The day before anti-Muslim messages had been scrawled on the building and a failed Molotov cocktail thrown.

BERLIN — Although she is still popular at home and respected abroad, Chancellor Angela Merkel is entering 2015 facing fresh challenges in both arenas.

Israeli Defense Minister, Moshe Ya'alon, left, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, at the cabinet meeting at the defense ministry in Tel Aviv, Israel, Thursday, July 31, 2014.

Washington — President Obama’s new immigration policies could affect as many as 5 million people, including the possibility of a three-year reprieve from the threat of deportation for parents of children with legal status.

Government officers protecting Australian airports will soon be allowed to carry weapons as part of the move to establish the Australian Border Force.

The Conservative government’s overhaul of Canada’s immigration system hits a milestone on Wednesday with the launch of a new system for selecting economic immigrants.

The Canadian federal government is revamping its immigration system, with a new fast-track computerised programme taking effect from January 1.

The $1.1 trillion spending bill the Senate passed this month will fund most of the federal government through September 2015—with the notable exception of the Department of Homeland Security, whose funding expires in February.

President of the Ifo Institute for Economic Research, Hans-Werner Sinn, has challenged a study claiming immigrants are bringing money to Germany. The economist said Germany is a "magnet for unqualified immigrants." Hans-Werner Sinn.

A report finds undecided young people may hold the key to the general election. And they care more about online privacy and housing than immigration and the EU.

Immigration is the most important political issue to voters, pollsters say Public are more worried about Britain's borders than finances, YouGov say It's the first time since 2010 that the economy hasn't been the biggest issue.

STOCKHOLM (AFP)– Sweden may have narrowly avoided snap elections that would have been dominated by a debate on immigration, but with asylum seekers arriving in record numbers the issue is unlikely to stay off the agenda for long, analysts say.

BERLIN (Reuters) - German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said on Saturday that immigration is good for the country and politicians must explain better that everyone stands to gain from it, in response to the rise of a new movement opposing an influx of Muslim immigrants.

Starting January 1, 2015, Canadian Visa Expert will prepare its customers for an improved immigration system called Express Entry to Canada; a system that will manage and expedite the selection process of Permanent Residence visa applications within six months or less.

Muscat - The Chairman of Pakistan’s Senate has said that his country is working to curb illegal immigration, especially with respect to the Gulf. In an interview with Muscat Daily, Syed Nayyer Hussain Bokhari, also talked about measures to protect and promote welfare of Pakistan’s blue collar workers in the region.

Fresno, California(AP) – Farmers already scrambling to find workers in California — the leading U.S. grower of fruits, vegetables and nuts — fear an even greater labor shortage under President Barack Obama’s executive action to block some 5 million people from deportation.

By the end of the year, people living anywhere in the world will be able to become ‘digital citizens’ without entering the physical country. But what does this mean? Nabeelah Shabbir reports.

Children gather outside the El Transito synagogue and Sephardic Museum in Toledo, Spain. Founded in 1357, the synagogue was converted into a church following the expulsion of Jews from Spain in 1492. Spain is now preparing to pass a law that would allow descendants of the expelled Jews to receive Spanish citizenship.

Swedish ministers have condemned Thursday's arson attack on a mosque in the southeastern Swedish town of Eskilstuna, which injured five people.

An arsonist has set fire to a mosque in a town in central Sweden on Christmas Day, an incident which comes amid an intense debate over immigration.

Only 10 days after President Barack Obama announced in a prime-time address that millions of undocumented people would soon "be able to apply to stay in this country temporarily without fear of deportation," an electronic bulletin reached inboxes across Washington.

Just across the sea from the sunny tourist beaches of southern Spain where many Europeans spend their Christmas holidays, a violent crisis is intensifying on Europe’s borders with Africa.

The Immigration Department and the Hong Kong Police Force jointly mounted a series of anti-illegal employment operations codenamed Windsand on December 22, 23 and 24 in New Territories North District.

Immigration officials have launched a program in Texas’ Rio Grande Valley to give GPS devices to parents caught crossing the Mexican border illegally with their children.

President Obama's recent overhaul of his deportation rules has electrified the largely partisan debate over immigration policy heading into the next Congress.

