Vienna Retains Best Quality of Life Crown: Mercer Survey
Economic Times of India (05/26/10)
A new global survey of cities by management consultancy Mercer finds that Vienna was ranked as offering the best quality of life in the world, followed by Zurich and Geneva. Most of the top cities were European—16 of the top 25—and the study concludes that “the overall standard of living in Western Europe remains far above the world’s average.” Despite the global economic downturn, many factors in Western Europe improved, including schools, housing, recreation, and public services. The highest-ranked U.S. city was Honolulu at number 31, with the survey citing the financial crisis as the cause of the decline in rank of U.S. cities. No cities in Central and South America made the top 50, with the highest-ranked city being Point-a-Pitre in Guadeloupe. Africa and the Middle East also did not fare well, with the highest-ranked cities being Dubai at 75 and Port Louis in Mauritius at 82. Singapore was the top-ranked Asian city at number 28, followed by Tokyo at 40, Kobe and Yokohama tied at 41,Osaka at 51 and Nagoya at 57.

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Hard Times in Greece Prompt Albanians to Return Home
Reuters (06/01/10) Koleka, Benet
Albanian immigrants in Greece make up the largest portion of foreign workers in the country and are hardest-hit by its current financial crisis, leading many to consider going home for good. Remittances from Albanians around the globe fell to a five-year low last year, to 780 million euros from 951 million in 2007. There are between 650,000 and 800,000 Albanians in Greece, and some are struggling so badly that their relatives back home were sending them tobacco, beans, and potatoes to help them get by. Iron worker Gerald Hoxha has decided to leave permanently after seeing his income fall from 70 euros a day to 30 euros, with only about 20 days of work a month, and he has a wife and two children to support. There is no official data on how many Albanians are leaving Greece, but duty officers at the border crossing say the number has risen. “They are coming back with everything they own,” said officer Landi Ipo.

adapted.

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Social Security is Deductible Expense for Expatriates
Business Standard (India) (05/17/10) Agarwal, HP
The salaries of expatriate employees working in India are subject to tax in India, with tax charged on the basis of working in India whether the salary is received in the country or outside the country. While computing the taxable salary, various deductions related to the sums paid toward retirement benefits and saving schemes, like contributing to Provident Fund, PPF, or NSC contribution, can be taken. However, when expatriate employees are required to pay certain sums in their home country toward statutory payments, like Citizen Tax or Social Security, there is often a question over whether such payments are allowed to be deducted from taxable income in India. Essentially, when expatriate employees are required to pay any statutory dues, payments fall into two categories. The first is where the employer pays sums directly to the appropriate authority by deducting from the same salary, and the second is where the employer makes full payment of salary and afterward the employee pays statutory dues. Tax authorities may take the stance that only payment in the first category can be held as having an overriding charge, while the second category is merely an obligation to pay certain dues from one's own income. However, this stance is not correct because an overriding title is created by virtue of statutory obligation, not the manner of payment. Ultimately, it is recommended that to prove the overriding charge beyond doubt, the employer should deduct the amount of such statutory dues before making payments to employees.

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Expatriate Workers Must Work on Equal Terms With Nationals
Angola Press (05/28/10)
The differing salaries between locals and expatriates in Luanda was the source of "demoralization," according to Florbela de Jesus Araujo, the president’s juridical advisor, who spoke about the importance of the country’s equalization laws at a recent law conference. She said expats and locals must be on equal terms to improve institutional efficiency. The conference also covered the issues of repatriation of personnel, expat workers’ contribution, and mobility within the national territory.

