In 1999, New Brunswick signed on to the Provincial Nominee Program, which allows provinces to fast-track the federal application process for immigrants they consider desirable.  For New Brunswick, the nominee program had a painfully slow start, but it has gained speed and more applicants are being received every year.

Only a tiny fraction of Canada’s annual immigrant population settles down in Atlantic Canada. On average, New Brunswick gets between 700 and 800 immigrants a year and most do not go through the nominee program.

Peter Mesheau, the provincial minister responsible for immigration, said that ways to boost immigrant numbers for Atlantic Canada will be a major topic of discussion in his meeting with other provincial immigration ministers in Victoria. 

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The EU will hold informal meetings in Ireland in order to focus on the introduction of common asylum policies for all member states.  Ireland, which holds the EU presidency, wants to secure an agreement on a series of measures that will reduce asylum and the expulsion of immigrants from the EU.  This is the seventh attempt by the EU to establish an immigration policy.

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The total number of international students enrolled in British universities increased by nearly a quarter last year.  The largest increase was in the number of Chinese students, which increased by 80% to 31,938, followed by Indian students, which rose by 82% to 10,899.  Currently, there is a total of 174,575 foreign students.

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In Belgium, the committee against foreigners’ voting rights has organized several petitions opposing a planned new law that would give non-European nationals living in Belgium the right to vote in local elections.  50,000 people have signed a “physical” petition, 8,000 have sent SMS messages of support from mobile phones and another 10,000 people have signed an online version of the petition.