"I have never welcomed the weakening of family ties by politics or pressure" - Nelson Mandela.
"He who travels for love finds a thousand miles no longer than one" - Japanese proverb.
"Everyone has the right to respect for his private and family life, his home and his correspondence." - Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
"When people's love is divided by law, it is the law that needs to change". -
David Cameron.

Friday, 10 May 2013

Friday links
Noted from a social network - someone else's Irish/European adventure is just beginning :

'Well all set to fly at 3am our Irish adventure will start soon :). Hope we have no trouble with the immigration officers. Does anyone know should we queue in the non EU line or EU line??'

... and a few hours later ...

'Hey we are here no problems at all thank god. Not keen on Dublin city centre to be honest but I suppose it's just day one. '

... and a little later ...

'Stood in EU queue and then after he checked both passports he told me you can go through but HE can't. I said I'm not going through without him so he told me to go to the back of the non EU queue then, abruptly. So we went to the other queue. Then the same officer pulled us back to his desk after 5 mins and all of a sudden was nice as nine pence, asked where we were from and said he would register my husband on the computer and gave us the address to apply for the residence card. However he only stamped it for 1 month. So we need to act fast. Nooo no landing cards people and then he wished us the best of luck lol'

That's enough to warm my jaded heart. :)

More! :
http://britcits.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/free-movement-to-ireland-this-is-one.html
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Spotten on Facebook :

So, when the UKBA gets a straightforward application, and it takes them 7 months to respond, and you have to apply based on THEIR deadlines, and it does not coincide with your UK letting agreement, and they keep your passports during that time (and even if you use a checking service, you do not have any proof that your visa has not expired!)... Where will the UKBA be providing safe housing for all of the Legal Immigrants who are rendered homeless by (understandably) paranoid and confused landlords?

I'm just wondering... Will it be in a nice area?

Maybe Notting Hill?


Comedy gold.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/queens-speech/10042767/Landlords-told-vet-migrant-tenants.html
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https://twitter.com/APPGMigration tweets :
Baroness Hamwee tears into the family migration rules in her speech in response to the Queen's Speech

http://www.theyworkforyou.com/lords/?id=2013-05-09a.26.5&s

Much of the impact of other rules introduced last year on family migration must have been unintended and unforeseen. I am at the moment involved in an all-party group looking at these rules, and we are working on our report. I will share two stories with your Lordships. The rules make new provision for bringing to the UK adult and elderly dependants. We heard from the BMA of a woman consultant in the NHS who was unsuccessful in her application to bring to the UK her elderly parents, for whom she wanted to care. She decided to move back to Singapore. Her sister, feeling that it was wrong that only one child should take on this responsibility, moved back with her, as did her brother-in-law. They, too, were consultant psychiatrists. This country lost three consultants in that one episode. One was a psychiatrist specialising in children with learning difficulties—a very specialised specialty, if I may put it that way. If all we are looking at is numbers, I suppose that was a double win.

We have also raised considerably the minimum income threshold and other financial requirements for applications to bring in a spouse or partner—with any children—who is a non-EEA national. We heard from a gentleman living in Swansea, an area of very low wages, who is earning an adequate wage for his area but well below the threshold. He has an autistic daughter, and he would like to bring his new wife to this country from Canada, but he is not able to do so because of the financial limits. That woman would help to care for the daughter, which would be a saving to the state, not a drain on it. We heard, too, of British children separated from a parent because of the tightness of the rules. I was particularly struck by hearing more and more of the understanding of the impact of separation on a child’s development, and the attachment disorders that may result.

We will address questions of attachment and identity when this House comes to the Children and Families Bill, to which my noble friend has referred, and the work of the Adoption Legislation Committee. There turned out to be both post and pre-legislative scrutiny. I was a member of that committee, and we will be debating that for the first time next week. I hope, too, that the Bill gives us an opportunity to consider modernising the birth registration system to reflect the diverse forms of family that we now have, and the right of children and adults to know their genetic origins as well as their legal parentage.



More on the All-Party Parliamentary Group inquiry which Baroness Hamwee is chairing : http://britcits.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/todays-links-jcwi-on-all-party.html and http://britcits.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/appg-roundup.html


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https://twitter.com/patelsmie tweets :
Baroness Hamwee highlights harsh impact of #familyimmigrationrules in Queen's Speech debate http://j.mp/179M3ES : Top staff lost 2 NHS
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Have you heard? The immigrants ruined Britain.

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/have-you-heard-the-immigrants-ruined-britain-8609394.html

You know who mucked up the economy, don’t you? It’s obvious from the laws proposed in the Queen’s Speech. It’s immigrants who don’t have their papers in order, that’s who. It was Somali refugees, popping out from their hostel to the local council to say: “Yesterday, on the way home from the Jobcentre, I whiled away the afternoon by speculating on the American loans market. So this week, as well as my £24 social security, I need a £20bn bailout as I seem to have lost the lot. And a £3m bonus, otherwise I’ll leave the country.”

Then there’s the £90bn a year lost through tax avoidance schemes, most of which is down to Polish strawberry-pickers. It’s about £8m a strawberry they’re paid, and then they put it all in special accounts in the Cayman Islands and we don’t get a penny. No wonder Ukip is becoming so popular. And of all those cockle-pickers who brought the banking system to its knees – not one has voluntarily given back their knighthood.

