News From Around The World

Seems reasonable to me!

By Jason Webb
in Madrid
SPAIN, where unemployment is rising rapidly, will stop issuing visas to most migrant workers.
No more visas will be granted to low-skilled workers, such as those employed in restaurants and shops, a spokeswoman for the labour and immigration ministry said yesterday.

She said the government would also insist that companies prove they cannotADVERTISEMENT fill posts in Spain before bringing in foreign workers. She did not say when the measures would take effect.

Celestino Corbacho, the employment minister, said on Wednesday that the government would cut the number of work visas "to roughly zero" in 2009.

"It doesn't seem reasonable that with 2.5 million unemployed, we continue to recruit workers from abroad," said Mr Corbacho, who wants to pay unemployed foreigners to return to their countries. About 180,000 foreign workers arrived in Spain last year.

Unemployment has leapt by 500,000 in a year as the construction boom has evaporated. Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, the socialist prime minister, who announced an amnesty to about 700,000 illegal immigrants soon after he took office in 2004, has done a U-turn on immigration since being re-elected.

In March's poll, the opposition conservatives won working-class support by playing on fears about Spain's growing Muslim community. The conservative Popular Party welcomed the visa crackdown.

"This is going in the right direction," said a spokesman before calling for more action to stop illegal immigration. Spain's immigrant population has risen to 10 per cent of the population from nominal levels a decade ago, with mainly low-paid workers arriving from Latin America, Morocco, Asia, eastern Europe and sub-Saharan Africa.

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Before you start spouting that Americans won't take these jobs ...

Ed Kemp, Clarion-Ledger (Jackson, Mississippi), August 27, 2008
Howard Industries found itself at the center of activity again Tuesday.

Hundreds of job applicants lined up, eager to take advantage of the sudden job openings at the plant located in Jones County, where the unemployment rate is 6.3 percent.

ICE agents on Monday seized 595 plant workers suspected of being in the country illegally. Several workers, who did not identify themselves, said Tuesday they were working and trying to keep the plant operational in the wake of the sudden loss of co-workers.

They said it was common knowledge many of their co-workers were suspected to be illegal.

It’s an idea that maddens Samantha Stevens, 18, of Heidelberg, who was among those who pulled up to Avenue A across from the plant’s entrance throughout the day. She said she has been unable to find a job since she graduated from Heidelberg High School in the spring and blames, in part, the willingness of companies to hire illegal workers.

{snip}

Gwendolyn Watkins, 40, of Stonewall said she drove 40 miles to Laurel to fill out an application with the electronics maker. She worked at Tower Automotive in Meridian as a production worker for eight months before job cuts in June left her unemployed.

She now hopes to get on at Howard, and said that, while “everyone needs a job,” she believes that legal workers should be the priority.