In the six and a half years since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, federal law-enforcement agencies have secretly established profiling techniques to screen immigrants based on their nationalities, protocols that critics charge encourage the unjustified targeting of Muslims.

The profiling, described in a February 2006 Immigration and Customs Enforcement memo obtained by McClatchy Newspapers, shows that the government has relied more heavily on nationality as an indicator of security risks than was previously known.

Federal agencies have created internal lists of countries that are of "special interest" for national security reasons, wrote the memo's author, Ted Stark, supervisory special agent with the Office of Intelligence at ICE.

So many federal agencies have created different lists that U.S. officials contemplated adopting a single one to streamline the process, Stark wrote.

The proposed list, which officials said had yet to be adopted, includes 35 countries, most with significant Muslim or Arab populations. Almost 20 percent of the world's countries — including some of the United States' key allies, such as Jordan, Turkey and Egypt — are on the list.

The effort to come up with a uniform approach is another reflection of how the nation continues to grapple with finding effective ways to detect terrorists, and how those efforts sometimes collide with constitutional and legal rights.

In this case, with little or no oversight or public scrutiny, law enforcement officials have assumed flexible and expansive discretion to make screening decisions based on where an immigrant was born. [Link]

For new immigrants to Britain, adapting to the country isn't just about learning the language or getting used to the rain - it's increasingly about changing their names.

More than 300,000 migrants have moved to the United Kingdom in recent years, some with exotic names that are 13 letters long, making the desire for something simpler to pronounce and write on forms commonplace.

So commonplace in fact that UK Deed Poll Service, a company which allows people to legally change their name for as little as $70, has seen a huge surge in business - 40,000 name changes were made last year, up 20% from 2006.

The marketplace has even become competitive, with other companies muscling in on the name-change industry.

"We've got a big influx of migrants coming into this country, particularly from Eastern Europe," said Janet Chadwick, director of The Name Change Company, which says it has seen business boom in the past two years.

"We've seen quite a lot of name changes of people trying to anglicise their name because they have names which are very unpronounceable to the British tongue."

And when it comes to job applications, some believe that an unpronounceable name will work against them, Chadwick said.

Common changes include the Polish Aleksander to Alexander and Marta to Martha.

Immigrants from Asia and the Middle East have also picked up the trend, with Guang sometimes becoming Edward, Mohammed Michael and Karim Kevin.

Mike Barratt, the chief executive of UK Deed Poll Service, says the trend took off after the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, when people with Muslim names began changing them to avoid discrimination.

"People have been to the States and have had problems getting in because of immigration - because they had an Arabic sounding name," he said. [Link]

After a private meeting with Sikh and Muslim community leaders, a kinder, gentler Bruce Allen tried yesterday to defuse an escalating furor over his outspoken remarks about immigrants in a recent radio commentary.

The controversy might have been a local tempest in a teapot, except for the fact that Mr. Allen is a member of the creative team planning the opening and closing ceremonies for the 2010 Winter Olympics, prompting many to call for his removal from the high-profile position.

In a lengthy taped response to the growing criticism, Mr. Allen agreed that he should not have told new immigrants to Canada to "shut up and fit in."

"Too harsh? Okay. At worst, the wrong choice of words," he told listeners on CKNW, where his original self-proclaimed rant was first broadcast.

Mr. Allen, manager of music luminaries Michael Bublé and Bryan Adams, also acknowledged some mistakes in his first commentary, such as referring to religious headgear for young Sikhs as a handkerchief when it is, in fact, a form of a turban called a patka.

"If I offended anyone, I apologize," he said. He blamed much of the controversy on the media "who needed a story" and malcontents playing politics. [Link]

An Immigration Canada letter that said people with the common Sikh surnames Singh or Kaur have to change their last names before coming to Canada was "poorly worded" and is not government policy, a spokeswoman from the department says.

"Permanent resident applicants with the surnames Singh or Kaur are not required to change their names in order to apply," Karen Shadd-Evelyn, a spokeswoman with Citizenship and Immigration Canada, said in an e-mail to CBC News Wednesday. [Link]

A Sikh-Canadian group is slamming the long-standing immigration policy that forces people with the surname Singh or Kaur to change their last names.

Jasbeer Singh, of the World Sikh Organization, said the policy is incredibly out of synch in this day and age.

"The reason we should be concerned is this is a very sneaky attack on our individual rights and freedoms and persona," Singh said. "Today they are challenging or don't like Singh or Kaur. Tomorrow they will not like Mohammed. And how soon will it be before they are asking all Browns and Smiths to change their names?"

The policy came to light after a Calgary woman waiting for her husband to arrive in Canada learned her husband's application to become a permanent resident has been delayed for well over a month because of his last name.

The Citizenship and Immigration department says the policy to ask people to provide a third name has been around for 10 years. It's used only in the New Delhi visa office and does not apply to any other last names.