Returning to his native Hawaii for his winter vacation, Obama was greeted by a handful of supporters who cheered him for his executive actions on immigration. The group, Hawaii Coalition for Immigration Reform, braved rain and wind Monday to hold signs thanking the president for his decision to shield up to several million undocumented immigrants from deportation.

A federal judge has thrown out a lawsuit brought against Barack Obama by an Arizona police chief who called the US president’s sweeping immigration reforms unconstitutional.

Rabat(MWN) – A recent poll suggested that the majority of highly-trained Moroccans have expressed readiness to leave Morocco and work abroad.

BEIJING (Reuters) - China and Thailand have agreed to step up their cooperation in the fight against illegal immigration and terror, the Chinese government said on Wednesday, as Thailand deals with an influx of Uighurs from China's unruly far western region of Xinjiang.

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) - New Mexico construction companies are working with immigration rights advocates to discuss how a newly announced overhaul will affect their industry.

Citizenship and Immigration Minister Chris Alexander has instructed immigration officials to launch a one-year pilot program that will allow inland spousal sponsorship applicants to receive a work permit more quickly, Kevin Ménard told CBC News in an email.

A record 17,000 anti-Islamic protesters rallied for their tenth demonstration in as many weeks Monday in eastern Germany, celebrating the rise of their far-right populist movement by singing Christmas carols.

Einstein is being invoked these days in Stockholm. His probably apocryphal saying that insanity is doing the same thing again and again while expecting different results has a special resonance in Swedish politics.

Government Aims to Use Immigration Policy to Support Economic Growth

Overseas students could be sent back to their home countries after their courses finish under new plans reportedly being considered by Home Secretary Theresa May.

It began the year as a relatively quiet issue. Then along came the Ukip surge, a shock European election and two Conservative defections. Here we look back at the last 12 months of immigration.

President Barack Obama has -- in just a few weeks and in spectacular fashion -- turned the tables on US policy toward Latin America, neglected by Washington for much of this century, AFP reports.

The head of the Iranian republic Hassan Rouhani has finally approved the proposal made by the Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs Mohammed Jawad Darif calling for the appointment of seven new ambassadors in a number of countries, including Morocco.

Rabat (MWN)- The General Consulate of Belgium in Casablanca will be closing its doors temporarily and reorganized for financial reasons, according to a press release issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Belgium.

Rabat(Map) – Nine migrants died, including 3 babies, when their inflatable boat sank off the northern coats of Tangier and Fnideq, local authorities said.

IOM has chosen this year Morocco to celebrate International Migrants Day. This is a strong sign lavished by the international organization for Morocco, both a country of emigration and a land of immigration.

Swiss voters rejected a ­referendum requiring their central bank to hold a portion of its assets in gold, a measure President Thomas ­Jordan termed an "invitation to speculators" that could have hurt the economy. Bullion fell to a three-week low.

Thursday marked "a great day for expats" as the Danish parliament agreed to implement dual citizenship. The Local spoke to supporters and detractors of dual citizenship about the change.

Washington (AP)— Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson says the Obama administration's decision to renew diplomatic ties with Cuba won't impact immigration rules just yet.

Native-born Americans are making up a smaller percentage of those living in some areas of the U.S. as immigration moves to become the key factor in population growth within the next quarter-century, according to a new analysis by the Pew Charitable Trusts that examined county-level census data.

This week's passing into law of Australia's Migration and Maritime Powers Legislation Amendment Act, which comes on the heels of a year of tightened border controls and refugee intake policy changes, could chill regional cooperation. Experts say it reflects global trends of treating migration as a security problem, and acknowledging that might be an important avenue for Southeast Asian regional policy development.

Lawmaker Geert Wilders is to face prosecution for inciting racial hatred after a speech calling for "fewer Moroccans" in the Netherlands. Wilders has said he stands by his comments.

The Estonian government set with its decree the Estonian 2015 immigration quota at 1,322 persons, which forms 0.1% of Estonia's permanent population, LETA/Public Broadcasting reports.

John Lydon is no fan of Ukip, having previously described the party as “a black hole for the ignorant to fall into”.

Vancouver, (Reuters) - Canada is looking for 50 wealthy foreigners to join a pilot run of an immigration program for millionaires, although applicants will have to be far richer than those who entered under a previous scheme and will also need language skills to get in.

The reaction follows the news that the referendum on immigration has been comfortably rejected by its population, ensuring expatriates from across the world can continue to make the most of the European country.

