Comment: How Europe stops Theresa May splitting up British families.
http://www.politics.co.uk/comment-analysis/2013/06/07/comment-how-europe-saves-british-citizens
A great piece on free movement in Europe and the protection it offers British citizens (more : http://britcits.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/surinder%20singh - http://britcits.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/free-movement-to-ireland-this-is-one.html )
'...But I must confess that Europe is currently saving Brits from the injustices of their own government.
'Last year, Theresa May took a step no other home secretary has taken. She instituted a base income required by British citizens before they could bring a non-EU spouse to the UK. If you fell in love with someone from outside the EU and happened to earn less than £18,600, that was just tough luck. You would have to live without them or live without your country. Either be romantic or patriotic, but you can't be both. It was as despicable a policy as the Home Office has ever passed and it has passed plenty of despicable policies. Bear in mind that foreigners with more than £1 million can come and go whenever they want. It is the governance of the banal and the cruel. May might as well have bought a white fur coat and dyed her hair like Cruella de Vil.
'I reported the story of Andy, one man caught up in the tangled web of the UK Border Agency and May's barren imagination. His children were separated from both their parents for months on end. His Chinese wife was forced to sit and wait a world away as her boys grew older. And this from a government which claims to be pro-family.
'Now it transpires there is a solution, provided by the European Economic Area (EEA). British people can go to Europe, be economically active, and then return to be treated like a European citizen. They then regain the rights taken away by their own government. They are able to live in their own country with their own wife or husband.
'This should cause us to double take. For British citizens to enjoy the rights to be with their loved one, regardless of income, they must live overseas so that the British government is forced to treat them as Europeans.'
Good will triumph!
"Curses, foiled again!" - Dick Dastardly
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'...It would be an honour if even one person in this tricky situation discovers this route by this piece, but it has been around for a while and is generally well understood by the people who find themselves separated from their loved one. If you want more information you can check in with Brit Cits or the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants. Both organisations do extraordinary work. They are unknown to the public and unrecognised by the media, but they offer support to British families trying to stay together. It's much more than all those shrill 'family values' MPs ever do.'
'...So instead, let me offer this interpretation: It is heart-warming. These are not rich people. They are so not rich, in fact, that they do not even earn £18,600. They have fallen in love and married someone from another part of the world and they want to live together. To do so they are forced to leave their country and create a life in another. Ireland is the most popular choice, because of the language and the cultural similarities. But Italy, Spain, Germany and Portugal are also common. They stay there for about six months, waiting for the documentation of employment, or the official statement showing they are self-employed. They wait there alone, counting down the days until their partner can join them. Without friends, without their husband or wife, often without the language. These are stripped down people, giving up everything to be with the person they love.'
'...So instead, let me offer this interpretation: It is heart-warming. These are not rich people. They are so not rich, in fact, that they do not even earn £18,600. They have fallen in love and married someone from another part of the world and they want to live together. To do so they are forced to leave their country and create a life in another. Ireland is the most popular choice, because of the language and the cultural similarities. But Italy, Spain, Germany and Portugal are also common. They stay there for about six months, waiting for the documentation of employment, or the official statement showing they are self-employed. They wait there alone, counting down the days until their partner can join them. Without friends, without their husband or wife, often without the language. These are stripped down people, giving up everything to be with the person they love.'
https://twitter.com/APPGMigration tweets :
We are looking forward to launching our family migration report on Monday. More info here http://www.appgmigration.org.uk/family-inquiry
https://twitter.com/migrants_rights tweets :
Here's our briefing on the new family migration rules
http://www.migrantsrights.org.uk/publications/briefing-papers
April 2012
The government wants to introduce a new income requirement for people sponsoring family members to come to the UK. This could mean that only people earning £25,700 or more a year – half of the UK’s working population – would be able to bring a non-EU spouse or partner to the UK in the future.
We are calling all concerned organisations to oppose this change in the rules, which would prevent many people from enjoying their right to family life in the UK....
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https://twitter.com/APPGMigration tweets :
Here's a 'promotional trailer' (according to Lord Taylor) to our family migration report launch, by Baroness Hamwee
http://www.theyworkforyou.com/lords/?id=2013-06-06a.1345.0&s
'British citizens who marry non-EEA nationals and then find that they cannot live in their own country with their partner and children as a family unit or be with elderly parents in the UK because they cannot meet the requirements—which are among the toughest in Europe—regard this, to use a mild term, as unfair. It is puzzling to them. It will not have crossed their minds that this might be a problem. The sense of hurt, betrayal, anger and so on is not reduced when they find that the UK is out of line with the rest of the EU.
'The Minister is aware of a piece of work with which I have been concerned. We will be launching our report about family migration on Monday, but I want in this context to share one small piece of evidence received by the group which looked at this. The submission went as follows:
“I served in the British Army for 9 and a half years, have a First Class Honours degree and my husband is also degree educated and currently earning more than I do [overseas] … I am antagonised by the fact that citizens of the EEA face none of these obstacles when bringing their non-EEA spouse to the UK, yet I, a British citizen and former member of the British Army, am not entitled to the same rights in my own country”.
