Globally, immigration is getting more and more competitive with every passing year. Let’s take a look at some areas and what’s happening from an immigration standpoint.
Countries like Singapore, Hong Kong and UAE have been taking immigrants for decades. As a result these countries are becoming saturated and over the last few years have significantly reduced their intakes. UK also falls in the same category and is currently going through a BREXIT motion where they are in the process of cutting ties with the European Union. This is the result of a public referendum which happened a few years ago and immigration was a key issue in the referendum vote.
Countries like US have a broken immigration system which has not changed for years. The current leadership wants to end lottery visas as well as chain migration and wants to bring in a merit based system. Whether this will help immigrants or not needs to be seen but it is clear that the next few years are filled with uncertainty which is definitely not good for immigrants.
The Middle East was a good destination for many Indians especially from Southern India. However the region has been mostly disturbed over the past years. Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan and Yemen have seen active fighting. Qatar and Iran are facing sanctions and Saudi Arabia is going through a change in the monarchy which has unsettled things in the large nation. Oil prices have also been fluctuating these past years and the discovery of shale oil in the USA has not helped matters in this region. Artisans and trade professionals from India continue to travel but white collared immigration has seen a steep fall.
Europe has been particularly disturbed because of the war in the Middle East. Countries such as Germany, Italy and France, which are among the largest economies in Europe, have seen huge refugee migration. Most developed Economies have refugee immigration programs but the numbers that these countries are seeing are much larger and hence immigration programs are stretched. This situation is bound to continue till the Middle Eastern crisis is resolved.
Countries like Canada, Australia and New Zealand are hence seeing heightened competition. Their intake has been steady but with other options drying up, more and more applicants are headed towards these countries. More competition means higher scores and that is something which can be expected even in coming years.
The situation described above can change based on time and change in regimes.