Immigration: maybe they just don’t like the weather.

With immigration rearing its head again over Bulgaria and Romania joining the EU, a survey from the European Citizen Action Service is quiet interesting. It says that Romanian economic migrants tend to travel primarily to Italy (29%), Spain (22%), Germany (13%) and Hungary (6%), while Bulgarians have formed the largest immigrant communities in Greece (200,000), Italy (60,000) and Spain (80,000). (Source EU Observer) Considering that, since July, Greece, Portugal, Spain and Italy have opened their borders to immigrants, maybe this issue is not going to be as big as people think.

Also, from the Irish Times:

Non-EU nationals who commit a range of offences, including traffic offences, will face summary deportation under a planned new immigration Bill announced yesterday by the Minister for Justice.

The Immigration, Residence and Protection Bill also provides for all non-EU nationals to carry biometric identity cards, known as residence permits. These residence permits will vary depending on the status of the holder, ranging from asylum-seeker, to short-term resident, to long-term resident, including those with refugee status. Long-term residents will have access to rights and benefits generally on a par with those of Irish citizens, similar to the US green card system.

This will be interesting to see how it will play with people in Ireland both on the right and the left.