Weekly news roundup

In this week's roundup – a look at Finland, as it tries to become a destination country for immigrants. Two personal stories that are causing politicians to critically reexamine Austria's immigration legislation and a new report from UCSD that argues in favor of continued Mexican migration to the US to stem the adverse effects of a decline in the working population.

Looks like Frontex isn't the magic solution after all. German papers are reporting that hundreds of migrants were rescued from the waters off the Italian island of Lampedusa over the past few days. Almost 600 mostly African migrants had been taken aboard coast guard and rescue vessels within 24 hours between Wednesday and Thursday evening of last week – more than 300 on Wednesday alone. A previous dip in the numbers of migrants seeking access to European territories from the Atlantik and Canary Islands had been attributed to closer surveillance of by EU border patrols, but numbers have been rising again over the past few weeks, particularly in the Eastern Mediterranean sea.

• A new report from the University of California San Diego argues that instead of closing borders to Mexican immigrants, the US needs to bring in more migrants to stem a looming demographic downturn that will pull at the purse strings of retirement funds, once the baby boomers leave their jobs in droves in the coming years. And immigration might not be the only solution, as fertility numbers among Mexican immigrants are also dropping.
• US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents are coming under fire following a wave of raids against illegal immigrants in suburban New York, the New York Times reports.
• The electoral campaign of one of Switzerland's largest parties has come under scrutiny for its racist undertones. A poster illustrating the party's hardline stance in immigration shows a group of white sheep standing on a Swiss flag symbolically kicking a black sheep out of the country. The campaign has polarized a country, which prides itself on consensus policy-making. Over the weekend, sparks flew as left-wing protestors took to the street to demonstrate against the SVP campaign in the country's capital, Bern.
• Two recent cases of immigrant family deportations have raised new questions about the controversial 2006 Austrian immigration law, which changed the provisions for residency.
• Finland is looking to become a destination country for highly-skilled migrants, the FT report, but has yet to develop a compelling strategy to attract the best and brightest it is looking for. It is hoped that these migrants will continue to power the R&D heavy side of the country's high-tech companies. But just as needed are the semi-skilled, the nurses and caretakers of the elderly, just as much as the plumbers and metal workers. The government is looking to recruit workers primarly from neighboring countries, including Russia, but has had to acknowledge that the extreme degree of red tape involved in applying for residency and the country's high taxes do not make for attractive prospects for would-be migrants. An attitude shift toward migrants may also be needed, as prejudices toward particularly Soviet migrants are still rife among Finnish employers, the article suggests.