In The News

Foreign Hoopsters Get a Crucial Assist

Chanel White February 17, 2005
In recent decades, sport has become a globalized and globalizing force. Sport provides the financial impetus for seemingly unlikely migrations. Nigerian soccer players ply their trade in snow-swept Donetsk in Ukraine, Brazilians play in Japan, and even Iraqis find themselves mired in the muddy soccer fields of Calcutta. Sport brings disparate parts of the world into touch. Though soccer continues...

Humanitarian Stain

Justin McCurry January 26, 2005
Strict immigration policies in Japan have changed the lives of one Kurdish family - and may have a lasting effect on Japan's relations with the international humanitarian and diplomatic communities. For a decade, the family of seven has been subject to countless obstacles from the Japanese government. After separation, multiple refusals, and deportations, their story became a rallying point...

On Screen, Tackling Europe's New Reality

Alan Riding January 19, 2005
In Germany, the popularity of a movie about Turks living in Hamburg may signal a new national multiculturalism. Film has played a similar role in other European countries, making ostracized immigrants sympathetic to those who'd ignored or hated them. "Head-On", directed by Fatih Akin, is not the first Turkish-German movie to be made, but it is the first to find such sweeping...

Japan's Laborious Dilemma

David McNeill January 13, 2005
The Japanese approach to immigration has been characterized as xenophobic, at worst, and ambivalent, at best. While a free-trade agreement with the Philippines was celebrated for allowing increased access for overseas caretakers, a subsequent policy restricting entertainment visas may result in a net loss of over 70,000 foreign workers. According to David McNeill, Japan's consistently...

Latin America's family remittances -- heading south?

Andres Oppenheimer December 10, 2004
Every year, more than $30 billion in family remittances flows from the United States to Latin America. This money encourages economic growth, and many countries actually get more in remittances than from foreign investment. In addition, this money goes to those who need it most, helping to lift people out of poverty. However, a recent Columbia University study warns these countries against...

The Plot Thickens: Testing European Tolerance

Shada Islam November 17, 2004
The recent murder of a Dutch filmmaker has provoked anger and fear across the Netherlands. As anti-Muslim violence escalates, some mainstream Dutch politicians have broken from their traditionally tolerant approach, calling for a crackdown on their own Muslim citizens. The problem, however, is both deeper and more widespread. Although European governments have worked hard to extend an olive...

A Rampaging Market, but a Long Way from Global Power

Isabel Hilton November 13, 2004
Many observers in the West have in recent years greeted China's steamrolling economic growth with unabashed optimism and glee. Yet amidst predictions of imminent superpower-dom, China faces stark internal inequalities that threaten to derail its lofty aspirations. While much of its urban population enjoys the material advantages and growing freedoms of recent reforms, 900 million people...