Moscow are empty as
vendors leave the country. Some markets have closed
altogether, while others have posted signs looking for
vendors with Russian citizenship. Russian television has
shown images of empty markets in the Far East, where
Chinese stallholders have fled across the border.

A Russian union organizer who works with illegal migrants
in the construction industry said companies are throwing
thousands of workers off job sites in fear of being
prosecuted.

'You used to be able to get off the plane and immediately
find work. Now everyone wants to get back on planes to go
home,' said the organizer, who did not want his name used
because he worries that he'll be targeted by authorities.

The new measures appear to be a response to a surge in
ethnic nationalism and opposition to immigration that has
occasionally erupted in violence. In August, a bomb tore
through Moscow's Cherkizovsky market, killing 13 persons,
mostly illegal workers from Central Asia.

Racist attacks have grown dramatically, with at least 53
persons killed last year in racially motivated assaults,
according to the human rights group Sova.

Last fall, President Vladimir Putin denounced 'ethnic gangs'
that control Russia's markets and called for regulation to
protect 'the native Russian population.'

Alexander Belov, the head of the influential Movement
Against Illegal Immigration, welcomed the new rules as 'a
step in the right direction.' But he said Russia needs to
go further and impose full visa requirements on 'people
from poor countries who take jobs from Russians and give
nothing back to our society.'

Russia's population is shrinking by 750,000 people a year
and has fallen below 142 million due to low birth rates and
high mortality rates, especially among working-age men.
There are fears the new measures could lead to an economic
slowdown if foreign workers cannot be replaced.

'Most of the migrants working in Russia are doing jobs
Russian citizens don't want,' said Svetlana Gannushkina,
the head of the Migration and Law Network, which assists
immigrants.

She said the measures are little more than a populist
move ahead of elections to the State Duma, Russia's lower
house of parliament, later this year. This could backfire,
she added, because the crackdown may also drive up costs
in retail markets, hurting Russia's poor.

The average Russian earns only about $5,000 a year, and
low-income Russians do most of their shopping in retail
markets. 'This is going to damage not only migrant workers
but also all the people who won't be able to afford to
pay more for fruits, vegetables and meat,' she said.

The government appears to be hedging its bets promising
that prices will not rise and that the April 1 deadline
for foreigners to be banned from markets could be extended.

'The laws are aimed at regulating the normal functioning
of markets and not at reducing the quantity of goods traded,'
Economic Development Minister German Gref said in televised
comments. 'If we see any threat, the time limit can be extended
by a government decision.'

2. CONSULTANTS FAKE VISA APPLICATIONS FOR INDIANS

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Cities/Ahmedabad/Consultants_fake_papers_for_visa-seekers/articleshow/1259577.cms

Don't earn enough? Then just fake it. All those desperate to
get a visa, but fall short of requirements now make a beeline
to unscrupulous consultants ready to fake papers for a fee.

Fraudsters in the form of chartered accountants, private
companies and immigration consultants are conjuring up fake pay
slips and income tax returns to get you points on the visa chart.

Even if you do not earn a single paisa, it will cost you just
Rs 50,000 to show visa authorities an annual income of Rs 5lakh.

Neeta Parmar (name changed) almost lost her chance of studying
in the US, when her father faked tax returns on an income of
over Rs 20 lakh.

Her visa was rejected. "She later obtained a bank loan,
apologised to the US immigration department in writing,
then obtained a visa," says her consultant, advocate Sudhir
Shah. Visas such as UK's Highly Skilled Migrant Programme (HSMP)
and US's Student Visa require a certain number of points for
eligibility.

Under HSMP, for example, it takes 75 points to get you a visa,
the criteria for points being age, educational qualifications
and annual income.

If you are a PhD under 27 years of age (both get you maximum
points under respective criteria), you score 70 points.

For the remaining points, you need a minimum income £ 3,000
(around Rs 2.58 lakh). "Not many are PhDs or under 27 years.

It's easier to fake your income to get the remaining points,"
says UK immigration consultant Sandeep Jani. That's exactly
what happened when this correspondent went as a desperate
HSMP aspirant to a top consultant — a chartered accountant
— on CG Road.

