In The News

Colliding Forces

James Crabtree October 25, 2011
Widening inequality, easy proximity between poor nations and rich, exacerbate the many temptations of undocumented immigration. Angst is building in immigration hotspots – the Italian island of Lampedusa or along Mexican borders, both north and south – because citizens recognize that immigration pressures will only expand, explains James Crabtree for the Financial Times. He explains that citizens...

Foreigners' Sweetener: Buy House, Get a Visa

Nick Timiraos October 21, 2011
"Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.” So goes the silent call from the Statue of Liberty, symbol of US immigration, in the 1883 poem by Emma Lazarus. But the modern plea is for wealthy immigrants willing to bail the US out of its teeming troubles, including a housing market in decline. Two Senators, including...

Chinese Scientist Admits Stealing Trade Secrets in US

October 20, 2011
A Chinese scientist, a permanent resident in the US who worked in the agro industry, has pled guilty to stealing trade secrets on pesticide and food products from two US employers, reports the BBC News. He was charged under the US 1996 Economic Espionage Act. The article suggests that greed or career ambitions can prompt such exchanges as much as patriotism. In the case of biotechnologist Kexue...

US Falls Behind in Global Race for Talent

Bruce Stokes October 17, 2011
The US has long attracted the world’s top talent coming to its shores for study and work and benefited richly from their innovations. Advanced engineering, math and science programs of US universities depend on students from China, India and South Korea: More than a third of the US doctoral-level science and engineering workforce was born outside the United States, reports Bruce Stokes,...

Laos’ Spanking New Road to Nowhere

Haseenah Koyakutty October 12, 2011
To depend on others or not, that’s the dilemma of tiny Laos in connecting with neighboring nations. A highway, funded and built by Thailand, would connect the undeveloped Oudomxay region with Vietnam, Thailand and China. But a bridge crossing the Mekong River, part of the project, is left unfinished as China and Laos debate contract conditions. China’s population is 200 times larger than that of...

A World Without Borders Makes Economic Sense

Michael A. Clemens September 16, 2011
Many of the world’s economies are still suffering due to the global economic crisis, and policymakers search for an elusive magic bullet. Michael A Clemens, writing for the Guardian, offers one possibility: increasing international migration. He describes the manmade barriers to economic mobility as the “single-biggest drag on the beleaguered economy,” and claims that even minor relaxation of...

Portugal’s Jobless Graduates Flee to Africa and Brazil

Lucy Ash September 13, 2011
Despite troubled histories, colonial powers and their former colonies have maintained close relations, largely due to shared languages. This often resulted in what’s been called “brain drain,” the large-scale immigration of professionals from the former colonies to the former colonial powers in search of economic opportunity. Lucy Ash of BBC News describes a reversal in the traditional migration...