Norway Proposes Mandatory Schooling For New Immigrants
New immigrants who have arrived in Norway and who have residence permits will be given two years of mandatory schooling. The proposal, presented by Municipal Minister Era Solberg, also provides a yearly stipend of NOK 108,000, mainly directed toward refugees and asylum seekers, which is subject to taxes and deductions for class absence.
The classes will include language training and basic knowledge of how the Norwegian society functions.
Local authorities have tried similar programs with success, and the government believes the national program will make it easier for new immigrants to integrate into Norwegian society.
Australia Temporarily Excises Islands To Curb Illegal Immigration
The Howard Government secretly excised four islands close to the Western Australian mainland from Australia’s migration zone when a suspicious boat appeared to be heading for them. The suspects turned out to be illegal fisherman from Sri Lanka, not a boatload of asylum-seekers, as was anticipated. The Senate has blocked previous attempts to excise three to four thousand other islands.
Governor-General Peter Hollingworth signed the regulations excising the four islands – Bernier, Dorre, Dirk Hartog and Faure – on Saturday night after a request from Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock. Ruddock said the government would seek to rescind the excision, adding, “if the need arose again, we would take the same course.”
Labor immigration spokesman Julia Gillard said the excision was an absurdity and a “blunder of mammoth proportions.”
The eight Sri Lankan fishermen were taken to Christmas Island, where they were set to be deported along with 25 failed asylum-seekers.
German Immigration Bill Rejected By High Court
Germany’s center-left Government and its leader, Gerhard Schröder, were dealt a blow when the country’s highest court rejected a controversial immigration law. The legislation was intended to allow a controlled number of skilled workers from outside the European Union for the first time in three decades.
Conservatives made the debate over the new immigration law a focus of the September elections, arguing that Germany’s four million unemployed would be hurt by allowing more foreign workers. The Constitutional Court upheld a complaint of the conservatives, who argued that the split vote on the legislation in the upper house of parliament was unconstitutional.
Interior Minister Otto Schily said he would revive the bill next month and negotiate with conservatives who control the upper House.
Advocates of the new law see it as a bulwark against the declining birth rate in Germany. Economists predict shortages of skilled people, particularly in the computer and other high-technology fields, and demographers say the country could face labor shortages by 2010. But with unemployment at around 10 percent, popular support for more immigration is low.
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