In The News

How Kenya Is Caught on the Thorns of Britain's Love Affair with the Rose

Jeevan Vasagar February 14, 2006
Kenya controls a quarter of the British rose market, and the flower, now the country’s second-largest export, is fueling much of the nation’s economic growth. Once blasted over low pay and poor working conditions, Kenya’s foreign-owned rose growers have cleaned up their act and reinvest some of their profits in Kenyan communities under the principles of fair trade. The flower industry’s...

NAFTA and Nativism

Harold Meyerson February 10, 2006
Shortly before the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) came into effect in 1994, then US President Bill Clinton optimistically predicted, as more Mexicans gained the ability to support themselves at home, a gradual decline in illegal immigration. Contrary to Clinton’s promise, however, the US has seen a four-fold increase in undocumented Mexican workers in the last decade. Putting...

China, the WTO and Globalization

Dorothy Guerrero February 6, 2006
Most commentators, stunned at China’s growth, are interested in projecting how soon the country will overtake the US as the world’s largest economy. But for the Chinese people, the more pertinent forecast is when the benefits of WTO accession and foreign investment will make their way to them. China has succeeded in making itself a top destination for foreign direct investment by offering tax...

America Should Open Its Doors Wide to Foreign Talent

Craig Barrett February 1, 2006
Discussion about challenges in America’s immigration policies tends to focus on the millions of illegal immigrants. But the more pressing immigration problem facing the US today, writes Intel chairman Craig Barrett, is the dearth of high-skilled immigrants required to keep the US economy competitive. Due to tighter visa policies and a growth in opportunities elsewhere in the world, foreign...

Expats Become Nepal's Biggest Money Spinner

AFP January 31, 2006
Nepal’s Maoist insurgency has paralyzed the country, driving civilians from their villages and leaving the kingdom’s economy in ruins. The war has driven away many of the tourists on which the poor-but-picturesque Himalayan nation relies, while foreign aid donors have cut off their assistance to the country in protest of King Gyanendra’s autocratic style of government. Nepalese, fearful for...

Migration: Illegal But Integral to Economy

Sanjay Suri January 25, 2006
Europeans often blame illegal immigrants for a number of social ills, including high rates of crime and unemployment. Yet “people with irregular status” are the invisible bedrock for many social institutions in the developed world, suggests this article in Terraviva Europe. Without the work of illegal immigrants from Africa, Asia and parts of Eastern Europe in fundamental sectors like healthcare...

East-to-West Migration Remaking Europe

Kevin Sullivan November 29, 2005
Janis Neulans is a Latvian laborer embarking on a journey that is becoming more and more common these days. Neulans travelled from Latvia to Ireland, where he felt that he could build the type of life for himself that is not possible in his home country. Since Latvia and nine other countries were added to the European Union in May 2004, nearly 450,000 people, most of them from the same strained...