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Levy On Foreign Workers To Go Up In Early 2011: Minister
Hindustan Times (05/21/10)
In an effort to reduce Malaysia's dependence on foreign labor, the country plans to increase levies on foreign workers starting early next year. Malaysia's Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin says the levy would be based on each foreign worker's skill level and the number of workers in the sector. "If they are skilled workers, the levy may not be high but if they are unskilled or just ordinary workers, then the employers may have to pay a higher levy," says Yassin. Yassin says the government also planned to impose a bond on employers to make them more responsible towards their workers. A bond payment has been implemented in several countries, like Singapore, to monitor the entry of foreign visitors and workers into these countries. "The bond is a guarantee for employers to be responsible when their workers run away, stop work and so forth. We have not decided on this but I have asked that this be studied," says Yassin.

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Nigeria Unsafe for Expats, Warns U.S Government
Telegraph.co.uk (05/27/10) Hyslop, Leah
Nigeria’s State Department issued a travel warning advising against travel to the Niger delta after two U.S. expatriates were kidnapped and died in April. About 110 U.S. expats have been kidnapped in Nigeria since early 2009, six of whom were killed. British expats have been kidnapped as well, and though there are no official figures on the number of Brit kidnappings, the Foreign and Commonwealth office advises Brits against travel to the delta due to the risk of kidnapping and robbery. Oil workers are often targeted by Nigerian militants, who are seeking to force a more equitable distribution of the country’s oil wealth. The country is the world’s eleventh-largest producer of oil but remains very poor, ranking 158 on the UN’s human development index, out of 182 countries. The kidnappings have increased since the May 2010 death of President Umaru Yar’ Aruda, who had pressed for militants to cease their violent behavior.

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Panama Harbors Ambitions Beyond Its Canal
Reuters (05/28/10) Rucker, Patrick
Panama will not be able to join the world's most developed countries until it improves its murky banking systems and shrinks a wealth gap that leaves a third of its people in poverty. Fortunately, economists say the country is well positioned for growth, and Panama's government debt has received a much desired investment grade rating by Fitch and S&P. With its population of 3.4 million, Panama will never be able to become a China or Japan, but local leaders believe it can become like Singapore, an affluent and diverse crossroad for international finance and trade. Panama's low taxes, easy immigration, flexible labor laws, and an abundance of land are extremely attractive to companies. Panama's Trade Minister Roberto Henriquez believes his county can become a boutique exporter of high-margin goods and services. Several multinational companies, including Caterpillar, Hewlett Packaged, and Dell, have established operations in Panama in recent years, as the country has opened its doors to foreign investment. In the 1990s, Panama attracted only about $500 million a year from foreign investors, but from 2006 to 2009 the country has attracted $8.6 billion. Canal traffic, which is a transit point for about 4 percent of global trade, has increased, allowing Panama's financial industry and government to use valuable land along the banks of the waterway for warehouses and transfer stations. Caterpillar is planning on building an expo center near the canal banks to show off its new heavy equipment. Panama still has a great amount of maturing to do however, as its banking system is considered an unfair tax haven, and critics say the free trade zone, service, and building sectors can attract drug money laundering. Some foreign executives are concerned that Panama's education system cannot produce enough skilled workers to fill new jobs, though the government is creating ad hoc training programs and allow as many foreign workers as needed.

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Land of Conditional Opportunity
Wall Street Journal (05/17/10) Sergie, Mohammed
In 2009, foreign workers in Saudi Arabia were able to send back 94.7 billion Saudi riyals, or about $25.3 billion U.S., to their home countries, according to data from the kingdom's central bank. However, the opportunity to earn a good wage often weighs against the difficulties of living in a staunchly conservative Islamic country. Foreign workers in Saudi Arabia face numerous challenges, including problems with their local sponsors, an opaque legal system, gender and religious discrimination, and trouble adapting to the country's Islamic culture. Some workers in Saudi Arabia who tried to open their own business have even found themselves forced out of their own venture by Saudi sponsors once the business becomes successful. Such problems have taken place in businesses as small as individual restaurants, up to branches of major companies. The sponsorship system is regularly criticized by human rights advocates. In April, the UN rights chief Navi Pillay called for changes to the system while giving a speech in Saudi Arabia, arguing that confiscating passports, withholding wages, and abusing domestic help and other illegal acts can only be mitigated if the government maintains a human rights approach at the front and center of its policies. While the limited rights of women in Saudi Arabia are fairly well known, men have difficulties as well. Men are not allowed in shopping malls on weekends, and entertainment is extremely limited as the country bans move theaters, live shows, and alcohol. There is also a fair amount of discrimination towards foreign workers, particularly towards the children of workers. However, there are ample working opportunities for those willing to make sacrifices.

