Foreign Ministry will monitor the visa issuance process to EU countries
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine intends to conduct serious monitoring and control the process and procedure for issuing visas to Ukrainian citizens to European Union countries.
This was stated by Ukrainian Foreign Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk. He recalled that from April 10 to 17, students of the Diplomatic Academy of Ukraine under the MFA conducted a survey of Ukrainian citizens who applied to embassies of EU countries in Kyiv for visas. The minister reported that 566 Ukrainians were surveyed, who named the main problems in visa issuance as queues, a large number of documents required for visa processing, rudeness of consulate staff, and high service costs.
"The Ministry of Foreign Affairs will hold bilateral negotiations with those countries about which Ukrainian citizens expressed themselves during this survey, and will raise a number of problematic issues with the relevant consular missions on the territory of Ukraine," the minister emphasized. According to him, the feasibility of expanding EU consular missions in Ukraine and introducing unified approaches by all Schengen area countries regarding document submission and visa issuance will be considered.
The head of the foreign ministry also pointed to the problem of the intermediary company VFS (Visa Facilitation Service), which provides services for processing short-term visas to Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and long-term visas to Italy. Arseniy Yatsenyuk expressed doubt about the advisability of such intermediaries. At the same time, he believes that if such an intermediary can exist, it is necessary to carefully regulate this phenomenon and introduce a competitive selection procedure for such intermediaries with the participation of Ukrainian companies.
Also, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine plans to create a call center from June 1, 2007, to receive calls from Ukrainian citizens abroad and in Ukraine who have encountered various problems. This was announced at a briefing by Ukrainian Foreign Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk.
The minister said that the call center will operate around the clock, with a diplomat from the MFA on duty who can contact the relevant consular institutions to resolve issues related to crossing borders of foreign states, visa issuance problems, and other matters concerning Ukrainians abroad. The minister emphasized that negotiations are underway with leading Ukrainian mobile operators to introduce a three-digit number for the call center, so that it can be reached more quickly from any country in the world. Arseniy Yatsenyuk also informed that a separate page will be opened on the official MFA website where Ukrainian citizens can leave information about problems encountered in obtaining visas.
Almost every fifth resident of Germany is a migrant
15.3 million people from other countries live in Germany, the Federal Statistical Office reported. This means that 18.6% of the country's population can be classified as migrants. Almost half of migrants and their descendants have German citizenship.
Under the definition of "migrants," statisticians included 7.3 million foreigners and their descendants, as well as 8 million people who hold German citizenship but have foreign roots. Almost every third child under the age of five is raised in families that are fully or partially composed of foreigners, or in families of Germans born abroad.
96% of all migrants live in Western Germany and Berlin. Large cities are particularly preferred by foreigners and Germans of foreign origin. For example, the population of Stuttgart is 40% migrants, Frankfurt am Main - 39.5%, Nuremberg - 37%.
Almost 62% of migrants come from Europe. The largest group of immigrants in Germany is from Turkey (14.2% of the total). In second place are those from Russia (9.2%). Next come immigrants from Poland (6.9%), Italy (4.2%), Romania, Serbia and Montenegro (3% each).
Statisticians found that migrants have a lower educational level than native Germans. Almost 10% of them have no completed school education, and 51% have no vocational training. For comparison, the corresponding figures among the native population are 1.5% and 27%, respectively.
The unemployment rate among them is also higher than among native Germans – 13% versus 7.5%. 48.5% of employed migrants work as unskilled laborers. Among Germans, this figure is half as much. According to statistics, in recent years fewer foreigners have acquired German citizenship. In 2003, this number was 140,700 people, and in 2005 – 117,200.
Britons have stopped taking pride in their citizenship
According to a public opinion poll conducted by the National Centre for Social Research, fewer Britons are proud to be British.
As The Daily Mail writes, if 25 years ago 55% of the country's residents declared their pride in being British, today just under half – 45% – do so. The study notes that representatives of ethnic minorities prefer to call themselves "Black Britons" or "Asian Britons," while the "white majority" remembers its "Britishness" only when abroad.
At the same time, sociologists note a rise in particularism and nationalism in the country. The number of UK residents who consider themselves primarily English increased from 31% in 1992 to 39% in 2003. Residents of Wales and Scotland, for the most part, also do not feel British. They trust local authorities much more than the government in London. According to sociologists, this is a direct consequence of the decentralization of power that has been taking place in recent years.
Some critics note that citizens are losing interest in Britain largely because British history is very poorly taught in schools, and politicians and the state are doing nothing to strengthen the sense of national belonging. In the school history curriculum, the main figures of the 20th century are considered to be Hitler and Stalin. Britain's role in the fight and victory over Napoleon is described very sparingly, and the British Empire is viewed primarily as the main culprit for racism and exploitation of former colonies.
Employers will be forced to teach migrant workers Russian
The Russian State Duma has drafted amendments to the law "On the Legal Status of Foreign Citizens in the Russian Federation", according to which immigrants arriving in the country will be required to learn Russian.
Immigrants arriving for work in Russia will have to submit to the territorial executive authorities a document confirming proficiency in Russian. If a person does not know Russian, the state will be obliged to provide the opportunity to learn the language in special state courses, and if the immigrant does not learn the language, he will have to leave the country.
The costs of training their potential immigrant workers will have to be borne by employers. The development of a special educational system that will allow teaching immigrants Russian should be undertaken by the Ministry of Education and Science together with the Federal Migration Service. However, the Ministry of Education and Science has so far refused to comment, stating that "this initiative needs to be discussed and analyzed by all interested departments."
Italy's population reached almost 59 million people
According to data for 2006, Italy's population was 58,751,711 people, reported specialists from the Italian Statistical Institute. They also noted that compared to 2005, the population of the Apennine Peninsula increased by 0.5%.
The report does not specify who is "to blame" for Italy's population growth - immigrants or native residents. There are 4 million immigrants living in the Apennines, which is about 7% of the country's population. According to data from the ISMU Foundation, which deals with multi-ethnicity issues, 21.9% of immigrants are young people, 40% of whom, by the way, have higher education. At the same time, every fifth of them is in Italy illegally.
Over the past three years, the number of migrants in Italy has increased by 1.2 million, and by 2016, according to experts' forecasts, their number could reach 7 million.
Chisinau will complicate the procedure for renouncing Moldovan citizenship
The government of Moldova became concerned about the growing number of renunciations of Moldovan citizenship in favor of other countries and decided to complicate this procedure. The cabinet of ministers of the republic proposed introducing a number of restrictions on the procedure for renouncing citizenship.
If the proposed additions and changes to the existing legislation are adopted, only persons legally residing outside the republic will be able to submit an application for renunciation of Moldovan citizenship. The Moldovan government claims that these restrictions do not contradict the European Convention on Human Rights.
According to statistics, Moldovans most often renounce their citizenship in favor of Romanian. Meanwhile, back in March of this year, the Moldovan Foreign Ministry officially notified the Romanian Embassy in Chisinau of the refusal to open two additional Romanian consulates in the republic.
To obtain Romanian citizenship, Moldovans often enter into sham marriages with Romanians. In the Romanian counties bordering Moldova - Iași, Vaslui, Botoșani, and Suceava - the number of mixed Moldovan-Romanian marriages registered in civil registry offices increased by 35-52% in late 2006 and early 2007.