In The News

The Magic of Diasporas

November 23, 2011
Citizens in troubled economies like the US and Europe are increasingly lashing out against immigration. Such blame is misplaced. Fears about depressed wages, stretched benefit programs and brain drain are exaggerated, suggests this article in the Economist, and governments must do a better job of educating voters about “the growing economic importance of diasporas, and the contribution they can...

Technology Boosts Bangladesh Migrant Job Search

Anbarasan Ethirajan November 9, 2011
The Bangladeshi government has turned to technology to assist its citizens in looking for jobs overseas. Any worker can now post his or her resume, national identification and passport details on a government website portal, which can then be viewed by foreign employers. This process reduces transaction costs related to attaining jobs overseas, particularly payoffs to corrupt middlemen, and rural...

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...

Saudis Behead an Indonesian Maid

June 26, 2011
Crimes and punishments that cut across borders provoke global judgments on differences in culture and legal systems. Individual players in the sensational dramas represent their nations. Poor nations send millions of workers, 75 percent of them women, overseas as unskilled labor. Given the power imbalance, contracts, if any, are unenforceable. The migrant workers have few protections and are...

People on the Move – Part I

Joseph Chamie June 14, 2011
Waves of desperate migrants cross the Mediterranean, fleeing the repression, poverty and war gripping North Africa. Immense inequalities in living standards between the two zones draw migrants to Europe: Global media display stark contrasts between wealthy and poor, and internet sites lay out itineraries for affordable transport, shelter and job contacts. In the first article of a two-part series...

513 Migrants in Two Tractor-Trailers

Ioan Grillo May 20, 2011
Mexican police, screening tractor-trailers for illegal cargo with X-rays, detected more than 500 people crammed inside two trucks. US border controls and kidnapping dangers in Mexico force immigrants to turn to smuggling cartels. Each immigrant reportedly paid smugglers $7000 for passage to the US – more than $3.5 million in all. “[A]mid the drug war, Mexico's southern border has become...