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More Expatriates in Singapore Paid Local Rates
Business Times (05/19/10) Ning, Teh Shi
Pay for expatriates could fall in the Singapore area as more multinational companies compare salaries to local and foreign rates, instead of salaries in their home countries, according to a survey by HR consultant ECA International. Barely over a fifth of expatriates say they worked for compensation packages based on the Singapore market. Lee Quane, Hong Kong-based Asia regional director of ECA International, believes a growing number of companies will choose local benchmarks to determine expat pay, partially to cut costs and also because many workers are being assigned to Singapore on longer-term contracts. "With the strong growth in Asia, the expansion needs of companies are longer-term and tend to require more foreign staff to be posted here on a permanent basis," says Quane. Expatriate contracts are longer because the need for expat workers is now being driven less by the quality of Singapore's workforce and more by the tight labor market many companies face. The survey also found that net local salaries in Singapore are about 80 percent of the salaries of expats, which means the adjustment would not be that significant. However, for the time being, "home-based" compensation is still the dominant pay model. About 60 percent of expats in Singapore accepted pay packages tied to rates in their home countries, and Quane does not expect more than a quarter of expat pay packages to be Singapore-based, even in the long term. Pay packages measured in the survey include cost of living, hardship, and relocation allowances, but not benefits like housing and children's education, though Quane says those have fallen in recent years as well.

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Expats to Get Easier iPhone Contracts
Korea Times (Korea) (05/30/10) Tong-Hyoung, Kim
Expatriates living in South Korea have been frustrated by the complicated contract requirements imposed by wireless operators there which have made it difficult to obtain iPhones. But iPhone provider KT is trying to make the phones more affordable and accessible to foreigners by lowering visa barriers for registering phones and making phone installment and payment plans more flexible. The company will also make more of its stores multi-lingual so that foreigners can ask questions in their native tongue. Previously, only foreigners with Korean heritage, permanent residency status, or married to Korean nationals were able to get a standard two-year iPhone contract, while other foreign residents could only get one-year contracts and could not use monthly payment plans. Wireless carriers imposed the restrictions to prevent foreign users from leaving the country without paying their bills, but the popularity of the iPhone has made expats very vocal in their objections to the existing rules. Now, expatriates with visas given to diplomats, government employees, educators, researchers, and technology experts may use monthly payment plans. "With the smartphone era blurring the national boundaries between telecommunication services, we will focus on extending our best services to foreigners," says Pyo Hyun-myung of KT.

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Foreign Workers Prove Themselves in Tough Times
Swissinfo (05/27/10)
Government policies that allow foreign workers to move freely between Switzerland and the European Union have helped the country deal with the economic downturn, according to a new report from the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs. Allowing skilled foreign workers to fill vacancies left by the relatively small workforce in Switzerland helped produce “exceptionally strong” economic growth without taking any jobs away from Swiss citizens, the report says. The number of foreigners coming to Switzerland declined along with the economy but was still relatively high, with 68,000 arriving in 2009. Unemployment has been rising in the country and foreign workers were hit hardest, but experts say unemployment is not expected to stay high in the long term.

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No Family Visa Cancellation Required for Job Change in UAE
India Times (05/26/10)
The United Arab Emirates has changed its rules for expatriate family visas, no longer requiring foreign workers who change their jobs to cancel the visas of family members they sponsor. They will have to deposit $136 for each family member with the Department of Naturalization and Residency, however, which can be refunded when the expat gets a new residency permit, and family members’ visas will be automatically transferred. The expat will have to apply before the cancellation procedure and attach the bank guarantee, new employee permit, and job offer letter. The government made the move to streamline procedures for expats when it realized many who were applying for new job visas had cancelled their family’s residence visas and sent them home.

