Finland increased the cost of a residence permit
Finnish authorities announced an increase in the cost of a residence permit from the beginning of the year.
According to the Finnish Police Immigration Office, now when applying for a temporary residence permit for the first time, a foreigner will have to pay €200 - €25 more than last year. Extending a temporary residence permit will cost €120 - €20 more than before.
The Immigration Office explained that the price increase is due to new requirements, according to which the residence permit now must contain a photograph, which increased document processing costs.
Sokhnut did not fulfill the plan for the repatriation of Jews
In Israel, the results of the "aliyah" (program for relocating Jews to Israel) for 2006 were summed up. 21,000 Jews arrived in the country for permanent residence.
A representative of the Sokhnut agency, which promotes the idea of Jewish immigration to Israel, Michael Jankelowitz, told Reuters that this is the lowest figure since 1988, when the country accepted only 13,000 people. According to statistics, in 2005 there were 22,657 immigrants. Earlier, 24,000 people were expected to arrive under the program, but according to Jankelowitz, these forecasts were not realized because the government did not ensure the attraction of the expected number of Jews from Ethiopia.
Although more than 1 million people came from the former USSR countries in the 1990s, attracting Jews from this region is becoming more difficult - in the outgoing year there were only 7,600 such people. "These people are no longer fleeing anything," Jankelowitz said. The agency also rejected suggestions that one of the reasons for the decline in the number of immigrants was the Lebanon war that took place in the summer of 2006.
At the same time, immigration from North America and Europe is increasing. Thus, in 2006, 720 people migrated from Great Britain to Israel (481 in 2005), from North America - 3,200 (compared to 2,900 repatriates in 2005).