Elections 2000
The outcome of the presidential election remained in doubt in November 2000; Republicans retained control of the US House, but not the Senate. Before

INS: Border, Detention
Commissioner Doris Meissner left the INS in mid-November 2000 after seven years as Commissioner for the Carnegie Endowment (http://www.ceip.org); deputy

Congress: H-1B, LIFA
H-1B. Congress raised the annual limit on the number of H-1B visas that can be issued to 195,000 a year for the next three years, but critics

Mexico: Fox, Remittances
Mexico is to have a new president, Vicente Fox Quesada, on December 1, 2000. It appears that the "six-year" curse of a peso and economic crisis will

State Briefs
California. California has 25 percent foreign-born residents among its 33 million people, compared to 10 percent foreign-born residents among

Labor, Remedies for Migrants
The US unemployment rate remained at 3.9 percent in October 2000, meaning that it stayed below 4.1 percent for the past 12 months. The unemployment

Canada: Elections
Canadians went to the polls November 27, 2000, and Jean Chretien and his governing Liberal Party were expected to win their third consecutive term as

Latin America
Argentina/Peru. Many Argentineans are the descendants of immigrants from Italy, Spain, and other European countries, and they have the right

China, Hong Kong, Taiwan
The UNHCR estimated that 100,000 to 200,000 migrants leave China each year with the help of organized smuggling rings, and that 400,000 Chinese

Japan: More Foreign Workers?
One percent of Japan's labor force are foreign workers. According to a September 2000 survey by the newspaper Asahi Shimum, 64 percent of Japanese

Southeast Asia: Brunei, Vietnam
President Clinton attended the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in Brunei and visited Vietnam in November 2000. Human rights groups have

Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia
Thailand. Employers in 37 provinces were warned in November 2000 that they must get Immigration Police Bureau permission by December 1, 2000

Korea: Trainees to Workers?
Korea has few foreign workers. Instead, Korea has mostly foreign trainees who are not entitled to Korea's minimum wage or covered by Korean labor

EU: Common Policies?
Ministers of Interior and Justice continue to negotiate EU-wide rules for asylum processing, family unification and the rights of settled non-EU

Germany: Culture, Immigration
Guiding Culture. There are 7.3 million foreigners among Germany's 82 million residents. In October 2000, Christian Democratic Union

UK: Smuggling
Young and unemployed Britons are among those smuggling illegal migrants from Continental Europe into Britain. As with drug smuggling, enforcement

Southern Europe: Smuggling
Southern European nations such as Greece, Italy and Spain have become the major ports of entry into northern and western Europe for foreigners from

Russia
Russia. The Internal Affairs Visas and Registration Directorate announced that a computerized system will be introduced to register foreigners

Australia
In the year ending June 30, 2000, some 92,272 immigrants arrived in Australia, up 10 percent from the year earlier. They included 31,610 New

Middle East: Iran, Kuwait
Iran. There are reports that several thousand Iranians a month are attempting to leave their homeland. Living standards have eroded, and

Africa
South Africa. The South African National Police Commissioner in November 2000 ordered the arrest of six white police officers after seeing a

India, Pakistan
India. Senior and state government officials toured the Assam border area November 14-17 to see how to stop illegal immigration. The

UN: Migrants, Refugees, Economy
Migrants. The International Organization for Migration in November 2000 released a 287-page World Migration Report that estimated there were