The immigration pact agreed to unanimously by leaders at the October 16 2008 European Council summit - a pact that has political but not legal force in the 27 member states - has produced mixed reactions, from welcomes to protests, in the ensuing days.

The pact is aimed at achieving a common approach to immigration-related issues in all EU member states, while opening the way for more immigration into the Union by highly-skilled workers. EU leaders will review implementation of the pact once a year.

The pact is meant to strike a balance between the concerns that illegal immigration and asylum-seekers are overwhelming the capacity of some nations to accept them while at the same time keeping open the flow of valuable highly skilled foreign workers to Europe, EUObserver reported.

The BBC said that when it came to illegal immigration, there were "some real pressure points" in the Mediterranean.

Spain, Italy and Greece are struggling to manage large flows of illegal immigrants from developing countries, some of whom have grounds for claiming asylum. The influx is a concern for other EU countries, as many illegal immigrants end up seeking work further north, in France and the UK, for example. There are an estimated eight million illegal immigrants in the EU, half of whom came in legally but overstayed.

The pact says the EU "does not have the resources to decently receive all the migrants hoping to find a better life here".

The pact will make it more difficult for EU member states to grant mass amnesties for illegal migrants, as Spain did in 2005, to the chagrin of neighbours including France.
The pact says illegal immigrants must return to their countries of origin or to a country of transit. To that end, EU co-operation with those countries is to be enhanced, including strengthening of border controls.

All EU member states should issue biometric visas from January 1 2012, set up an electronic system to record people entering and leaving the EU and regularise the status of illegal immigrants only on a "case-by-case" basis.

The pact contains a pledge to strengthen the EU's new border control agency Frontex, which has been hampered by insufficient resources, the BBC said.

Some, including the European Council on Refugees and Exiles (ECRE), a network of 63 immigrant-rights organisations, say that the pact concentrates too much on security concerns.

In a media statement, ECRE secretary-general Bjarte Vandvik said: "The pact may be tipping the balance further toward the security approach -- which to date has not provided solutions to Europe's migration challenges -- and away from the necessary actions to ensure human rights safeguards".

In Paris on October 19, several thousand took part in protests against the pact, with demonstrators showing a banner proclaiming "Bridges, not walls" at the Paris rally. Other signs that read: "We are all immigrant children" and "Detention centres are lawless places, a state secret", AFP reported.

The Paris rally along with a "citizens summit" was organised by some 300 international NGOs, many of them from African nations. Its organisers adopted a declaration on October 17 expressing their dismay at a policy "which would turn Europe into a fortress."

In the UK, controversy ensued after recently-appointed immigration minister Phil Woolas said that the government would get tougher on immigration. Amid the furore, which the opposition Tories leapt on saying that the minister had criticised his own government's immigration policy, Woolas - in what seen as a backdown, if not a U-turn, said that there would not be new cap on immigration.

The BBC reported that the UK's immigration system has faced massive upheavals and change over the past decade, and remains a touchy subject on voters' doorsteps.

"The old migration system was basically a mess - and an open invitation to abuse, chaos, haphazard decision-making and unfair treatment. There were too many entry routes, no proper system for counting who came and went - and no guaranteed means of working out what happened to people who stayed," the BBC said.

In 2006, then-home secretary John Reid described the UK's migration system as "not fit for purpose", after officials released 1000 foreign prisoners without considering them for deportation.

Italy's interior minister Roberto Maroni welcomed the pact, saying that it would enable EU rules to be approved to tackle illegal immigration. The government in Rome has promised to crack down on illegal immigration, including a provision for immediate expulsion.

Slovenian prime minister Janez Jansa was among others to immediately welcome the pact.

News agency Reuters reported Elizabeth Collett, a political analyst at Brussels-based think-tank the European Policy Centre, as saying that the pact heralded a more conservative approach to immigration. "It looks at immigration policies through the prism of 'control first', making this more explicit than in the past," Collett said.

Against a background of shrinking demographics and the need to fill growing gaps in the labour market, the EU is planning to have a "Blue Card" system not dissimilar to the principle of the United States Green Card system.

The Blue Card would be a unified work and residence permit for non-EU citizens, opening the way for possible qualification for permanent residence.

The card would give holders equal treatment to nationals in many areas and make it easier for them to bring their families over. Subject to certain conditions, they would be able to move to a second EU member state after two years' legal residence in the first state. Some details, like qualifications and minimum earnings, are still the subject of debate - if not controversy - among member states.

Website globalvisas.com said that the Swedish government had put forward a new proposal regarding the country's immigration policy, to more power in the hands of employers in selecting foreign workers for specific roles.

The new proposal would shift the decision about whether to hire non-European Economic Area (third-country) nationals from public authority to employers.

Website workpermit.com said that businesses taking part in an informal debate on the immigration pact approved by the European Council "feel that highly skilled immigration is extremely important".

Businesses are keen to see the Blue Card become a reality as soon as possible, the website said.

Apart from labour shortages in key sectors such as information technology, engineering, and health care, increased numbers of highly skilled workers are needed to make the EU more competitive with other economies. Currently, 55 per cent of the world's skilled migrants go to the United States and Canada. The EU attracts only five per cent of highly skilled migrant workers.