Karen Shadd-Evelyn, a spokeswoman with Citizenship and Immigration Canada, said the reason for the policy is that it helps officials with the paperwork and allows them to identify people's files quickly, efficiently and accurately. [Link]

A Sikh-Canadian group is slamming the long-standing immigration policy that forces people with the surname Singh or Kaur to change their last names.
Jasbeer Singh, of the World Sikh Organization, said the policy is incredibly out of synch in this day and age.
"The reason we should be concerned is this is a very sneaky attack on our individual rights and freedoms and persona," Singh said. "Today they are challenging or don't like Singh or Kaur. Tomorrow they will not like Mohammed. And how soon will it be before they are asking all Browns and Smiths to change their names?"
The policy came to light after a Calgary woman waiting for her husband to arrive in Canada learned her husband's application to become a permanent resident has been delayed for well over a month because of his last name.
The Citizenship and Immigration department says the policy to ask people to provide a third name has been around for 10 years. It's used only in the New Delhi visa office and does not apply to any other last names.
Karen Shadd-Evelyn, a spokeswoman with Citizenship and Immigration Canada, said the reason for the policy is that it helps officials with the paperwork and allows them to identify people's files quickly, efficiently and accurately
A Sikh-Canadian group is slamming the long-standing immigration policy that forces people with the surname Singh or Kaur to change their last names.
Jasbeer Singh, of the World Sikh Organization, said the policy is incredibly out of synch in this day and age.
"The reason we should be concerned is this is a very sneaky attack on our individual rights and freedoms and persona," Singh said. "Today they are challenging or don't like Singh or Kaur. Tomorrow they will not like Mohammed. And how soon will it be before they are asking all Browns and Smiths to change their names?"
The policy came to light after a Calgary woman waiting for her husband to arrive in Canada learned her husband's application to become a permanent resident has been delayed for well over a month because of his last name.
The Citizenship and Immigration department says the policy to ask people to provide a third name has been around for 10 years. It's used only in the New Delhi visa office and does not apply to any other last names.
Karen Shadd-Evelyn, a spokeswoman with Citizenship and Immigration Canada, said the reason for the policy is that it helps officials with the paperwork and allows them to identify people's files quickly, efficiently and accurately.
full article http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2007/07/24/name-singh.html?ref=rss
also posted on http://ethnicconfusionbritain.blogware.com/blog

A Calgary woman waiting for her husband to arrive in Canada is upset by a long-standing immigration policy that forces people with the surname Singh or Kaur to change their last names.

Tarvinder Kaur, who is pregnant, said her husband Jaspal Singh's application to become a permanent resident has been delayed for well over a month because of his last name.

He has no choice but to legally change his name in India so he can get to Calgary before she gives birth next month, she said.

CBC News has obtained a copy of a letter sent from the Canadian High Commission in New Delhi to Singh's family stating that "the names Kaur and Singh do not qualify for the purpose of immigration to Canada."[Link]

A Calgary woman waiting for her husband to arrive in Canada is upset by a long-standing immigration policy that forces people with the surname Singh or Kaur to change their last names.
Tarvinder Kaur, who is pregnant, said her husband Jaspal Singh's application to become a permanent resident has been delayed for well over a month because of his last name.
He has no choice but to legally change his name in India so he can get to Calgary before she gives birth next month, she said.
CBC News has obtained a copy of a letter sent from the Canadian High Commission in New Delhi to Singh's family stating that "the names Kaur and Singh do not qualify for the purpose of immigration to Canada."
"Why are we needing to make a different last name?" said Kaur. "You choose what your last name is going to be and if it's always been a certain way, then why should you have to change it?"
Traditional Sikh names
Singh and Kaur are common names in the Sikh community. In a tradition that began more than 300 years ago, the name Singh is given to every baptized male and Kaur to every baptized female Sikh.
The names are used differently by different people. Some use Singh or Kaur as middle names, while others use them as their last names.
Karen Shadd-Evelyn, a spokeswoman with Citizenship and Immigration Canada, said the policy preventing people from immigrating to Canada with those last names has been in place for the last 10 years.
"I believe the thinking behind it in this case is because it is so common. [With] the sheer numbers of applicants that have those as their surnames, it's just a matter for numbers and for processing in that visa office."
Citizenship and Immigration Canada says there is no such policy against other common last names.
Kaur, who was born in Canada, says that's unacceptable.
"If it's going to be a standard policy it should be standard with all common last names. Why is it that it's only Singh or Kaur that's being attacked by this?"
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/calgary/story/2007/07/23/names-immigration.html

There is Manjit Kairo Singh, an Indian from the northern state of Punjab who wears a turban, a sign of his Sikh faith. He doesn't mind when customers ask him where he's from, just the other assumptions.

"They asking me, 'When are you from, Afghanistan?' because I have a turban always," says the 53-year-old Glen Burnie resident. "They say, 'You Taliban?' I say, 'No, I'm from India. Sikh. We are not Muslim.' I teach them."

But Singh doesn't regret coming here. "U.S. is the best country in the world," he says. "Everything is the best." [Link]