In less than three weeks, Britain's David Cameron and France's Francois Hollande have set out starkly contrasting approaches to immigration, while Angela Merkel has warned fellow Germans against manipulation by far-right xenophobes.

A Danish immigration report on Eritrea that suggests changing refugee policy for Eritrean asylum seekers is deeply flawed. Denmark and other European governments should await the outcome of the United Nations Commission of Inquiry on Eritrea, established in June 2014, before considering any major policy changes concerning Eritrea.

A federal judge in Pennsylvania has ruled President Barack Obama's recent executive actions on immigration unconstitutional, but the decision came in a criminal case, leaving its broader impact uncertain.

French President François Hollande delivered a rare and passionate defence of the benefits of immigration as he formally inaugurated France’s first immigration museum, seven years after its hushed opening under his predecessor, Nicolas Sarkozy.

(Sputnik) — Approximately 50 percent of Danish citizens consider the tone of the national debate on foreigners too radical, but the overall attitude toward immigration remains negative among the majority of Danes, the Local Denmark said Monday.

South Korea might need as many as 15 million immigrants—equivalent to a third of its current population–by 2060 to make up for a shrinking workforce and sustain growth, according to a Seoul-based private think tank.

BERLIN (AP) — Chancellor Angela Merkel warned Germans on Monday not to be duped by far-right rhetoric, amid concern about the growing number of people flocking to anti-Islam demonstrations in the country.

President Obama is bracing for a political and legal battle with Republicans next year over his executive actions on immigration, but as he seeks to rally support against the anticipated assault, a lingering frustration among some Latinos could mean renewed pressure on him to do even more to protect illegal immigrants.

The man behind the deadly 16-hour hostage standoff in Sydney arrived in Australia as a refugee in 1996, seeking asylum from the Iranian regime. In the years since, Man Haron Monis became a self-styled cleric and fell afoul of the law on multiple occasions. He was out on bail after being charged last year as an accessory to the murder of his wife.

British employers will face jail sentences if they employ immigrant labour on poorer conditions to locals if Labour wins power, the party’s leader, Ed Miliband has declared, in his latest bid to respond to voters’ fears.

After concerns that people wearing Islamic dress could be harassed, Sydney locals have been using Twitter to offer to travel with them.

MALAGA, Spain — In 2000 Yasmina Bencherif moved with her parents from their home in Morocco to La Garriga, a town in the outskirts of Barcelona. She was one of many in that decade to look toward Spain for their future.

LOS ANGELES — They pushed strollers, tugged toddlers and streamed into the convention center in the heart of this city on Sunday, thousands of immigrants here illegally and anxious to find out if they could gain protection from deportation under executive actions by President Obama.

There is a new intellectual force in France - giving shape and weight to ideas that challenge the disastrous post-1968 left-wing consensus.

Sweden Democrats insist that they have shed their racist past. David Crouch goes to their stronghold in Kristianstad to find the truth about the party that brought down a government.

Jean-Claude Juncker has slapped down David Cameron for his constant attacks on EU migrants.

(ANSAmed) - BRUSSELLS - The two main themes of the plenary Assembly of local and regional authorities of the Mediterranean (Arlem) scheduled on December 14 and 15 in Antalya, Turkey, will be new macro-regional strategies in the Mediterranean and a bigger say for local authorities in the management of immigration phenomena.

(Reuters) - A majority of Germans think Angela Merkel's government is paying too little attention to concern about immigration and asylum seekers that has prompted weekly marches in the city of Dresden, according to a poll.

Ouarzazate (Map) – Spain's third largest airline, Air Europa, operated its first direct flight connecting Madrid to Ouarzazate in south-eastern Morocco on Thursday.

Comedian and campaigner Russell Brand has called UKIP leader Nigel Farage a "pound shop Enoch Powell", during a debate on immigration.

Outsourcing company wins further five-year contract despite controversy over centres it runs, particularly on Christmas Island.

Sweden faces a snap election for the first time since 1958. The far-right Sweden Democrats refuse to cooperate with anyone that doesn't slash immigration.

AUSTIN, TEXAS (AP) – Four more states have joined a Texas-led coalition suing the Obama administration over executive action on immigration.

DETROIT (AP)-- A Chicago-area Arab community activist has been released from a Michigan jail to await her sentence for failing to tell U.S. immigration officials about her conviction for bombings that killed two people in Israel in 1969.

