In The News

Wave of Immigrants Breaks Against Italian Island's Shore

Frank Bruni July 11, 2003
Many African immigrants are willing to risk their lives for opportunities in Europe. They come in rickety boats across dangerous waters to the small Italian island of Lampedusa, the gateway through which thousands of immigrants pass en route to the European job market every year. The immigrants arrive on the island's coast in numbers that surpass its population, overwhelming local and...

Germany Topples EU Immigration Policy

Carola Schlagheck July 11, 2003
Refugees and migrants seeking work in Europe will be welcomed by some countries and rejected by others. In a last minute effort before the completion of the draft EU constitution, Germany successfully prevented the European Union from pursuing the harmonization of immigration policy throughout Europe. Instead, individual national governments will decide whether to allow non-EU nationals to...

Controlling the Flow

Gamal Nkrumah June 27, 2003
In the same week that European Union (EU) leaders met in Thessaloniki, Greece to discuss migration issues, a vessel carrying African migrants trying to enter Europe sank off the coast of Tunisia, killing some 70 people. This was one of the many vessels operated by illegal immigrant-trafficking gangs in Northern Africa who carry Africans to Mediterranean coastlines. Ironically, top on the agenda...

Migrants Tell How Boat Split and Sank off Tunisia

Reuters June 22, 2003
The impact of the economic crisis gripping Africa is washing up on the shores of the Mediterranean. A stream of boats make regular crossings between Africa and nearby Italy, bearing scores of illegal immigrants desperate to escape war-torn countries and faltering economies. The trip is a dangerous one – a boat carrying 250 migrants capsized off Tunisia last week, killing most of the passengers....

Foreign Fighters Add to Resistance in Iraq, U.S. Says

Michael R. Gordon June 22, 2003
During the recent Iraq war, there were reports of foreign fighters sneaking into the country to aid Saddam Hussein’s forces. Now, as the U.S. army struggles to control post-war chaos, American commanders say foreigners are still being recruited by Hussein loyalists. A lack of American presence in some parts of the country has allowed these loyalists, many fueled by the belief that the dictator...

Making Trinkets in China, and a Deadly Dust

Joseph Kahn June 18, 2003
The negative effects that unbridled capitalism can have on workers in developing countries raises the hackles of many anti-globalization activists. This New York Times article describes the severe diseases that Chinese workers have developed in the dreadful working environment of a jewelry company that exports its products to the US and other Western countries. To the author, these scenes...

Immigrant Horror Stories Leading Nation to Policy Change

Carlos Guerra June 12, 2003
Along the US-Mexico border, this year alone over 100 people have died while trying to illegally cross into the US. But the high death toll will not prevent yet more hopeful migrants from making this dangerous journey. Economic downturns like the current one often lead to calls for tougher immigration restrictions in the US, but, ironically, they also often coincide with an increase in flows of...