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New Points System Lets in More Foreign Workers Not Fewer
Telegraph.co.uk (06/03/10) Whitehead, Tom
The British government imposed a points system two years ago intended to reduce the soaring flow of immigrants into the country, but a study reveals that the number of immigrant families allowed into the country actually rose by 20 percent while foreign students increased by 30 percent. The study was performed by think tank Migrationwatch, and found that the number of non-EU migrants rose from 159,535 in 2007 to 190,640 in 2009 despite a recession and high unemployment. Government officials had expected the points system to cut immigration by 12 percent, and this week Labour declined to answer parliamentary written questions about the issue and was accused of hiding a “guilty secret.” Immigration Minister Damian Green said the government plans to introduce an annual limit on work permits.

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Thousands of Ex-Indian Nationals Irate Over New Rules for Visas Passports
New York Daily News (05/28/10) Sharp, Sonja
Ex-Indian nationals around the world are signing a petition against an Indian policy that requires them to renounce their old passports and pay a fee or be banned from entering the country. Under the new rule, expats must submit five copies of the old passport, a copy of a naturalization certificate and U.S. passport, and pay a fee of $425. The law was actually enacted in 1955 but this year enforcement has become much tougher as part of a security response to the 2008 Mumbai terror attack, in which an American citizen from Pakistan helped plan the attack. “Why are they asking now?” said Raj Gupta, who lives in Queens and lost his old passport many years ago. “It’s like digging out a dead man from the grave.”

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H-1B Visa Holders Earn More Than U.S.-Born IT Professionals, Study Claims
CIO (05/20/10) Overby, Stephanie
A new University of Maryland study found that foreign-born information technology (IT) professionals with temporary skilled worker visas earn more than their U.S. equivalents. Professors Hank Lucas and Sunil Mithas used data from online salary polls performed from 2000 to 2005 by InformationWeek and Hewitt Associates, and found that IT professionals without U.S. citizenship earned nearly 9 percent more than their U.S. counterparts. IT workers on temporary visas such as the L-1 and H-1B received 6.8 percent higher earnings than their U.S.-born counterparts, while green card holders earned almost 13 percent more than U.S. IT professionals. Lucas and Mithas credit restrictive visa policies with driving up salary premiums. Their research contradicts the conclusions of other studies that temporary visa programs are depressing U.S. IT workers' salaries, but Lucas and Mithas counter that those studies do not collate data at an individual level. The professors say their research indicates that corporations use foreign-born IT professionals as a complement to the U.S. workforce rather than as a less expensive substitute.

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'Online Advisor' Aims to Help Employers
New Haven Register (05/19/10)
The U.S. Department of Labor has launched a new tool online to help employers comply with requirements for temporarily hiring foreign workers, and another that makes it easier for small businesses to electronically file annual reports on employee benefits plans. The "online advisor" explains how to follow requirements of the H-1B visa program, which allows for foreign workers to temporarily gain employment in specialty occupations at companies in the United States. "The Labor Department’s goal is to provide employers and the public with user-friendly information regarding both rights and responsibilities under the H-1B program," says Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis. The online advisor describes the H-1B program's standards, and provides detailed information on employers' and workers' rights and responsibilities. The advisor also outlines notification requirements, monetary issues, worksite issues, recordkeeping, worker protections, and enforcement. The Labor Department's Employee Benefits Security Administration also has a new e-signature option for Forms 5500 and 5500-SF, used to e-file employee benefit plan annual reports. The new e-signature option will allow service providers managing the filing process for plans to obtain their own signing credentials and submit electronic forms for the plan. The service provider must confirm that it has specific written authorization from the plan administrator to submit the plan's electronic filing.

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