A recently concluded study by a sociologist has suggested that economic migrants striving for a “better life” might end up being less happy. The study from the University of Leicester found that the grass might not be greener on the other side of the border.

Sociologist Dr David Bartram carried out the study: “Economic Migration and Happiness: Comparing Immigrants’ and Natives’ Happiness Gains from Income.”

From in.news.yahoo.com:

Sociologist Dr David Bartram sought to establish whether those people who were motivated by higher incomes in a wealthy country actually gain greater happiness via migration.

He also examined whether these economic migrants might have exaggerated expectations about what they will achieve and experience, such that there is some significant disappointment.

Dr Bartram, of the Department of Sociology, said: “The study of happiness tells us that people generally do not gain greater happiness from earning higher incomes – which suggests that migrants might be mistaken in believing that they will be better off if they can move to a wealthy country.”

The research examined responses from 1400 people in the World Values Survey (existing survey data).

The study has been published by Social Indicators Research online on 27th August and will be printed next year.

Tags: economic migrants, experience, happiness, migration

According to immigration experts, prospects of future immigrants from India, especially Punjab, will be affected by major changes in immigration rules introduced by the Canada and Australia governments.

Both of the two countries have made announcements regarding new occupation lists and Australia have thrown the doors open again after a period of four months.

From in.news.yahoo.com:

Australia has come up with a new Skill Occupation List (SOL), which will come into effect from July 1.

Leading immigration consultancy, World Wide Immigration Consultancy Services Ltd. (WWICS), chairman and managing director B.S. Sandhu told IANS that in the past, nearly 30,000 families used to migrate to Canada from India under the skilled worker programme.

‘India has been the second largest immigrant source to Canada. But with the changed scenario, Australia will soon become the number one destination for Indians seeking migration abroad,’ said Sandhu, a retired Indian Army colonel.

Under Australia’s new SOL, all major skilled professionals and people engaged in trade are included in the list applicable for federal and state sponsored programmes.

Sandhu said that all cases filed for Canada on or before June 25 will not be affected by the changes. Immigration cases pending since 2004 will now be cleared on top priority.

Canada will be accepting only 20,000 applications with a maximum of 1,000 applications for occupations for individuals applying under the new occupation list though applicants with a job offer are not restricted by this cap.

Tags: immigration, immigration rules, Skill Occupation List, skilled professionals

The Manmohan Singh government is under immense pressure from the United States after its request to provide relief to Dow Chemicals was answered by a warning. The US deputy National Security Advisor Michael Froman said that this could have “a chilling effect on the investment relationship” between the two countries.

Mr Ahluwalia briefed Mr Pulok Chatterjee, ED at World Bank, in a subsequent communication, about demand to go soft on Dow by Mr Froman.

From Economictimes.indiatimes.com:

In his e-mail to Mr Froman, Mr Ahluwalia had sought American help at the World Bank meeting. “I wonder if I can enlist your help on a matter relating to India’s borrowing from the World Bank. We are about to hit the arbitrary single borrower limit in IBRD which forces IBRD to cut new lending to India drastically unless the limit is relaxed. You may remember I had mentioned this as an issue when we discussed the IBRD capital increase in G-20. The matter is coming up in the IBRD board audit committee on Monday. The US is a member. The management wants a relaxation for India. The British prime minister was in Delhi yesterday. We raised it with him and he said that the UK ED would be instructed to support us. Could you speak to treasury to get the US ED on our side? At a time when countries are graduated out of soft assistance, it is normal to switch them to IBRD. But we are faced with a sharp reduction…Larry will fully understand. Hope you can help,” Mr Ahluwalia had said in his mail to Mr Froman.

In a subsequent communication, Mr Ahluwalia briefed Mr Pulok Chatterjee, ED at World Bank, about Mr Froman’s demand to go soft on Dow. While agreeing that quid pro quos are not unknown, he conceded that meeting the demand on Dow could be difficult. “There is always a quid pro quo though I fear on this we are helpless,” Mr Ahluwalia wrote to Mr Chatterjee on July 30. ET is possession of the copies of the e-mail.

