In The News

The Silent Globalization of Remittances

Richard Reeves April 26, 2006
When immigrants work in wealth countries like the US, they often send money back home to families. Such remittance income far exceeds foreign aid or direct foreign investment in Central America and the Caribbean region. The World Bank estimates that such foreign exchange is on the rise, with more than $223 billion transferred from rich countries to poor in 2005. The distribution is direct and...

Learning Globalization From Football

Branko Milanovic April 21, 2006
Football is not only popular, but probably the world's most globalized profession. The most talented Brazilian, Cameroonian and Japanese football players move from country to country more so than doctors, computer scientists, blue-collar workers or bank tellers. On the club circuit, rules have evolved so that international character defines top teams, and statistics show that success...

Mothers Want Hope for Their Children

Sonia Nazario April 19, 2006
The tide of illegal immigrants to American shores has become unmanageable, with numbers far outstripping those at any other time in US history. Immigrants take jobs that are unpopular with native US workers, often at reduced wages, thus allowing US firms to compete globally. The immigrant workforce reduces US food and clothing costs and makes child-care readily available for US families,...

Off the Job, Onto the Streets

Miriam Jordan April 16, 2006
As US Congress takes a vacation away from debating proposals aimed at cracking down on illegal immigration, immigrants and their supporters remind the rest of the US how much the country depends on their work. Latino workers have walked off their jobs in droves, joining large pro-immigrant demonstrations in more than 100 cities. The protests forced some employers to scramble and close a gap...

Globalization’s Second Death?

Niall Ferguson April 13, 2006
Globalization is in trouble when the US adopts a protectionist stance, argues Niall Ferguson. Extreme proposals, such as building an enormous fence along the US-Mexican border, reveal an isolationist attitude that could extend beyond the immigration issue. Politicians scrutinize the movement of labor, capital and goods in a way that calls to mind what Ferguson labels the “death of globalization”...

A Nation of Immigrants Clashes Over the Future

Georg Mascolo April 12, 2006
In 2005, the US arrested 1.2 million people attempting to cross the US-Mexico border in Arizona’s Arivaca Valley. About half that number were successful journeying through the treacherous desert, encouraged by words on the Statue of Liberty that welcome immigrants from the world over – “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to be free.” The US estimates that 11 million...

Visa for Cream

Sanjay Suri April 12, 2006
Historically, Britain relied on immigrants from India for factory help and other jobs that the British didn’t want to do. Immigration resulted in a British community of 2 million Indians, many who met with great success. But now the UK has tinkered with its immigration rules to reject poor workers from former colonies Bangladesh, Pakistan, India and elsewhere and target workers with information-...