Immigration Central | Indians prefer the US, get highest Irish work permits as Canada adds new jobs, Japan tops Henley Passport Index

Representational image. (Photo: Kerwin Elias via Unsplash)

Gallup says the US was the most preferred immigration destination in 2021: After a gap of three years, Gallup, a global analytics and advice firm, released its poll on migration data and concluded that in 2021, 16 per cent of adults worldwide — which projects to almost 900 million people — said they would like to leave their own country permanently, if they could. The United States was on top of the preferred destination followed by Canada in the second place.

Just under one in five potential migrants (18 per cent) — or about 160 million adults worldwide — named the US as their desired future residence. Nearly 8 per cent of the poll's 127,000 respondents (across 122 countries worldwide) said that they prefer to immigrate to Canada instead of the US.

It may be noted that according to Gallup’s poll, though the US continues to be the most preferred destination, the country's popularity has dipped from 22 per cent in 2015-16 to 18 per cent now.

Japan tops Henley Passport Index: Japan crowns the Henley Passport Index, which is based on exclusive and official data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA). Japanese citizens can visit 193 destinations out of 227 around the world visa-free, while South Koreans and Singaporeans, whose countries are tied in second place on the index, enjoy a visa-free/visa-on-arrival score of 192. Germany and Spain are joint third, with visa-free access to 190 destinations worldwide. The UK and the US remain in sixth and seventh places, with scores of 187 and 186, respectively, and it appears increasingly unlikely that either country will ever regain the top spot on the index which they jointly held nearly a decade ago in 2014.

Henley Passport Index is the original ranking of all the world’s passports, according to the number of destinations their holders can access without a prior visa.

Canada adds five news jobs to Global Talent Scheme: Canada recently added five new jobs to its Global Talent Scheme (GTS) increasing the eligible occupations from 12 to 17. The newly added occupations are: Civil engineers, electrical and electronics engineers, mining engineers, aerospace engineers and computer engineers  (excludes software engineers and designers).

The GTS is an expedited system of work permit programme that allows for the work permit applications and temporary resident visas (if applicable) of qualified program applicants to be processed in around two weeks from the date of submission.

In January, Indians got the highest number of Ireland’s work permits: In January this year, Indian nationals were granted the highest number of work permits by Ireland. Of the total 2,525 employment permits granted in January 2023, Indians accounted for 1,059 permits followed by Philippines (227), Brazil (187), Pakistan (110), China (106) and South Africa (101).

New application tracker for Canadian Express Entry Program: Immigration Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has announced that the new online application status trackers has been expanded to four categories of Express Entry candidates: Federal Skilled Workers Program (FSWP), the Canadian Experience Class (CEC), Federal Skilled Trades Program (FSTP) and Provincial Nominee Programs (PNPs).

Status trackers are meant to increase transparency by providing clients with direct access to information.

Express Entry and the PNPs are the most sought-after economic programs for permanent migration. This year, Canada is aiming to welcome 190,000 immigrants via the two pathways, and the number is expected to go up to 230,000 immigrants in 2025.

No entry/exit stamp on passport for national of third countries: Soon, nationals of third countries who are permitted to enter the Schengen Area visa-free or with a short-term visa will no longer have their passports stamped as information on the entry and exit will be automatically updated through a new automated Entry/Exit system.

“EES will replace the current system of manual stamping of passports, which is time-consuming, does not provide reliable data on border crossings and does not allow a systematic detection of over-stayers,” according to a statement of the Migration and Home Affairs of the EU Commission.

The system will record specific data on travellers, including their name, fingerprints, facial image, travel document type, date and place of entry, date and place of exit, as well as their stay period in the Schengen Area.

Italy issues new quotas for foreign workers: Italy has announced new quotas for non-EU workers to enter Italy: 44,000 slots are reserved for seasonal employees and 38,705 are reserved for non-seasonal employees and self-employed workers.  Of the latter category, 30,105 slots are for workers in the road transport, construction, hotel tourism, mechanics, telecommunications, food and shipbuilding industries.