So at last the Government is taking action. One measure it’s proposing is to make landlords and doctors responsible for checking that immigrants have the proper papers. This is an imaginative idea, as it’s hard to recall any time in history when public servants were required to snoop on people so they could be reported to the state as illegal aliens. Maybe this scheme could even have an artistic edge, by making the outsiders wear a series of colourful stars, not only clamping down on immigration but brightening up some of our downtrodden areas.

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https://twitter.com/julianhuppert tweets :
At my regular constituency surgery. As ever, trying to deal with more errors from UKBA/Home Office! #fb
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Lots and lots of tweets on the Migrant Voice conference today. Follow https://twitter.com/MigrantVoiceUK

https://twitter.com/JenniferAllsopp tweets :
Bridget Anderson: we can link 'immigration issues' as everyone's issues; need to forge partnerships; think 'this affects me' #MVConf13

https://twitter.com/JenniferAllsopp tweets :
The voice that's often missing is people's personal experience, says @GreenJeanMEP #MVConf13 (please share e.g.
http://www.opendemocracy.net/5050/marissa-begonia/hope-of-migrant )

https://twitter.com/JenniferAllsopp tweets :
61% of women in the UK labour market don’t earn enough money to bring in a foreign-born spouse, says Bridget Anderson #MVConf13 @50_50_oD

Indeed! http://britcits.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/introduction.html  http://britcits.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/stories

https://twitter.com/MigrantVoiceUK tweets :
Who is the migrant? Foreign-born? Black person? Subject to immigration control? Must be defined, says Bridget Anderson.

Sometimes native-born British citizens themselves are the 'migrant' i.e. subject to immigration rules http://www.opendemocracy.net/5050/nando-sigona/uk-migration-policy-we-need-to-talk-about-citizens - or the people here :
http://britcits.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/stories

https://twitter.com/aweeshoe tweets :
We had to apply for approval to marry, to which they agreed. Now we have to fight to be allowed to live together.
We're going through immigration control, the rights of kids and I are not even considered. The impact's far reaching


Harsh immigration rules attack the rights of citizens too. This needs emphasising, over and over again.

https://twitter.com/MigrantVoiceUK tweets :
Migrants should be seen and not heard...the time has come to stop being quiet, says Bridget Anderson.

https://twitter.com/MigrantVoiceUK tweets :
MP Sarah Teather says many of current proposals are 'bonkers' and unworkable and hopes her colleagues will stand up against them.
Sarah Teather:My constituency inc. ppl who are waiting for a long time to hear back from the Home Office to take life decisions.

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https://twitter.com/susiesymes1 tweets :
Dear Government Making people into agents of the state is what totalitarian states do. So NO, I won't act as an immigration officer.
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Bulgarians confront Nigel Farage: Britain has lots of rain, the food is bad and the men get wasted

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/bulgarians-confront-nigel-farage-britain-1873353
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https://twitter.com/migrants_rights tweets :
The National Union of Students secured a huge win on attendance monitoring requirements.

http://www.nusconnect.org.uk/news/article/international/One-step-closer-to-reversing-the-big-brother-effect/

 The attendance monitoring policy that has sparked a wave of extended checks on students, issued by UKBA (United Kingdom Border Agency), has caused enormous issues across the UK.

It has impacted on the educational experience of students and their civil liberties, making this a core institutional issue that should be tackled by all types of officer and staff-member. And, it has been an issue we have been lobbying to resolve at a national level.

Today, we welcomed firm clarification from UKBA that universities do not need to have more onerous monitoring procedures in place for international students than for domestic students.

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https://twitter.com/BritCits tweets :
Now here's an MP to be proud of. @HumzaYousaf proud of both, his heritage & home, not using either just for votes.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/scottishnews/4243325/Humza-Yousaf-MSP-Im-just-as-comfortable-with-a-chapati-in-my-hand-as-a-bag-of-chips.html

 HE’S the motorbike-riding, kilt-wearing Nationalist — who also cooks a mean curry.

And the modern face of Scottish politics, Humza Yousaf, invited The Scottish Sun into his ‘United Colours of Benetton’ family home.

It doesn’t get much more multi-cultural than this...

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https://twitter.com/BritCits immigrant of the day :
Nathan Mayer vonRothschild born Germany settled Manchester/London-textile/banking merchant.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nathan_Mayer_Rothschild
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https://twitter.com/IRR_News tweets :
The inquest into the death of Jimmy Mubenga while being deported will begin on Monday -
http://www.irr.org.uk/news/inquest-into-jimmy-mubengas-death-at-the-hands-of-g4s-to-begin/
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300,000 Irish people emigrate in four years.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-22461030
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https://twitter.com/ncadc tweets :
New blog post from our volunteer Sarah on #asylum seeker & migrant hunger strikes taking place across the world
http://ncadc.org.uk/blog/2013/05/asylum-seekers-and-migrants-on-hunger-strike/
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https://twitter.com/19pst tweets :
"We are human beings like you. Our life is precious like yours, and our dreams are precious too."
http://lightbox.time.com/2013/05/08/a-final-embrace-the-most-haunting-photograph-from-bangladesh/#1
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http://londonmigranthub.wordpress.com/2013/05/10/mapped-embassies-consulates-and-commissions/ - a map of all the consulates, embassies and high commissions in London.

We’ve painstakingly mapped all the embassies, consulates and commissions in London, you won’t find a map like this on any other migrant resource site. Click here to view it and find your embassy. Or see the image below.


The Ambassadors.

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