They could not stop racists attack so finally they came up with a 'novel' solution to deal with it - cutback on visa applications. Till now you must have guessed I am talking about Australia which has been witnessing racist attacks on Indians for very long time now. Under its revamped immigration policy, Australia is canceling 20,000 visa applications of foreign nationals which include sizeable number of Indians. The Australian coffer will be stripped of $14 million as a result putting further burden on Australian taxpayers.

The new Australian immigration policy will be favoring skilled workers and unskilled workers will get thumbs down. Cancellation will be applicable to every offshore general skilled migration claims registered before September 2007. This step is being taken by the Australian government towards an immigration policy which was being 'abused' and is being termed as the source of all attacks.

The story goes like this…

Low skilled immigrants opted for Australia due to better prospects under the guise of student visa so that they could be eligible for permanent residence or PR in the country. In pursuit of their dreams these gullible people with the help of immigration touts and education agents fudged qualification requirements and opted for vocational stream courses which came under the list of 'migrant occupations in demand'. These courses offered them one of the cheapest and easily available opportunities to seek permanent settlement in the country. Having paid their fortune to move to Australia these students took up menial jobs to pay for their investments and while returning late at night from work they ended up taking crime infested public transport system which made them susceptible to attacks and were termed as 'racist'. This is the end of the story, a story which may be hard to digest for most of us.

Now let's see what this story led to…

Such racist attacks which have been continuing since a long time were placing strains on the relations between the countries and even required diplomatic intervention from India. The image of Australia was getting tarnished as a peaceful country and as a result it has started taking steps to curb immigration which it feels will improve the situation.

I would agree that immigrants might have abused the policies to enter the country, I would even agree with the fact that they would be working doubly hard to repay loans taken back home and as a result may be risking their lives by traveling late at night but I wont agree to the fact that immigrants were solely responsible for being attacked and were provoking the Australians to strike back.

This raises a few questions in my mind

Does this mean that every unskilled immigrant is of a dubious character that ends up provoking Australians to attack and kill them?
Does this mean that the attacks which are happening are not racist but attacks carried out by criminals?
Does this mean that if a country cannot control crime in its country it starts curbing its immigration policy?

Which world are we living in?

With such mindset I feel that Australia would not only tarnish its image worldwide but even lose out on the millions of dollars it earns as revenue from these immigrants.

This is what Koreans feel. Korean parliamentary think tanks are of the opinion that policymakers of the country should give eye and ear to immigration reforms when preparing a strategy to curb falling birthrate in the country. They are of the opinion that government should amend its immigration policy for attracting highly skilled workers. Survey conducted has shown that Koreans have no problems with foreigners landing on their soil as they feel that they are hardworking and would contribute towards cultural diversity.

Experts feel that the positive attitude of Koreans towards foreigners working on their soil would make it simpler for the government to consider immigration as means for curbing falling birthrate. In number of European countries even subsidies, maternity leave and other types of monetary compensations have not been able to arrest falling birthrates and a number of empirical studies have suggested that immigration is one of the options to deal with it.

If the opinion is that immigration can counter falling birthrate then in order to attract migrants to the country the government should offer benefits in the form of social welfare, education and tax concessions to them and their families if it has to be made a reality.

Since the time Barack Obama has taken over the reigns from President Bush everyday has been a challenge for him. Having to deal with problems of terrorism, war, recession at the start of the career as a president of world's most powerful country has certainly made his life difficult and 2010 is not going to be any different for him. The area of immigration and impending reforms will have to be dealt by Mr. President this year. The problem of immigration spans several administrations and at stake is the lives of 12 million undocumented immigrants living in US most of whom comprise of Latinos.

Barack Obama had termed the problem of immigration as priority in his presidential campaign and in past few months has personally made clear and through his aides that he is committed to bring reforms in the immigration policy. He said that he was committed to bring change in 2010 as currently he was preoccupied with the agenda of health care reforms. This could not be achieved earlier under the previous two regimes of George W. Bush.