'Several noble Lords remarked on integration being of the highest importance. I was impressed that my noble friend Lord Sharkey was able to ask questions about the paragraph in the Government’s response on that because, frankly, I found it quite difficult to understand. As for localisation, yes, local organisations have an important role to play, but that did not seem to be an answer to the point. The right reverend Prelate talked about a ragbag of resources in this context. I would prefer that we find a toolbox, not a set of leftovers, to address it. I do not think that he meant to suggest that. Like him, however, I regard this as an overwhelmingly important issue.'
Baroness Hamwee : http://www.theyworkforyou.com/peer/baroness_hamwee
Mapping North American English dialects. Extraordinary.
http://aschmann.net/AmEng/#SmallMapUnitedStates
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A LONG-ESTABLISHED link between Redditch and one of its twin towns is under threat because of tough new immigration rules.
Redditch One World Link was due to host visitors from Mtwara in Tanzania for a brief two week stay in the borough.
But the trip has been put in jeopardy because one of the party, Edward Ngonyani, has had his visa application refused, while two others are still waiting to hear.
http://www.redditchstandard.co.uk/2013/06/07/news-Immigration-rule-threat-to-African-visits-73473.html
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Immigration is a positive, not a negative.
http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/comment/opinion/immigration-is-a-positive-not-a-negative/2004324.article
... And research has also shown that working-class immigrants face language difficulties and unfamiliarity with the law that leave them vulnerable to exploitation. The way to stop immigration from driving down wages is to impose tough fines on abusive employers who violate minimum-wage or labour standards.
The government needs to recognise that global symbolism is consequential. The UK Border Agency (now in its death throes) is an off-putting, inept bureaucracy that grinds migrants through a wringer of complexity and delay. As word spreads of the less tolerant quality of British culture and policies, what cost will be paid in international goodwill?
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https://twitter.com/SalmaYaqoob tweets :
Apart from this threat to cut my throat by #EDL supporter (!) overwhelmed by warm response to what I said on #bbcqt pic.twitter.com/D9RRkpUqGF
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Health clinics for immigrant Poles reveal the NHS’s shortcomings.
http://www.economist.com/news/britain/21579018-health-clinics-immigrant-poles-reveal-nhss-shortcomings-another-kind-health-tourism
THE first thing Polish immigrants brought to Britain, when the country opened its doors to eastern European workers in 2004, was an admirable work ethic. Gangmasters told stories about farm labourers picking cabbages at night, by the light of car headlamps. Then Polish delicatessens began to appear, selling herring and pierogi; then came Polish solicitors. But the Poles’ most intriguing import, and the one that ought to cause native Britons to think hardest, is medical care.
https://twitter.com/mryahbut tweets :
Migrants 'taking' services? Poles providing their own!
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The Speaker's Corner: Romania's BFF. (by https://twitter.com/ZrileB )
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/zrinka-bralo/the-speakers-corner-roman_b_3396468.html
In the last few months it has been almost impossible to avoid xenophobic headlines surrounding the lifting of restrictions on Bulgarian and Romanian citizens' (that is, EU citizens') right to work in the UK and other EU countries. And it hasn't even happened yet. Indeed, Ukip's Eastleigh by-election success was largely based on scaremongering that 29 million Bulgarians and Romanians might come to claim welfare benefits in the UK in January 2014. It is worth pointing out here that Bulgaria's entire population is 7,3 million and Romania's population is 21,7 million. And yet, a one-man show, that is Ukip, was able to panic lots of nice, educated, fair minded, middle-class Brits to vote for them on the basis that the entire population of two EU countries will come to claim benefits in the UK next year. Ukip did not win, but they came close. Sadly, they did succeed in tainting public perception for good.
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https://twitter.com/freemvntblog tweets :
Home Secretary Succeeds in Terror Suspect Citizenship Deprivation Appeal http://wp.me/p1Zj2l-2ds
The Court of Appeal (CA) has in the case of B2 v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2013] EWCA Civ 616 (24 May 2013) allowed the Home Secretary (SSHD) to deprive a British-Vietnamese dual national of British citizenship following his alleged involvement in terrorism related activities. The case, on appeal from SIAC, establishes how our courts should interpret foreign nationality laws which are decided exclusively by the executive arm of the foreign state without judicial supervision.
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https://twitter.com/ASRC1 tweets :
1,632. A new all time Australian record. One of our most shameful. 1,632: the number of children in detention. RT it.
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S Africa migrants battle rising persecution.
Brutal murder of Somali in South Africa draws ire of foreign African nationals over rising xenophobic violence.
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2013/06/201365124758700631.html
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Catalan Wikipedia receives official recognition.
http://globalvoicesonline.org/2013/06/07/catalan-wikipedia-will-have-its-own-voice-as-any-other-state/
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Singapore Memory Project.
http://globalvoicesonline.org/2013/06/05/singapore-memory-project-2/
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How to type Ghanaian characters on Android.
http://globalvoicesonline.org/2013/06/06/how-to-type-ghanaian-characters-on-android-phones/
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