In The News

How Do Raids on Undocumented Workers Help? Examiner

Brad Polumbo August 9, 2019
US immigration agents conducted raids on seven food processing plants in Mississippi, arresting almost 700 workers without documents, creating confusion as communities stepped up to assist weeping children, many US citizens, abruptly abandoned. “One U.S. citizen who worked alongside many of the detained illegal immigrants told the Washington Post that the food processing companies were not...

The Good Life After Work: Project Syndicate

Robert Skidelsky April 21, 2019
Workers worry about losing jobs to robots. Predictions vary about which jobs could vanish – those requiring high or low skills, routine or custom tasks. Experts base assessments on historical disruptions due to technology and mechanization, robot capabilities and aging populations in need of support. “But there is an important caveat to all this: left to the market, the gains from automation will...

Future of Trade, Value Chains in Services: McKinsey

Susan Lund, James Manyika, Jonathan Woetzel, Jacques Bughin, Mekala Krishnan, Jeongmin Seong, and Mac Muir February 26, 2019
Trade increases in absolute terms though overall percentages are slowing, explains analysis from McKinsey Insights. Services like research, finance, engineering and more are growing at a faster pace than trade in goods,” creating value far beyond what national accounts measure,” the article reports, adding “services already constitute more value in global trade than goods. In addition, all global...

Wall Street Journal: Russia and North Korea Ties

Anatoly Kurmanaev and Thomas Grove February 3, 2019
Despite the Russian government’s support for the UN economic sanctions against North Korea in 2017, some Russian business owners, along with ethnic Koreans living in the Far East, are speaking out in opposition to the labor and trade freeze. Anatoly Kurmanaev and Thomas Groves report from Sakhalin where ethnic Koreans maintain a strong presence. Writing for the Wall Street Journal, they explain...

PIIE: What is Globalization?

Melina Kolb December 26, 2018
Perhaps it is human nature as so many people take credit for their every success but blame others – trade, migration, technological advances and other facets of globalization – for their woes. The Peterson Institute for International Economics undertakes the task of reminding about the age-old processes of globalization, urging an understanding of the relative costs and benefits to avoid the...

Quartz: Human Translators and the Future of Work

Simone Stolzoff December 21, 2018
Automation threatens extinction of many jobs. Language translation as an occupation must contend with two trends, explains Simone Stolzoff for Quartz. “On one hand, the world is increasingly globalized,” he writes. “With technology that can spread across borders with the touch of a button, the need for people who can translate words and understand the nuance of different cultures has never been...

DW: Global Migrant Numbers Up 20 Percent

December 6, 2018
The number of migrants worldwide is growing, especially those of working age, reports the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs. The report details how migrants aged 15 and older make up 4.2 percent of the global population and migrant workers make up 4.7 percent of all workers. About 68 percent of migrant workers work in high-income countries, down from 75 percent in 2013. Almost 60...