In The News

Illegal Immigration Illogic

Joseph Chamie July 22, 2014
Countries are torn over tough enforcement for immigrants who enter without authorization: employers welcome flexible, low-cost labor while workers and taxpayers resent competition over limited jobs and community resources. The influx of children crossing into the United States from Central American states with high poverty, unemployment and fertility rates underscores the problem for nations with...

Telangana Illegal Immigrants in Iraq in No Man’s Land

TNN July 14, 2014
Around 15,000 illegal migrants from India, according to Gulf Returnees' Welfare Association, GRWA, are trapped in Iraq, and their families are scrambling for official help with their safe return, gathering documents to establish their nationality at the Indian embassy. Many workers were illegally sent with “dummy” visas into Iraq to work for US soldiers as the Indian government had imposed...

South Africa’s World Cup Advice to Brazil

Andrew Harding July 2, 2014
Ahead of the 2010 World Cup, FIFA made enticing promises to the locals in South Africa. Four years later, many locals found the $2 billion dollars in infrastructure investment did not benefit South Africans. Construction was accelerated on the Gautrain train¬ – a high speed railway connecting Johannesburg and Pretoria – but its prices are out of reach for most South Africans. “Following the...

UN: Surging Environmental Crime Funds Conflicts, Hurts Growth

June 27, 2014
Rising wealth for middle classes around the world drives demand for status symbols, in turn spurring environmental crime. Illegal logging, elephant and rhino hunting for ivory and horns, among other practices have created instability in many countries. According to the United Nations and Interpol, illegal practices help fund armed conflicts, militias and insurgents and curtail international aid...

Inequality and the Nature of Capital: A Reminder

Chandran Nair June 17, 2014
Complaints about inequality have taken the West by storm, and that accounts for the success of the book “Capital in the Twenty-First Century” by economist Thomas Piketty. Inequality is not a new topic for developing nations, notes author Chandran Nair. “Piketty, like every other economist, seeks to explain the world with reference to economic capital alone while ignoring the mother of all...

Brazil Child Sex Trade Raises Alarm as World Cup Nears

Super User June 5, 2014
Global sporting events attract tourists, prostitution and the child sex trade. The challenges are compounded for the World cup in Brazil. Brazil has enjoyed high economic growth in the past years, but its law enforcement system and social policy are less equipped to address child prostitution. “Brazilian society is often accused of sexualising children,” writes Wyre Davies for the BBC News. “The...

Profitable Development Solutions: How the Private Sector Can Contribute to the Post-2015 Agenda

Laurence Chandy, Kemal Derviş, George Ingram, Homi Kharas and Steven Rocker May 1, 2014
The United Nations posed eight millennium goals, including elimination of extreme poverty. Progress has been made, and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon convened a meeting in August 2013 to analyze how to achieve that goal by 2030. The Brookings Institution offers a special report on the meeting with focus on better coordination of private and public funding for development aid: “the developing...