The idea of having an employment permit that is valid in the entire Europe looks like it has a great foot hold. It is now called the Blue Card scheme, as entitled by the European Union. This Blue Card proposal was greatly inspired by the Green Card program in the United States of America.
What is the purpose of the Blue Card?
The main objective of the Blue Card system is to attract the world’s best talents to enter the European Union in order to fight the aging population and diminishing birth rate complications, especially today.
It is through this particular card that migrants are allowed to travel all over the EU and even work in any country they would like, of course, as long as it is located in Europe. This sounds so easy, since it goes against what other countries would hassle the people with, such as strict Visa requirements and working permit requirements. Aside from that, the accepted workers are also entitled to bring their families with them.
The European Commissioner, Franco Frattini, for Justice, Freedom and Security, have strongly stated that it is very important that the EU turn itself into a magnet for the world’s best and highly skilled and talented immigrants. He said so in his speech at the London School of Economics. It was in September of 2007 that he planned to make his formal proposal for this particular scheme.
In a race
The European Union is presently trailing several steps behind Canada and the United States of America, when it comes to attracting different talents and skills overseas. The two top countries are successful in this endeavor since they have long been implementing very vigorous recruiting regulations and policies. The officials of the EU hope that their Blue Card, which has been named so because of the predominant color of the EU flag, can help in making the continent far more competitive economically.
Problem in Member States
The twenty-seven Member States of the EU are in dire need of highly skilled workers, employees and personnel, such as the United Kingdom and Germany. This need is actually pretty evident in a huge number of sectors. In fact, experts estimate that the demand for such workers will rise since as much as twenty million workers will be leaving the workforce between this year and the year 2050.
Opposing views on immigration
Many experts still believe that immigration is not the answer to the quickly aging population. In fact, the higher net associated with immigration does not exempt the lawmakers of Europe from the need of having to implement structural modifications in order to solve the impact of today’s aging population. The EU is not the only continent experiencing this very problem, since majority of today’s most Westernized countries are presently facing this particular issue in an attempt to improve a set of actions for coming up with a very coordinated solution.
Still, it seems to have been proven that the increase in the number of immigrants is regarded as the key when it comes to mitigating this problem in the immediate future.
At present, there are more than one million illegal immigrants that can be found within Britain. This report has been largely based on two of the most famous studies regarding immigration in the United Kingdom. The first report was commissioned by the Home Office back in 2005 while the second one was individually generated by the London School of Economics only in the year 2009 as ordered by the Mayor of London.
Explaining the research
It further explains that the aforementioned studies have somehow underestimated the number of individuals who have entered the UK illegally, and also those who entered the country with the use of their own Visa, yet have decided to illegally overstay. In fact, the past studies had a central estimate of six hundred and eighteen thousand, a figure that should be revised to more than one million.
What do politicians have to say?
Some politicians, at present, are planning to provide benefits to those who have stayed longer than ten years in the UK, as they are made regularized citizens of the United Kingdom. However, Sir Andrew Green, the Chairman of the MigrationWatch in UK is strongly opposed to this plan since he does not like the fact that his country is going to reward British citizenship to the illegals who have stayed more than ten years, simply because they are illegal immigrants.
Aside from the citizenship, they are also going to be provided with complete access to the welfare state. This is not something the people of UK want as a form of punishment for those who illegally entered their country.
The United Kingdom presently has more than a million people, a number that can easily be doubled, or even tripled, once their relatives fly to the UK as they, through the Blue Card, will also be given the right to come to the UK, live there, and even work there. This is not something that gladdens today’s Brits since they do not want to waste billions upon billions of legal British money paid by the tax payers when the UK Government, itself, is already broke.
What do the voters have to say?
Voters in UK were asked through surveys whether or not they wanted to immigrants to be getting financial and other kinds of benefits as well. According to the results, fifty-four percent opposes with thirty-six percent strongly opposed to that particular notion. On the other hand, a thirty percent of the British population is in favor, with an additional five percent who were strongly in favor. The remaining percentage is made up of the people who still cannot decide.
Majority of the immigrants who enter the UK come from Ireland and the other countries that used to be part of the British Empire, such as Pakistan, India, the Caribbean, Bangladesh, Hong Kong, and Kenya.
It seems that a huge percentage of the British population is strongly opposed to having more and more immigrants into their country. In fact, some reports have been made stating that “Britain is already full”.
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