By Don Flynn* The announcement of yet more changes to the immigration rules will cause anxiety to run down the spine of many a legal migrant as they struggle to understand whether it has implications for them. The government has declared that the intention behind the new Immigration Bill currently being considered…
Tag: undocumented immigrants
Julian Abagond: The term “illegal immigrant”
By Julian Abagond The term “illegal immigrant” (1930s- ) means an undocumented immigrant, one without papers to stay in the country. The older term was ”illegal alien”, common in English in the 1970s and 1980s, rare in American news stories since 2003. An illegal immigrant can mean someone who: crossed the border illegally, overstayed a student or…
Former undocumented immigrant Edgar Ortega: A true survivor
I read a fascinating story on YLE in English about a former undocumented immigrant in Finland, Edgar Ortega of Mexico. He’s a true survivor. Ortega would clean construction sites, distribute pizza adverts and engage in other work before he got a residence permit. Ortega made 4-5 euros an hour as an undocumented immigrant, according to…
Finnish police to have new anti-ethnic profiling guidelines in force in 2013
Rainer Hiltunen, Ombudsman for Minorities head of office, told Migrant Tales that talks have taken place with the Finnish police to draft new guidelines and more effective monitoring to ensure that ethnic profiling doesn’t happen. The new guidelines are expected to be in force in 2013. The Ombudsman for Minorities office expressed concern in spring about higher-than-average complaints from…
Alina Tsui: Immigration Reform – The Xenophobic Crisis in Greece
By Alina Tsui Illegal immigrants are tearing apart the social fabric of Greek society. They’ve been blamed for the spike in crimes and the cause of Greece’s economic woes. At least this is the narrative that’s repeated by the far-right and accepted by most Greeks. With no end in sight of the economic crisis…
Massive Greek police clampdown on immigrants
Cash-strapped Greece showed its dark side over the weekend when some 2,000 police in Athens and surroundings arrested 1,100 undocumented immigrants and held another 4,900 for questioning, according to Clandestina blog. The action is a disturbing example of how the Greek government is trying to blame immigrants for the country’s financial problems. It is…
PBS documentary: U.S. Border Patrol, an example we should avoid
When I grew up in Southern California, the object of racist insults weren’t only blacks but especially Mexicans. Even if there were no Mexicans never mind blacks at our elementary school in Hollywood, some students – if not all – had very strong prejudices against them. An investigative documentary by PBS shows that not only…
Räsänen sees no wrongdoing, ethnic profiling by police with spot identity checks
Christian Democrat (KD) Finnish interior minister, Päivi Räsänen, didn’t see any abuses nor ethnic profiling with spot identity checks of foreigners by the police, according to YLE. The statement follows a story on Wednesday after the office of the Ombudsman for Minorities expressing concern about the large number of complaints that foreigners are being arbitrarily stopped on the basis of their ethnic background.
Digital Journal: Swiss Government Bans Video On Execution-Style Deportation
A documentary by humanitarian organisation Augenauf was banned shortly after it was broadcast on Swiss television. It depicts a reconstruction of the execution-style deportation practiced by Swiss Government.