The UK general election is approaching, and immigration policy has become a focal point of public concern and debate among various political parties. The UK Labour government has launched a new international strategy regarding immigration policy, aiming to enhance cooperation with governments of countries that export immigrants and international organizations to further combat illegal immigration and protect national borders.
This new strategy is titled "International Challenges, International Solutions: Management of the Movement of People and Goods," and was jointly developed by the UK Home Office and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. A senior official from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Louis, stated that the formulation of UK immigration policy focuses on two aspects.
The UK Home Office Minister for Borders and Immigration, Woolas, said: “The starting point for launching this new strategy is to demonstrate that good management of immigration can benefit our economic and social development. To achieve this goal, we will strengthen cooperation with governments and relevant agencies. This strategy is also an update to a policy we released in 2007, and since then we have made significant progress, the most important of which includes the points-based system.”
The UK government decided in 2007 to adopt a five-tier points-based system for new immigrants, similar to those in Australia and Canada, using the professional skills and technical levels of applicants as well as the demands of the UK labor market as scoring criteria. Woolas stated, “This five-tier points-based system allows us to provide more convenient services for those who wish to work and study in the UK, while also enabling us to better prevent those who attempt to abuse relevant immigration policies.”
Regarding illegal immigration, the International Affairs Director of the UK Border Agency, Woodward, stated that cooperation with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has helped alleviate related issues to some extent.
According to the latest data released by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security on the 9th, over 70,000 Chinese citizens obtained "green cards" in 2010, becoming legal permanent residents of the United States, a number second only to Mexico.
Data compiled by the Immigration Statistics Office of the Department of Homeland Security shows that in 2010, a total of 70,863 Chinese citizens obtained U.S. "green cards," an increase of 6,625 from 2009.
Statistics indicate that in 2010, over one million people worldwide obtained U.S. "green cards," with Chinese citizens accounting for 6.8% of the total, second only to Mexico, which had nearly 140,000 people obtaining "green cards," accounting for 13.3% of the total.
India ranks third, with over 69,000 people obtaining "green cards," while the countries ranked fourth to tenth are the Philippines, the Dominican Republic, Cuba, Vietnam, Haiti, Colombia, and South Korea. Additionally, Iraq and Iran also had over 19,000 and 14,000 people respectively obtaining "green cards."
Overall, Asia and North America remain the two major "concentrations," with the number of people obtaining "green cards" in 2010 accounting for 40.5% and 32.3% of the total, respectively, totaling over 70%, while South America, Africa, and Europe each accounted for less than 10%.
From the perspective of various regions in the United States, among the over one million people who obtained "green cards," more than 200,000 reside in California, nearly 150,000 in New York, and over 100,000 in Florida. Other regions with significant populations include Texas, New Jersey, Illinois, Massachusetts, Virginia, Maryland, and Georgia.
Information and data sharing with governments of countries that export immigrants has helped the UK alleviate related issues to some extent. She cited cooperation with the Chinese government in this regard.
She stated: “Last year, we issued visas to approximately 200,000 Chinese citizens for travel to the UK. China is the second country after India in terms of the number of visas issued for travel to the UK. However, there are still many Chinese individuals who enter illegally. In the early years of this century, it was very difficult to repatriate illegal immigrants from China, but we have since strengthened cooperation with relevant departments such as the Ministry of Public Security of China, which assists us in confirming the identities of illegal immigrants, allowing us to repatriate these individuals to China. Therefore, we hope to work closely with relevant Chinese departments to jointly curb illegal immigration and encourage legal immigration.”
