Weekly news roundup

• <> The clock is ticking as Senators are meeting behind closed doors to put a cap on the much-awaited immigration reform package. An article in the Boston Globe outlines the remaining points of contention. We will have a full commentary on the likely compromise early this week.
• Think tanks are debating the ‘right’ solution to the issue Senators face. The North County Times highlights contradictory studies by the Heritage Foundation and the Immigration Policy Center on the impact immigrant workers have had on the US economy.
• With UK Prime Minister Tony Blair announcing this week that he will leave office on June 21st, analysts are busy at work reflecting on his political legacy. Over at the Migration Policy Institute, Will Somerville, does just that for immigration policy. He argues that Blair and his successive Labour governments have succeeded in building a robust immigration system, one that will shape the country's approach to migration in the future.
• The MPI also has a brief on new French President Sarkozy's immigration policies, which supports our commentary with a number of statistics. (This document is a PDF download and requires Adobe Acrobat).
• My friend, immigration journalist Daniela Gerson, addresses the issue of circular migration in her latest article for German news magazine, Der Spiegel. The article (in English) examines a new trend in labor migration: hiring mothers as seasonal workers to ensure they return home to their husbands and children in their country of origin. The European Union's Justice and Home Affairs Commissioner, Franco Frattini, plans to address the issue of circular migration, which is an integral part of the EU migration strategy, in the coming days.
• Speaking of Frattini initiatives: integration and fundamental rights received a financial boost last month, when the Council gave the Commission proposal for a new budget toward the promotion of fundamental rights the go-ahead. Over 93 million Euro will be allocated to transnational projects between Member States and other NGO projects between 2007 and 2013.