This week's news roundup features stories on racial inequality in the UK, an update on the immigration debate in the US and Canada's search for new migrants to help it cope with its recent oil boom:
- ITV, the UK news channel, features a story on research by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation according to which people from ethnic minorities are twice as likely to be poor than their white counterparts. The series of research reports on the issue can be downloaded directly from the foundation's website.
- Immigration policy reform remains a hot button topic on the US agenda, with presidential hopefuls beginning to weigh in on the issue to add to their profile. Over the weekend, immigrants protested in Houston, Texas and Phoenix, Arizona. A number of protests are expected across the country for ‘May Day,’ including a march in Indianapolis . Organizers there are hoping to repeat the success of the last demonstration in April, which brought 20,000 people to the streets to remind Congress of its unfinished business. Meanwhile the April 30th Editorial of the New York Times accuses Republican Presidential candidates of “lurching, falling over themselves to convince voters that where they stand is not where they stood.” The author finds Rudy Giuliani and John McCain's sudden change of opinion the most disheartening.
- Modern day slavery is the result of human trafficking. The New York Times features the harrowing story of a Nigerian woman worked for 12 years without pay, in what can only be described as modern day servitude.
- While all the world seems to be speaking of curtailing immigration, officials in Alberta, Canada are seeking a few good men and women – 100,000 to be exact – to help cope with the demand in jobs after the oil boom, the UK's Guardian reports.