In The News

Europe's Angry Muslims

Robert S. Leiken July 12, 2005
While Americans worry about terrorists crossing the Mexican border, the newest mujahideen can take an easier route: armed with European passports, they are able to pass through US Customs unchallenged. Radical Islam is gaining in popularity among the disenfranchised and underprivileged second-generation European Muslims. According to writer Robert S. Leiken, Western Europe "never learned...

A Passage from India

Suketu Mehta July 12, 2005
Author Suketu Mehta moved to America from India as a teenager with the expectation that it would bring him and his family economic prosperity. As he writes in The New York Times, future generations of Americans may find themselves trying to travel in the opposite direction, as more US companies move jobs to India. In a sense, India's gains from outsourcing are the rewards of decades of hard...

Dubai’s Kerala Connection

Steve Raymer July 12, 2005
In recent years, Dubai has reinvented itself as a bustling multicultural capital for education and business. A driving force behind this extreme makeover is the hundreds of thousands of unskilled South Asian workers – predominantly from India – who flock to the city every year. These blue-collar workers – whom Steve Raymer calls the "invisible foot soldiers of globalization" – are an...

Brazilians Streaming into US Through Mexican Border

Larry Rohter June 30, 2005
After Mexicans themselves, Brazilians make up the largest proportion of migrants entering the US via the Mexican border. Taking advantage of Mexico's waiving of entrance visa requirements for Brazilians, those looking to enter the US for work and residence frequently sign up with a trafficking agency to transport them into America. Though Brazil's economy is flourishing, employment and...

Unlikely Hero in Europe's Spat: The 'Polish Plumber'

Elaine Sciolino June 27, 2005
Responding to the recent flood of bad publicity about the potential loss of French jobs to Polish immigrants, Poland has come up with a marketing plan to improve its reputation in France. Hiring a model to pose as a "Polish plumber" – a figure who has come to symbolize French labor concerns – in its advertisements, the Polish Tourism Bureau is attempting to assure the French that the...

Arabs in Foreign Lands

Moisés Naím June 20, 2005
"Cultural determinists may want to revise their theories of Arab backwardness," states Foreign Policy Editor-in-Chief Moisés Naím. The average Arab American has a higher income and is more likely to own a home than the average US citizen. The relative success of Arab immigrants in the US raises questions regarding the notion that cultural factors are at the root of the poverty and...

The End of Europe

Robert J. Samuelson June 15, 2005
While the rejection of the EU constitution has attracted attention to discontent in Europe, it has distracted the world from more serious European problems: low birthrates and a stagnant economy. In this article, Robert J. Samuelson labels Europe "history's has-been." Declining birthrates and an aging population are further straining an economy already beset with high...