A bachelor's degree and 28 years of age totalled only 40
points. To get the remaining 35 points, an income of Rs 5.4
lakh became essential. Can be done, said our man.

"I can create your presence on the payroll of a company,
get you a pay slip for Rs 5.4 lakh and even file your tax
returns," he said.

I-T returns and pay slip are the two most important pieces
of evidence given to the immigration department. His charges:
Rs 1.5 lakh plus Rs 50,000 extra "for finding an 'employer".

"That isn't too difficult," he added, "there are several
companies who need to 'adjust' their taxes at this time
of the year."

This consultant's modus operandi entailed paying actual
tax on the fake income. "That way it's foolproof," he said.

However, there are consultants who can manage to waive that
too for some more money. Frauds of this kind prompted the
UK immigration department to change its rules last month for
HSMP. The objective: "To ensure greater transparency".

"Rules that were unwritten so far are now on paper, such as,
the use of third party verification to cross-check documents,"
said UK immigration consultant Prasanna Acharya.

3.  IMMIGRATION TERROR LIST FIASCO

http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2007030478,00.html

Foreign terrorists are free to enter Britain because
immigration bosses are banned from seeing an EU
“wanted” list of suspects.

Top cops have told MPs national security is at risk
because of the loophole.

Only 15 EU countries have access to the Schengen
Information System, which has a database holding 15million
entries, including terrorists.

Suspects who show up on the computer can be detained or
turned away in France, Germany, Spain or Italy. But there
is no way British officials can check on the database.

The UK was blocked from using it after failing to fully
join the scheme at its 1995 launch.

The security lapse emerged after the Home Office failed
to log names of 27,000 Britons convicted abroad on
police computers.

Shadow Home Secretary David Davis said: “There is no
reason why we can’t cooperate with our allies and have
this information.”

Last night the Home Office said talks were “ongoing”.
A spokesman added: “The issue is being considered as part
of a review of Criminal Records Bureau checks.

“It will form part of the inquiry into the cases of
Britons convicted abroad.”

4.  CANARY ISLANDS A BACK DOOR INTO BRITAIN

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/01/20/ncanary120.xml

Illegal immigrants heading for Europe via the Canary
Islands pose a "potential threat" to the UK, according
to an internal Home Office memo.

More than 30,000 people completed the often-deadly boat
journey to the Spanish territories from Africa last year,
despite increased EU patrols, in a bid to get to mainland
Spain.

But the briefing paper suggests more are coming from
English-speaking nations and so could head for the UK.

And it warns that unless the routes are closed down they
may start to be exploited by organised criminals such as
people traffickers.

It says: "Notwithstanding that the short term impact on the
UK is likely to be minimal there are developments which are
of concern from the UK's point of view and which may pose a
potential threat in the medium to long term.

"The nationality profile of the irregular migrants arriving
in the Canary Islands is starting to change. As the routes have
been displaced southwards they are becoming much more accessible
geographically to the Anglophone countries in the region -
Gambia, Ghana, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Liberia - whose
populations do have much closer links to the UK and to varying
degrees are traditional source countries for irregular migration
to the UK.

"In addition this route is much more affordable and quicker
than the alternative air or Libya/Italy routes. Indeed increasing
numbers of Gambians have already been seen arriving in the Canaries,
though the recent co-operation agreement between Spain and Gambia
has resulted in many of them being repatriated."

The paper, obtained by the BBC under the Freedom of Information Act,
also warns that the recent arrival of Sri Lankan and Pakistani
nationals indicates that traffickers from further afield are also
exploring this route.

"Both countries are of course significant sources of irregular
migrants coming to the UK.

"Earlier this year there was a spate of incidents involving
Chinese nationals using the Canaries as an air transit point
to access the UK."

The Home Office said the Government was committed to preventing
illegal immigration into the UK and the European Union.

But the Refugee Council said a "significant proportion" of those
risking their lives to make the crossing were genuinely fleeing
war and famine.