Dow, in 1999, bought Union Carbide whose pesticide plant in Bhopal was responsible for leakage of poisonous gas killing more than 15,000 people.

Tags: Dow Chemicals, investment relationship, Union Carbide

Looking for some easy and effective ways to be successful at office? If yes, you are at the right place and just about to access some of the most inspiring and interesting quotes for staying close to success.

The truth of the matter is that there’s nothing you can’t accomplish if: (1) You clearly decide what it is that you’re absolutely committed to achieving, (2) You’re willing to take massive action, (3) You notice what’s working or not, and (4) You continue to change your approach until you achieve what you want, using whatever life gives you along the way. – Anthony Robbins

It takes a great deal of character strength to apologize quickly out of one’s heart rather than out of pity. A person must possess himself and have a deep sense of security in fundamental principles and values in order to genuinely apologize. – Stephen Covey

Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

My illusions didn’t have anything to do with being a fine actress. I knew how third rate I was. I could actually feel my lack of talent, as if it were cheap clothes I was wearing inside. But, my God, how I wanted to learn, to change, to improve! – Marilyn Monroe

Nothing is as difficult as to achieve results in this world if one is filled full of great tolerance and the milk of human kindness. The person who achieves must generally be a one-idea individual, concentrated entirely on that one idea, and ruthless in his aspect toward other men and other ideas. – Corinne Roosevelt Robinson

Tags: character strength, human kindness, inspiring and interesting quotes, results

A British report has suggested that seeking counseling to save marriage may not be the best idea to save the “troubling” relationship.

The Department for Education report suggested that marriage counseling could possibly do more harm than good as it demonstrate that the relationship is already over and the bond between couples is a complete failure.

From in.news.yahoo.com:

Most people would rather resolve relationship problems privately between themselves or with the help of close friends and family.

However, if they do resort to professional help then it was ‘intrinsically linked with feelings of failure and defeat,’ the reports suggests.

It also made people feel weak and that by the time a couple decided to attend relationship counselling it was often too late “to repair a relationship”.

“Many of the participants felt that a couple should be able to deal with their relationship problems privately… without having to rely on external relationship support,” the Telegraph quoted the report as saying.

“Support from friends and family was more acceptable than formal support such as relationship counselling.

“A few of the participants suggested that if a couple required formal or professional relationship support to solve a relationship difficulty, then the relationship was not worth saving and unlikely to be successful.

It was added by the report that most of the participants disclosed that they will not be using a relationship counseling service to save their marriage.

Tags: counseling to save marriage, marriage counseling, relationship counseling service, relationship counselling, relationship problems

Urban Development Minister S Jaipal Reddy has made a call for support from all quarters while disclosing that a total of Rs 28,054 crore have been spent on the Commonwealth games out of which Rs 16,560 crore was given to the Delhi Government in order to upgrade the capital infrastructure and building of various stadiums.

Reddy, while defending expenditure incurred on CWG games, also said that a huge amount of money has been spent on infrastructure development that will remain with India long after the games are over

From in.news.yahoo.com:

Giving a break-up of the money spent, the minister said, the Delhi Government has spent on various projects which includes Rs 650 crore for street scraping, Rs 900 crore for development bus depots, Rs 3,000 crore for extension of Metro, Rs 18,000 crore for augmenting DTC bus services and Rs 3,700 crore on flyovers and bridges.

Of the Rs 11,494 crore spent by the centre, Rs 2.934 crore was spent on sports infrastructure and Rs 678 crore on training of teams, while Rs 182 crore has been given to MTNL, Rs 827.85 crore to the Ministry of Urban Development, Rs 487.57 to Information and Broadcasting Ministry and Rs 747 crore to Health Ministry.

Reddy said the government has also given Rs 2,394 crore as loan to the organising committee, which is to be returned by them after the games.

