In The News

Labor Pains in the Middle East

April 1, 2008
Oil-rich states in the Middle East have long depended on migrants from countries such as India and Bangladesh to fill the demand for labor in capital-intensive projects and protected indigenous labor by promoting large civil service classes. But global inflation has reduced real wages while increasing the price of goods, with effects magnified for those countries with currencies pegged to the...

Planned Chinatown Raises Hackles in Rural Germany

Markus Feldenkirchen March 25, 2008
The city council of rural Oranienburg has approved construction of a Chinatown for its community, but agreement has stopped there. While Germans demand meticulous and time-consuming documentation and construction that conforms to city codes, the Chinese would prefer informal and rapid “guan xi” decision-making. The definition of “home” can increasingly blur as local flavors change with the influx...

World Banker and His Cash Return Home

Jason DeParle March 24, 2008
Remittances, once treated as an insignificant rounding error, eclipse the world’s combined foreign aid by threefold. A migration scholar with the World Bank, Dilip Ratha, calculated the magnitude of remittances and brought them to the world’s attention. Critics suggest that “behind every remittance is a separated family” and argue that remittances contribute to consumption rather than development...

Dying to Live

Gihan Shahine March 7, 2008
Many young throughout Africa set out on dangerous journeys north, searching for jobs in Europe. Some send back what seem like vast sums to their villages while others eventually return, building homes and sending their children to school. But some men never return or make contact, and their families are left to wonder whether the jobseekers died in the rough seas or wait in European holding camps...

Promise of US Jobs Lures Migrants Who Vowed to Stay in Mexico

Alfredo Corchado February 25, 2008
Immigrants who resent harsh treatment in the US, particularly those who lack documentation, often return to Mexico. But the Mexican economy offers little in the way of jobs, wages or benefits available in the US. Individuals long to work and hometowns rely on remittances sent from the north. The Mexicans may return home and vow to stay, but many cannot resist pleas from friends in Texas and...

12 Million Shadows: America’s Immigration Dilemma

Joseph Chamie February 4, 2008
It may appear odd for a country created by migrants, but illegal immigration has emerged as one of the most contentious issues in US politics, especially in the presidential election campaign. In polls, a majority of Americans support immigration yet oppose shortcuts for immigrants who enter the country by illegal means. A major challenge is what to do about an estimated 12 million illegal aliens...

Europe Takes Africa’s Fish, and Boatloads of Migrants Follow

Sharon LaFraniere January 15, 2008
Huge industrial trawlers, most from Europe, push through waters off the African coast, efficiently scraping sea beds clean of fish. Such nonselective industrial fishing has devastated fish populations and habitat, destroying a livelihood and encouraging more African fishermen to use their boats to assist fellow Africans in fleeing their homelands for work in Europe. Governments throughout Africa...