5.  SCOTLAND BEING FLOODED WITH ECONOMIC MIGRANTS

http://www.sundayherald.com/business/businessnews/display.var.1136957.0.largest_increase_in_economic_migrants_in_a_decade_as_40_000_register_for_work.php

The number of migrant workers registered for work in Scotland
has risen dramatically in the past two years, with more than
three-quarters of the increase coming from the European accession
countries.

An analysis by labour research consultancy Slims shows that
there were more than 40,000 migrant workers registered for
National Insurance, a rise from 15,000 two years earlier.

The figures do not include those working in the "black economy"
who have not registered to pay National Insurance, but they
do include students at Scottish universities and colleges.
Once they have registered for work, migrant workers can move
on to other parts of the UK or outside the UK so the registration
numbers are only a snapshot of what is happening in the labour market.

The influx of new workers and their families has helped to reverse
Scotland's population decline; 2004 and 2005 saw the first substantial
increase in the country's total population for many years. But
Slims, an independent consultancy funded largely by public sector
bodies, warns that the 2004 level of immigration is not sustainable
in the longer term.

The report concludes: "In other words, the economy is unlikely to be
able to create enough jobs to employ both the new arrivals as well
as the existing population if immigration were to be maintained at
2004 levels for a decade or so."

Nigel Guy, the manager of Slims, said: "The number of migrant workers
will mean problems for specific sectors in particular areas such as
the hospitality industry. It means that some indigenous workers may
not be able to get into the jobs market. These are issues which
policy makers may have to address. But over the longer term it's
good for industry overall, and overall I'm sure it's good for the
economy."

However, the research shows that, contrary to some suggestions,
Scotland actually has a smaller proportion of new migrants than the
UK as a whole. Just 6% of National Insurance registrations have been
in Scotland, whereas the country represents 8.25% of the UK's total
population.

The Slims report says: "It is little more than two years since the
expansion of the EU produced the most rapid influx of migrant workers
seen in the UK for many decades. From January 2007 the EU grew yet
again with the accession of Romania and Bulgaria."

The Slims report says it is hard to draw longer-term conclusions on
the effect of migrant workers on the Scottish economy, but it
suggests: "A gradual decline in the level of immigration from the
A8 countries the eight eastern European nations that joined the EU
in 2004 is perhaps the most likely scenario over the next few years.
But it may be that the number of newcomers to the job market in
Scotland stabilises at a higher level than it was before 2004."

The figures show that the migrant workers are unevenly spread across
the country: the biggest numbers of National Insurance (NI)
registrations are in Glasgow and Edinburgh; while per head of
population the biggest proportion is in Aberdeen and the Highlands.
Despite some perceptions, Glasgow has attracted little more than
the average for the rest of the country.

But while migrant workers from the eight accession countries are
more evenly spread, NI registrants from the rest of the world are
predominantly found in Scotland's four major cities.

The report says: "The total number of NI registrations as a
proportion of the workforce is small. Arrivals from anywhere
outside the UK has amounted to 1% of the workforce in each of
the past two years. A8 arrivals have accounted for less than
half of this total.

"However, since immigrants are unevenly spread across the occupations,
they have a much more substantial impact on some sectors of the
economy, such as hospitality and agriculture."

Almost half of the migrant workers from the eight accession
countries work in agriculture and hospitality. The report shows
that one in eight takes jobs in food-processing, while a further
15% work in what the report describes as administration and business
services, mainly recruitment agencies.

6.  ISLAM'S HISTORY OF FORCIBLE IMMIGRATON

Here's an article from India that makes an important point:
immigration is a weapon of conquest, and Islam has a long record
of this.

http://desicritics.org/2007/01/17/070633.php

Whenever there are terrorist attacks against west, there is
a tendency in the Muslim world to interpret that these attacks
against western societies as a natural backlash of the colonization
of the Islamic world by Europeans for almost two centuries.
I was reminded of this argument again, when I recently watched
the video of the discussion of the noted secular Muslim activist
Wafa Sultan on Al-Jazeera TV where an Egyptian Muslim cleric
presenting this claim asking her, who colonized whom, whether
UK colonized Egypt or Egypt colonized UK.