Defending the huge amount of money spent, he said most of the money has been spent of infrastructure development which will remain as the country’s legacy long after the games are over.

“If you furnish and paint your house before your daughter’s wedding, then the money spent on that cannot be said to be part of the dowry,” he said.

Reddy also remarked that most of the projects will be completed by end of August barring the Barapullah Nallah project which would be over only by September.

Tags: capital infrastructure, Commonwealth games, CWG games, Metro

WRR Environmental Services are trying to investigate the causes of explosion in Los Angeles Tuesday night.A growing wildfire sending massive billows of smoke into the sky north of Los Angeles, injuring three residents and burning a small number of homes.

From news.yahoo.com:

PALMDALE, Calif. – Firefighters plan an aggressive air attack at first light Friday against a fast-moving wildfire that exploded in northern Los Angeles County, chewing through more than 7 square miles of dry brush, forcing thousands of evacuations and burning at least three structures.

There is zero containment, authorities said.

Three water-dropping helicopters and hundreds of firefighters worked through the night to get ahead of the blaze that broke out around 3 p.m. Thursday southwest of Palmdale. By early evening the winds picked up and pushed the flames north and east toward the suburbs of Los Angeles County’s inland desert, authorities said.

Orange flames exploded through dry grasses, jumped roads and sped across the rural foothills that connect Los Angeles to the high desert.

“Man, it looks bad outside. If I step outside the restaurant, it’s just insane-looking — black and orange smoke and helicopters going through, dropping water,” said Jamie Karschamroon, 29, the co-owner of Crazy Otto’s diner in Leona Valley.

The fire broke out north of a state highway that snakes through the San Gabriel Mountains, connecting Los Angeles to the high desert. Angeles National Forest lands lie on either side.

About 2,000 homes in the community of Leona Valley and parts of Palmdale were evacuated Friday, according to Los Angeles County fire officials.
Two outbuildings and a hay house were destroyed by the flames.

KCAL-TV showed at least two structures fully engulfed in flames near where the blaze jumped a road and sent firefighters and sheriff’s deputies scattering.

“It’s fuel- and topography-driven, but when fires have this much fuel and burn this hot they make their own wind,” Levesque said.

The area is west of the 250-square-mile zone scorched by last summer’s Station Fire, the largest wildland blaze in county history.

About 200 firefighters contained another blaze at 350 acres, Levesque said. A third fire was stopped at 30 acres.

Further north in Kern County, good weather helped firefighters build containment lines around two wildfires that destroyed homes in remote mountain communities earlier in the week.

A 2 1/2-square-mile blaze near Tehachapi on the western edge of the Mojave Desert was 44 percent contained after burning about 30 homes and other structures in a scattered community called Old West Ranch.

The community nonetheless remained evacuated, affecting about 150 people, said John Buchanan, spokesman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

The blaze erupted Tuesday afternoon and rapidly swept through an area where Kern County fire authorities say there is no history of any fires on record, meaning vegetation hadn’t burned there in more than a century.

To the north, a fire that destroyed eight residences and a few outbuildings as it spread across about 25 square miles of the Sequoia National Forest in the Sierra Nevada was 20 percent contained, authorities said.

The cause of the fires is under investigation.

Despite the fire, the region’s summer activities appeared to be getting back to normal, Jankowski said.

Tags: Flames, Los Angeles. Fire Explode, Smoke

Exporters have been expressing concern over the fact that Bangladesh is losing on the United States market for garments to competitors like India, Vietnam, China, and Indonesia, among others.

Bangladesh has witnessed overall negative growth in shipments compared to other competitors in Asia, as per exporters making a reference to a recent report of US Commerce Department, exporters say Bangladesh, recording a marginal fall during January-April this year.

From in.news.yahoo.com:

The report on ‘US apparel imports from major Asian sources in January-April 2010′ shows Bangladesh’s apparel shipments saw one percent decline over the like period of the past year.

