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US immigration could help agricultural industry
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Foreigners snatching up property from cash-strapped Italians
According to Bloomberg, the demand from German customers has jumped significantly over the last year.Italy with its mild climate, lots of cultural attractions and developed infrastructure has long been a popular destination for foreigners looking to buy a holiday home. It’s not just the Germans, but British and Russian buyers who are looking for a place in the sun, Bloomberg reports.“This is a good time for foreigners to buy,” Bloomberg quotes Francesca Andreini, head of Italian-based real estate agency Case e Ville. “Properties that cost 2.5 million euros have come down to 1.5 million euros due to taxes and the economic downturn.” She added that successful haggling can slash 30 percent off the price during negotiations.Foreign investment has grown with the contraction of the domestic Italian residential property market. Sales shrank by almost 26 percent last year on the back of tighter mortgage lending, two years of recession, and uncertainty over a new tax on primary residences.A study from the Scenari Immobiliari research institute shows second-home sales to foreign buyers increased 14 percent in 2012 accounting for 2.1 billion euros ($2.8 billion) of non-Italian investment. Most buyers since 2009 turned out to be Germans who accounted for about 40 percent of the deals by foreigners. Deals with Britons amounted to 18 percent and Russians came out the third most popular buyers accounting for 13 percent of the transactions.Engel & Voelkers realty agent Yasemin Rosenmaier engaged in property sale in Italy told Bloomberg that more and more Germans are buying property in Italy each year. According to Rosenmaier’s experience “60 percent of our closings are with Germans, which is much higher than in previous years.” Rosenmaier explains that the growing demand for property is based on the “fear of inflation, the uncertainty on the financial markets, fear of what happened in Cyprus,” the latest European country to get an international bailout.According to a survey conducted in summer 2012 by the Engel & Voelkers agency and vacation-rental website HomeAway.com, about 43 percent of those polled claimed they consider vacation properties a form of retirement savings and around 25 percent saw such an investment as a hedge against inflation. The study revealed that most of the properties are bought in Germany, followed by Spain, Austria and Italy. … Read More
5 Climbers killed after Volcano erupts in Philippines
The climbers and their Filipino guides had spent the previous night camping on the side of the mountain before setting out at dawn for the crater of Mayon Volcano, when their climb was brought to an abrupt halt by an explosion of rocks, ash and plumes of smoke.Three Germans and one Filipino guide were among the dead, and one foreigner is still unaccounted for and presumed dead. Eight were injured and are being brought down the mountain, some of whom are in a critical condition.“The injured are all foreigners. They cannot walk. If you can imagine, the boulders there are as big as cars. Some of them slid and rolled down, we will rappel the rescue team, and we will rappel them up again,” said provincial governor Joey Salceda.Kenneth Jeslava – one of the guides, who after the eruption rushed back to base camp at 3,000 feet to summon help – told the ABS-CBN TV network that some of the rocks were “as big as a living room.”Renato Solidum, the head of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology, said that the eruption was normal for the active Mayon volcano.The 8,070-foot mountain has erupted about 40 times in the last 400 years. In 2010, thousands of residents in nearby towns were evacuated from their homes into temporary shelters after an eruption that saw ash ejected up to 5 miles from the crater.No alert has been raised or evacuation planned after Tuesday’s eruption. If an alert is issued, climbers are not allowed on to the Volcano; the immediate zone around the volcano’s mouth is off-limits because of the risk of a sudden eruption. Salceda said he would now enforce a ban on climbers going up to the mouth.Mayon is a favorite among volcano-watchers, although most are lucky if they see the occasional nighttime sight of the rim of the volcano lit red by flowing lava from the safety of their hotel rooms in Legazpi, the provincial capital. … Read More
Eurozone unemployment hits record-breaking high 12.1%
The EU member hardest hit by austerity – Greece – has the worst unemployment, according to Eurostat’s survey for March 2013, published on Tuesday. The country has every third of its citizens jobless (27.2% for January 2013). The number out of work is expected to rise even further after Athens agreed to sack 15,000 civil servants as part of the requisite for the 2.8 billion euro part of its latest bailout tranche. Other subjects to austerity, Spain and Portugal, also see their unemployment levels nearing those seen only during the Great Depression. And it’s not only a problem for countries forced to tighten their belts. France has its unemployment – with 5 million jobless – at all time high.For those aged 25 and below, in countries like Spain and Greece, the unemployment rate is as high is close to 60%, with very little sign of improvement.To find out the real extent of the problem RT’s Tesa Arcilla spoke to some of those who were forced out of their homeland by unemployment. Nicollo Regalzi, a biology graduate from Italy had to come to Brussels and embark on a chocolatier career.“The situation in Italy was actually awful. Because the only thing I was able to get is a really short contract like three months or six months with absolutely no possibility of growing up in an industry,” Regalzi complains.He says it wasn’t a walk in the park in Belgium, either, as many companies required working knowledge of both French and Dutch — a barrier that may be hard to overcome, but it was still more attractive for him than going back home.“I read that in 2012, the percentage of young people who emigrate from Italy grew by 30-40%. I really don’t know what it will be in 2013 because the situation is going from worse and worse,” according to the young Italian.And it’s not just EU citizens feeling the pinch. Foreigners who came to Europe to seek new opportunities — starting their own businesses and building their lives — have now also changed their minds.For Adriana Moreno, this meant leaving Greece and going all the way back to her native Ecuador. And while homesickness was the initial reason for the move, she has no regrets about making that decision.“Many foreigners decided to leave Greece and move to countries like Germany and Switzerland. But the Greeks who stayed behind are saying that the situation is really difficult there. For instance, servicemen who used to get 1,500 Euros are now paid just 900,” Moreno says. Ireland saw 63,000 people leave the country last year, which is the highest level of emigration in a decade.“It’s a trend. If you look at the figures, countries like Ireland, some people argue that a whole generation has left,” Pieter Cleppe, Head Of Brussels Office of Open Europe says. As job rates in Europe plummet to their all time lows, some analysts see it as a sign that billions of euro in bailouts could work fine for balancing a country’s finances, while at the same time not making economies any healthier. … Read More
Top ten tips to conquer Swedish business etiquette
What are the unwritten rules that foreigners should keep in mind while doing business in Sweden? Our latest JobTalk gives you the top ten tips for showing your colleagues you’re on the ball when it comes to Swedish business etiquette. … Read More
Daily Report: A Plan to Ease Immigration for Math and Science Graduates
A proposed overhaul of immigration law gives Silicon Valley much of what it has been longing for, including an easier green card route for foreigners educated in math and science, a summary released on Tuesday reveals. … Read More
