Orestiada, Greece
Mohamed, 22, from Algeria, sits inside an abandoned wagon at the train station after crossing the border from Turkey. Debt-crippled Greece is the EU’s main entry point for illegal immigrants, mostly from Asia and Africa (via guardian.co.uk)
Norway: Oslo mayor welcomes immigrant boom
Oslo’s mayor Fabian Stang has said he is unconcerned by statistics showing that immigrants will make up half of Oslo’s population three decades from now.
His reaction stood in stark contrast to that of Progress Party leader Siv Jensen, who immediately called for tighter restrictions on immigration when Statistics Norway published its projections on Tuesday.
“No, I’m not concerned,” Stang told news agency NTB. “But the high number shows that we’ll have a major task integrating immigrants. It’s up to parliament and the government to decide how many people will move to the country. Our job is to integrate them.”
The mayor pointed out that 2040 remains a distant point in time: by then, many immigrants will have lived in Norway for almost 100 years.
“It’s an interesting question as to how long one should be considered an immigrant. For me, the most important thing is to be able to provide all immigrants with the best possible schools so they can receive a good education and get a job. It’s then of lesser importance what skin colour, religion or sexual orientation one has,” said Stand.
In 2040, 70 percent of the Norwegian capital’s first and second generation immigrants will have their roots in countries outside the 30-member European Economic Area, Statistics Norway said.
The study, the first ever projection of immigration trends to be published in Norway, shows that the largest cities will also see the biggest upsurge in immigrant numbers.
Immigrants are defined in the statistics as either people who have either moved to Norway from another country, or the Norway-born children of two first-generation immigrants. (via The Local)
An Immigrant Tells His Story: The Daily Racism of Life in an East German Town
Alberto lived through the Portuguese colonial era in Mozambique and emigrated to communist East Germany when he was 18. In the early 1980s, he worked as a butcher in East Berlin and spent his free time boxing. His love of the sport led him to move to the northeastern town of Schwedt, near the border with Poland, and he boxed more than 100 times for the town. He was so good that he made the national first division. “I was in the newspaper every week,” he recalls.
After his boxing career ended, Alberto took a course in social work and volunteered, helping out people in the community. Then the Berlin Wall fell and in the economic upheaval that followed, more than one-third of Schwedt’s population moved away. Unemployment rose to 15 percent. As the years passed, a generation grew that knew little about life in the German Democratic Republic (GDR), and they didn’t know Ibraimo Alberto. “In the 1990s, the mood against foreigners worsened,” he says today.
But he stayed in Schwedt and ended up spending 21 years there, until it became too much and he fled, for the first time in his life. Alberto, the only black person in Schwedt, who was appointed as the town’s immigrant representative, fled the racism of his fellow citizens. “Running away,” he says today, “was the best decision of my life.” (via SPIEGEL ONLINE)
Germany: meet the migrants in Duisburg-Hochfeld
In the German city of Duisburg, the suburb of Hochfeld is known for its vibrancy. It’s home to people from 100 different nations. But with the recent influx of eastern European migrants, the community has changed. (via DW.DE)
Madrid, Spain
A man holds a heart-shaped lollipop during a protest outside an immigrant detention centre (via Reuters.com)
Russia’s untouchables - picture gallery
Russia’s demographic situation is one of the many factors contributing to uncertainty in understanding the future of the country. As one of the world’s only developing countries with a decreasing population, the Russian economy relies on a large influx of migrant workers to fill the gap. Photographer Denis Sinyakov documents the divisive issue of immigration. (via Reuters)
After several years of what a leading economist has described as “mass immigration”, foreign nationals made up 15 percent of Norway’s workforce in 2011, official figures show.
Of the 2,560,000 people registered as employed by the tax authorities last year, 387,103 were foreign nationals, newspaper Bergens Tidende reports.
Kjell Gunnar Salvanes, a professor of economics at the NHH business school, said Norway’s economy had benefitted hugely from an influx of foreign workers since the last major EU enlargement eight years ago.
“Since 2004, immigration has switched from low-qualified asylum seekers to well-qualified workers from Eastern Europe and Sweden. And that change has come about very quickly,” he said.
The 2004 EU enlargement gave increased access to the Norwegian labour market to citizens of Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia, Slovenia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Cyprus and Malta. (via The Local)
India and Norway in diplomatic spat over children taken into care
India and Norway are embroiled in a diplomatic row after Norwegian social workers took two young Indian children into care because they slept with their parents and their mother fed them with her fingers - both widespread and normal in India.
The parents were told the children will remain in foster care in Norway until they are 18 and that they will only have occasional contact with them.
Norwegian officials have so far resisted calls for the children to be reunited with their grandparents in India pending an inquiry, and now India’s external affairs minister has called for the children to be repatriated.
The case has provoked an outcry in India, where mothers constantly push food into their toddlers’ mouths and children often sleep in their parents’ bed until they are six or seven.
Sushma Swaraj, parliamentary leader of the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party, suggested the decision betrayed an ignorance of Indian culture.
“I do not know the logic behind the Norwegian laws. One thing is clear – they do not know the Indian culture and sensibilities. The snatching of two little kids from their parents in Norway is shocking. I cannot imagine what parents and kids must be going through,” she said. (via Telegraph)
There must be much more to this story, but because these cases are confidential, we will only hear what the family and their supporters release to the media. Regardless, it’s a shame that such drastic action had to be taken. I understand that the parents’ visas run out in March, so they may have to leave the country without their kids.
French Senate disapproves of new rules on foreign graduate jobseekers
The French government recently announced it would modify rules on work visas for foreign graduates after uproar over a controversial memo in May which meant hundreds of highly-qualified non-EU students faced deportation. But critics say under the new rules power to grant work permits lies entirely in the hands of police authorities. This week the Senate backed a Socialist resolution to get the memo withdrawn. (via RFI)
A total of 172 fresh graduates from Czech faculties of medicine left abroad in 2011, which was the highest number since the collapse of the communist regime in 1989, public Czech Television (CT) reported yesterday, referring to data from the Czech Doctors’ Chamber (CLK).
Consequently, one-fifth of all fresh doctors found work abroad, mainly in Germany.
On the other hand, a lower number of experienced doctors left abroad last year, compared to the previous years, CT said.
In 2010, 135 young doctors found work abroad.
Last year, 501 experienced Czech doctors got a job in another country, while a year before it was 557.
The total number of doctors who went abroad was almost the same as in 2010.
Many young doctors decided to work in a foreign country in spite of the success of the doctors’ trade union’s campaign “Thanks, We Are Leaving” in support of higher salaries of hospital doctors and changes in the health care sector. Some 3800 hospital doctors handed in their notices within the campaign. (Prague Monitor)
The Cathedral of the Annunciation in Moscow by marantzer on Flickr.
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A workman mows the grass roof of a government building near the capital city of Tórshavn, on August 13, 2009. © Bob Strong/Reuters