The report shows that in January-April, shipments from China grew more than 13 percent to $6.8 billion, Vietnam 9.6 percent to $1.7 billion and Indonesia 6.1 percent to $1.46 billion.

Shipments from India in the period grew by 1.8 percent to $1.15 billion, Pakistan 8 percent to $0.4 billion and from Cambodia they grew by 3 percent to $0.65 billion.

‘The post-recession US market appears to be harsh to Bangladesh,’ a Bangladeshi executive who works for the Dhaka sourcing office of an US importer told New Age.

In the first four months of the current year, Bangladesh’s apparel shipments to the US were worth $1.21 billion against the figure of $1.2 billion in the like period of the 2009.

Sourcing dynamics have changed a lot in the post-recession market and it appears that the US market after recession has been harsh to Bangladesh.

Tags: apparel imports, apparel shipments, recession, Sourcing dynamics

Botox (an anti wrinkle treatment) is a protein derived from botulism toxin that is injected underneath skin in order to minimize or smooth out lines and wrinkles on the face. The experts believe that botox prevents individuals from physically expressing negative emotions and, actually makes them feel much happier. A recent study suggests women who get Botox starting in their late 20s develop fewer wrinkles than women who age naturally.

From zeenews.com:

London: A study has revealed that Botox can make people feel happy because it stops them frowning when they are unhappy.

The anti-wrinkle drug sends back the signal to the brain reducing the intensity of the feeling. Scientists at University of Wisconsin in the US tested 40 volunteers who had small doses of Botox into their forehead. They were then asked to read out a series of written statements ranging from ones that were “angry” to “sad” to “happy” both before and after their treatment.Like any kind of paralysis, blocking the body’s natural movement can have an effect on emotion, said the study authors.When those who had received the treatment read out the more negative statements they took slightly longer to do so than they had before having the injections.According to researcher David Havas, the time delay was tiny but significant because it suggests the brain takes longer to process the emotion behind the statements.”There is a long-standing idea in psychology called the facial feedback hypothesis Essentially, it says, when you’re smiling, the whole world smiles with you. It’s an old song, but it’s right,” telegraph.co.uk quoted Havas as saying.”Actually, this study suggests the opposite: When you’re not frowning, the world seems less angry and less sad.”

Research leader professor Arthur Glenberg added: “Normally, the brain would be sending signals to the periphery to frown, and the extent of the frown would be sent back to the brain.

“But here, that loop is disrupted, and the intensity of the emotion and of our ability to understand it when embodied in language is disrupted.

However, having Botox in the lower part of your face can prevent a smile and have the opposite effect, a research last month from Barnard College, New York, suggested.

Although the study is small but the scientists still hope that their findings could be helpful in discovering the new treatments for depression.

Tags: Botox, Depression, Scientists, Treatment

After many years of political wrangling, EU health ministers are all set to reach a hard-fought agreement on cross-border healthcare.

This move came after Spain pushed for political agreement on an issue which has divided governments since it was proposed by the European Commission in July 2008.

From Euractiv.com:

Conditions attached to mobility

Patients will have to seek “prior authorisation” before travelling for treatment and member states will only have to reimburse costs based on the price of the operation in their own health services.

In effect, this means a Polish citizen who has a hip replacement in Germany will be able to recoup what the operation would cost in Poland. The prior authorisation clause means health authorities will have the last word when it comes to granting permission to travel – ending speculation that widespread “medical tourism” would arise from the directive.

It is also expected that general practitioners (GPs) will act as “gatekeepers” who decide whether their patients should be considered for treatment overseas.

Public and private hospitals could be covered equally by the new arrangement, provided that they meet strict quality standards, allowing patients on public waiting lists to request treatment in private hospitals outside their home member state.

It is believed by officials that compromises have been reached in key areas which will see the controversial plan passed during meet of ministers in Luxembourg.

Tags: health, health services, healthcare, medical tourism