In The News

Modern Servitude: Romanian Badante Care for Elders in Italy

Raluca Besliu January 3, 2017
As Europe confronts the challenges of an aging population, workers from relatively poor countries relocate to wealthier communities to provide care. “Badante” is an Italian term for caregiver that also refers to foreign women, especially the Romanians who leave home and family to work long hours for low pay in Italy. The women “voluntarily enter this modern version of servitude, caring for the...

Study: Borders in Europe Would Cost Up to $3.3 Billion a Year

Valentina Pop October 19, 2016
A study by the RAND Europe think tank shows that to restore borders across Europe would cost the continent more than $3 billion yearly, a number calculated using the cost of restoring physical borders, administrative costs, and losses from trade and travel. As Europe has drawn millions of refugees from Syria and other war-torn areas, some countries in the Schengen zone – the border-free area...

Angela Merkel Tells African Union It Must Do More to Stop Migration to Europe

Adam Withnall October 17, 2016
Germany will be at the helm of the G20 for 2017, and Chancellor Angela Merkel has signaled that Africa will be a primary area of focus: “But in return, she has asked that the African countries do more to stop the growing culture of young people leaving to seek a better life in Europe,” reports Adam Withnall for the Independent. In a tour to Mali, Niger and Ethiopia, Merkel implied that failed...

Prepare for the 21st Century Exodus of Migrants

Joseph Chamie September 27, 2016
Cross-border immigration accounts for much of the population growth in developed countries with low fertility rates. Such immigration has also become an election issue around the globe. Joseph Chamie, former director of the UN Population Division, urges countries to assess demographic changes and engage in thorough planning to provide adequate education, health care, security as well as food and...

Globalization Goes National

Tyler Cowen September 16, 2016
Global trade is slowing and a contributing factor could be that large and geographically fragmented nations focus on internal economic integration, as explained by Tyler Cowen for Bloomberg: “many nations lack integrated economic relations within their borders, and thus they could reap high gains from trade by opening up internally.” Improved communications via the internet strengthen internal...

Unwanted Migration: How Governments Cope?

Joseph Chamie and Barry Mirkin August 4, 2016
Uncontrolled migration – spurred by a growing populations, fewer resources like water or arable land as well as increasing conflict – has become a contentious political issue, particularly in advanced economies like Europe and the United States, argue demography experts Joseph Chamie and Barry Mirkin. Passions run high as liberals support assistance and an emphasis on human rights of displaced...

Migration Trend: Young Move to Lands of Aging Rich

Joseph Chamie June 30, 2016
The world’s most troublesome borders for illegal migration have one thing in common – more older people on one side than the other. Large gaps in the median age on either side show a difference of 19 years for Northern Africa and Southern Europe, and 11 years for the United States and Central America. “Age differences between sending and receiving nations are a powerful force exerting migratory...