European colonization began with the discovery of America by
Christopher Columbus in CE 1492 and this was a unique historical
event with political, cultural, military and religious aspects that
lasted for half a millennium and the consequences of this well
discussed and much written chapter of history continues to produce
more and more related discussions and of course, will cause more
and more related events in the future as well.

European colonization had been in two different ways, one that
happened in Americas and in Australia, where the indigenous population
was systematically oppressed and were forced to flee from their own
land and the Europeans migrating to theses lands. This was the
transculturalization of a region wherein the indigenous people of
these lands finally lost their existence and the United States and
Canada and even the geographically east Australia and New Zealand
collectively being known as being part of the western civilization,
there was a cultural destruction.

In the first case there were large scale immigration from Europe
to Americas and Australia and the ethnicity of the majority
changed and that was the reason why these continents are now
regarded as being part of the west. But indigenous masses of
Latin-American don't claim that they are part of the west, but
express their identity whenever possible, even as the evil of
colonialism still hunts them. Any way western colonialism could
not make the natives a part of its own civilizations or west
had no such intention.

Another way was what happened in Africa and Asia where the
indigenous people were relatively not forced to flee their
lands and there was no large scale immigration from Europe to
these two continents but the Europeans just ruled over them
so that the cultural and social identify of the people of Africa
and Asia were not much affected. These regions continue to be
part of the pre colonial civilizations to which they actually
belonged. This was the way that the Islamic world too had been
colonized by Europeans, there were only political and military
effects and the culture and religion of the so called Islamic
world were unchanged, there was relatively no cultural destruction.

The spread of Christianity in Europe too had its own cultural
impacts, but the people of Europe are not unaware or ashamed of
their pre Christian pagan past but they are proud of it.
Admittedly, paganism in Europe was heavily struck down by
Christianity from the very day that Emperor Constantine the
great decriminalized that religion in his portion of the empire
in CE 313 and later in the entire Rome that he reunified in CE 324,
the empire that had been partitioned by Diocletian, his predecessor.

Pagans were subject to strong persecution, pagan temples were either
destroyed or were converted to Christian churches, Pagan books and
literature were burned. The destruction of this European or classic
Paganism was imminent as the imposition of Christianity over Europe
was very rapid given its support from the successive rulers and was
finished by the time of Emperor Justinian-I. Historians may go ahead
with their debate on the intensity of the influence of paganism on
Christianity, as argued by Edward Gibbon, but the destruction of
European paganism as a religion and a culture was almost total.

Europe, where Christianity flourished, was the seat of two other
prominent civilizations, Greek and Roman. The Greeks embraced Christianity,
but only as another religion, they haven't lost their logistic,
cultural and civilization identity and they find esteem dignity
in the civilization that existed before the introduction of Christianity.

The Roman civilization may no longer be there as it had been known
as it has now been divided into different cultures like Spanish,
Italian and Portuguese. This was a natural process as Latin as a
language began dying and new languages derived from Latin. Modern
people of these cultures find no reason to be ashamed of the that
much celebrated pre Christian pagan Roman civilization to which
they once belonged.

The justification that many Muslim intellectuals find for Islamic
terror is that it is a result of the long political oppression of the
Islamic world by the west in the colonial period and they allege the
west of being egotist ethically, culturally and intellectually.
But not only Muslim society was the victim of western colonialism,
so were the Hindu (Indian), African and scenic (indo-china) societies.
None of these societies have produced terrorism and the contemporary
rise of Hindu nationalism in India can not be viewed as a product
of western hegemony.

When the term Islamic world is used, one has to be aware of the fact
that the so called Islamic world is because of an Islamic colonialism,
stronger and powerful than that of the west. A careful analysis
will conclude that Islam was the greatest colonizer of all time and
the most egotist ideology ever known to humanity.