PARIS — The French port city of Calais has become ground zero for an explosion in immigration, as asylum seekers blocked from crossing the English Channel to Britain settle into overcrowded, makeshift camps that have become their permanent homes.

Latinos favor President Barack Obama’s executive action on immigration by a more than 2-to-1 margin, in contrast to a slight majority of Americans overall, who oppose it, according to a new Gallup poll.

OTTAWA – The number of Syrian refugees brought to Canada in the past 18 months isn’t as abysmal as it could be – but that’s thanks largely to Quebec, which has its own immigration system.

Rabat – Spanish sovereignty over Ceuta and Melilla, two Spanish enclaves in northern Morocco, is threatened, says a new report from the Spanish Institute Elcano.

While President Barack Obama reassured a small audience of immigrants gathered in a Nashville community center Tuesday that his recent executive order would provide a reprieve from deportation, he also delivered what, by now, has become a regular challenge to Congress:

Prime Minister David Cameron has backed a new fund to help areas such as Boston cope with the demands placed on services by immigration.

A march in Dresden that drew 10,000 people has capped a winter of anti-immigration demonstrations in Germany’s cities and prompted condemnation from a nervous government.

Bavaria is renowned for its world-famous 'Oktoberfest' which attracts hundreds of thousands of foreigners each year. Last week, however, the Christian Social Union (CSU), which rules the state, made clear that only a certain type of foreigner is welcome to stay for longer: Those who speak German.

The Refugee Action Coalition says a hunger strike by asylum seekers at Australia's detention centre in Papua New Guinea ended after intimidation from Australian immigration staff.

Rabat(Map) – Morocco is a gateway to Africa and the Arab world, Mexico’s Deputy Foreign Secretary, Carlos de Icaza Gonzalez said.

Rabat – French newspaper Les Echo has chosen Oukaimden, Marrakech among the best skiing destinations in the world.

Interview with Fouad Ahidar, Senior Vice President of the Brussels Parliament.

Residents wait at the bus stop in the Ronna neighborhood, where Syrian and Iraqi refugees are concentrated in Södertalje, Sweden. The Swedish city is known for its open-door policy toward refugees, especially Christian Syrians and Iraqis. People of Middle Eastern origin make up 30,000 of the town's 90,000 residents. (Redux/Pulitzer Center)

WASHINGTON — In a symbolic gesture of disapproval, House Republicans last week approved a bill to nullify President Barack Obama’s executive order shielding millions of immigrants in the country illegally from deportation.

DRESDEN, Germany — As it does every Advent, this history-laden city has erected the gift stalls, the glühwein stands and the Ferris wheel of Germany’s oldest Christmas market, around the Frauenkirche, the 18th-century church that was magnificently rebuilt after the Allies’ catastrophic bombing in 1945.

JERUSALEM – Israeli police have shut down around 30 nightclubs frequented by undocumented African immigrants and asylum-seekers in southern Tel Aviv, local press reports said Friday, in a macro-operation that also saw numerous arrests and confiscation of illegal substances.

Forbidden from working or sending their children to school, many immigrants struggle to survive in society's shadows.

Canadian François Crépeau accuses Government of putting migrants’ lives at risk

Washington (AP) — Emboldened House Republicans issued a stern but symbolic rebuke to President Barack Obama over immigration Thursday, passing a bill declaring his executive actions to curb deportations "null and void and without legal effect."

Sydney: Australia's conservative government on Friday further tightened immigration laws by introducing controversial temporary visas for refugees which do not allow them to settle permanently in the country.

The left of center government of Prime Minister Stefan Lofven has been forced to call new elections less than three months after taking office. Unable to pass a budget through the Rikstag (parliament), Lofven faced a choice of either resigning or calling snap elections, slated for March 22, 2015. Although the budget was the trigger, most observers believe that immigration policy is at the root of the fall. David Crouch of the UK Guardian explains:

PARIS – The economic crisis in Europe doubled the number of Spanish, Portuguese and Italian immigrants in France between 2009 and 2012, raising the percentage of European immigrants in France to 46 percent of the total, according to a report released Friday.

 “I’m going to make a Moroccan Shabbos dinner; you must join us,” said Asma Chaabi, visiting Miami from Rabat, Morocco.