In The News

Domestics Dump Sponsors while on Holiday in London

Sanaa Maadad July 23, 2004
During the hot summer months, wealthy residents of the United Arab Emirates often go on holiday to cooler destinations, such as England. Recently, however, some have found that the foreign domestic workers they take with them when they travel 'run away' in hopes of pursuing a life in Europe. Many of these maids and servants are Sri Lankans, Filipinos, Indonesians, Ethiopians, or...

Protests as Italy Expels Migrants

July 22, 2004
With its long coastline, Italy is one of most Europe’s most vulnerable countries in terms of illegal immigration. Largely African and Asian groups of migrants come via boat from places like Libya, where Italian officials believe up to 2 million more migrants may be waiting for transit into the European Union. In response to the influx of people, Italy put a tough anti-immigration law into...

Hmong Journey

Ben Stocking July 18, 2004
Over the next several months, 15,000 of the Laotian Hmong currently living in Thailand will move to the USA, settling in California, Minnesota and Wisconsin, where there are large pre-existing Hmong communities. This population-in-transition is composed of soldiers or the descendents of soldiers who fought alongside American troops during the Vietnam War, a conflict which resulted in the death...

Manila's Iraq Pullout Due to Clout of Overseas Workers

Luz Baguioro July 16, 2004
Philippine President Gloria Arroyo faced a political conundrum of global proportions this week when deciding whether to pull troops from Iraq after Iraqi militants threatened to behead a Filipino truck driver. In deciding to withdraw troops from Iraq, the Philippines angered the United States, a country with whom military and trade connections are of the greatest importance. Arroyo's final...

EU Faces Rise in Welfare Migration

Hans-Werner Sinn July 12, 2004
Traditionally Western Europe has faced both “good” and “bad” immigration, the former being the result of international income differentials and a healthy economy, and the latter being the result of immigrants seeking to take advantage of the welfare state. Hans-Werner Sinn, an economist at Munich University, contends that the adoption of the EU’s new directive on freedom of movement will result...

In Africa, an Exodus of Nurses

Celia W. Dugger July 12, 2004
Thousands of African nurses have migrated in recent years due to a combination of low pay and difficult working conditions in Africa and increased demand in developed countries with aging populations. Unfortunately, the exodus of African nurses has further deteriorated the already low quality of African health care systems that are strapped by insufficient funding and an AIDS epidemic. African...

Immigration is Changing the Face of Suburban America

William G. Holt, III July 6, 2004
New immigrants to the US are settling in some surprising places. In the past, most newcomers to the US found comfort and kin in the urban centers of cities like New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. But increasingly, says sociologist William Holt, immigrants are settling in the suburbs of 'second-city' destinations like Atlanta and reversing a trend set by the earlier period of...