People looking to migrate freshly into the country don't need to smile as these immigration reforms will be meant for 12 million people residing in US with no legal status and would not be aimed at people looking to hop into the country in the future. The legislative moves which have happened recently have raised hopes that year 2010 would bring solution to this problem which has been lingering for a very long time.

December 2009 saw Democratic Representative Luis Gutierrez bringing a bill for migration reforms in lower house of the US Congress and bipartisan initiative from Democrat Charles Schumer and Republican Lindsey Graham was expected to reach the Senate in 2010. There has also been intensification in civic and political pro-reform campaigning featuring the likes of celebrities like Eva Longoria. But before this happens the health reform debate has to finish so that there is enough room to bring forth the issue of immigration in a successful manner which leads to positive outcome.

On the other hand immigration activists feel that a discussion needs to happen soon as the mid term elections are expected to take place for all the lower house and one-third of the senate. Politicians are well aware of the fact that the Latino community, which is the largest minority in the US, is a big vote bank. As per he US Census Bureau, number of minority voters shot from 2004 to 2008, to 9.8 million Latino voters whereas Asian voters stood at 3.4 million. It has been said that Latino vote has played a major role in the win of President Obama and he certainly can't ignore them.

2008 US elections saw immigration issue being brought into limelight and now everything rests on the shoulder of the President as to whether he keeps his promise or not and it needs to be seen whether the road for illegal immigrants gets easier or tougher.

Moving to USA is tougher and the same may become a reality in case of Austria too. The Austrian coalition government is tightening its noose around immigrants and has adopted a new action plan for them by including mandatory German tests for foreigners intending to migrate to Austria. Opposition parties have also called for Green Card policy on the lines of United States in order to make it difficult for them to enter the country.

As per the government proposal foreigners intending to move to Austria along with their family will need to prove that they are well versed with German before applying for residency in the country. This rule is however not applicable for asylum seekers, highly qualified personnel or seasonal workers. The reason behind this plan is to enable non European immigrants to integrate into the Austrian labor market in a better manner.

With mobility having increased in the last decade a number of people have started moving for greener pastures and this heavy influx of people has promoted a number of countries to start taking serious measures to curb it so that it doesn't affect the culture of the country. Now this opens a debate whether liberalization is good or bad and its repercussions in the long run.

Is France losing its much famed French identity? This is what President Nicolas Sarkozy feels after having launched a nation wide debate on what constitutes French national identity leading to xenophobia among the countrymen. Some term this as a pure electoral strategy as regional elections are to be held in March and Mr. President wants to enhance his electoral base and gives his candidates a better chance in the elections.

Not many people will be aware of the fact that France is home to Europe's largest community of Muslims and the figure stands somewhere around five million. Eric Besson, Minister for Immigration, Integration and National Identity was asked to initiate the debate on behest of Mr. Sarkozy even though most of his socialist colleagues tend to disapprove of him. The debate has already created a spark in the country with ministry website receiving several thousand hits with some of the messages being shocking indeed. It has already led to anti Islamic sentiments and fear of unknown in their country. Around eighty percent of the people feel that foreigners are diluting the French national identity.

French Parliament has been rocked by discussion on sensitive topics such as whether or not to allow Sikhs to wear turban or whether Muslim women should wear burqa or not leading to a general feeling of fear for foreigners on French soil. The debate invited severe criticism from several quarters with many signing petition for scrapping of the Ministry of Immigration, Integration and National Identity. It seemed Sarkozy would backtrack from the debate but till now he seems adamant.

I just wonder are such thoughts good for the modern progressive society of today? How can we call ourselves progressive with such rotten thoughts? If such thinking is not curbed very soon it could lead to anti-French sentiments across the world and French nationals residing in other countries might start getting the dose of same medicine being administered by French President. Are you listening Mr. Sarkozy?