This is where we need to look back on the spread of Islam. Islam
spread to all the territories that it conquered. Not only did the
indigenous population of these conquered countries embrace Islam for
one reason or another, but the cultural, social and intellectual
aspects of these lands were subject to a concrete transformation
without immigration. Finally these civilizations became extinct
and became known as part of the Islamic civilization even while the
ethnicity of the people of these lands did not change.

The shores of all the rivers referred to as the cradles of civilization
,except the Huang-He-Yangtze in China which was not subject to Muslim
conquest, the Tigris-Euphrates in modern day Iraq, the Nile in Africa,
the Indus in the Indian subcontinent have all lost their connection to
their profound inheritance. The Muslim masses on the banks of these
rivers are either unaware or ashamed of their great pre Islamic heritage.

What happened with Mesopotamia (modern Iraq) and Egypt was even worse
- that Arabic, the language of Islam, was forced upon them and that
these regions lost even their languages, Egyptian in the case of Egypt
and Sumerian in the case of Mesopotamia. Even in this case, the Indus
valley or the modern Pakistan is only a partial exception, as Urdu
which was not the tongue of the land but one that was born out of
Islamic conquest is the official language. This was a cultural holocaust.

The most notable point here is that, the invaded masses who embraced
Islam are totally in the dark about their pre-Islamic heritage and are
ashamed of the same, which did not happen with the people colonized by
the west. At least as far as the non Arabs conquered by Islam are concerned,
for them Islam was not just a submission to Allah, it was a submission to
Arab language, Arab culture and Arab tradition and a submission to fight
for the Arab cause, Arab superiority and Arab Imperialism. Whereas
communities colonized by westerners defended this conquest later,
because of the unique colonial nature of Islam, people conquered by
Islam found a cause in being conquered and the conquered joined the
conqueror in fighting for this cause, triggering a chain reaction of
Muslim conquests.

No colonized people glorify and iconize invaders or alien rulers
as their heroes but Muslims do. We can not imagine Native Americans
glorifying Columbus or Indians of the subcontinent glorifying the
British or Russians or Ukrainians glorifying Genghis Khan. The best
example of this peculiar psyche would be that of Invaders like Mahmud
of Ghazni and Muhammed Ghuri who attacked the people of the Indus valley.

Even though they looted their properties, massacred their forefathers,
gang raped their foremothers and enslaved them, they are the heroes of
Pakistan and its people. Finally, this glorification and iconization
turned so ridiculous where Pakistan naming one of its missiles after
Muhammed Ghuri and Afghanistan opposing this saying that Pakistan has
no claim over Afghan heroes and that only peaceful concerns may be
named after them!

That the invaders glorify the invasion is understandable, but here,
in the case of Islam, both the invader and the invaded glorify these
bloody invasions. Western colonialists did try to brainwash the natives
through the education system that they introduced, but even this kind
of attempt was not very effective

Islam as an Identity of the invader was so potent that it has been
able to brainwash and indoctrinate the indigenous people to that extent
that they find pride in being invaded. This indoctrination was clever
enough to cleanse out all these people had in their memories about
their past, so that for them their history and civilization began
only with this invasion.

Along with the western factor, Islam too has been a threat to the social,
cultural, linguistic and religious identities of the colonized societies.
But the hands and arms of Islam have even been mightier than that of
the west, as far as the indigenous people of the lands invaded by Islam,
from Morocco to Pakistan to Indonesia are concerned, and they consider
themselves to be a part of the Islamic world. The people of the
territories ruled by west are not treated, or they don't treat
themselves as being a part of the western world.

Islamic colonialism was so horrendous and destructive when compared
to the characteristics of western colonialism, as it was not only
something political or militarily but something more influential,
cultural, religious and psychological too. To be more exact, even the
one fifth of the humanity which identifies itself as Muslims is a
product of this ultra-colonial nature of Islam.

The ethical, cultural and intellectual egotism of the west may be
a fact, but such egotism and hegemony are even deeper for Islam.
This has always been apparent in its intolerant nature towards
other cultures and religions; the destruction of the Bamiyan
Buddhas is a recent example. This will be apparent again, if Islam
becomes more powerful than the west, politically or militarily.

.