Stories from Quick Reads and Migration & Immigration
Migrant Children from Central America Are Not Mere Statistics
In an opinion piece for the American newspaper Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Global Voices contributor Jamie Stark wonders, “What kind of parent would pay $10,000 for a stranger to bring a child 1,400 miles through gangland and hostile border crossings? A good parent, perhaps.” As a concerned citizen about the crisis of...
Eerie Similarities in Deaths Provoked by Police Brutality in Staten Island and Paris
Eric Garner was a 44-year-old African-American man who died following an attempted arrest by the NY Police Department. On July 17, 2014, when police officers attempted to arrest Garner, he had broken up a fight. Garner who suffered from asthma was wrestled to the ground. Medical examiners concluded chokehold and...
How Kenyans Can Lead a Double Life in the US
Danstan Obara shows how Kenyans can lead a double life in the US: The American double life starts by making sure that your social security card does not have the stamp that says “Valid for work only with INS authorization”. The things that people do to get rid of this...
An Open Letter to Salvadoran Migrant Children
From El Salvador, Pablo Lüers writes an open letter to migrant children who have traveled on their own to the United States and who will be deported back to their countries: Ustedes aquí en El Salvador y en su pueblo o barrio, se van a encontrar de vuelta con cada...
The Story of Famine Refugees from Niger in Eastern Algeria
In the past few weeks, hundreds of Sub-Saharan immigrants from Mali or Niger have migrated to Algerian cities by the Eastern border. Liberté Algérie narrates the stories of those who made the choice to immigrate and why [fr] : Les conditions de vie au hangar de la cité Bourroh sont inhumaines....
The Humanitarian Tragedy of Children Emigrating Alone
From Mexico, Katia D'Artigues, author of the blog Campos Elíseos (Champs Elysées), writes about the children who see themselves forced to emigrate on their own [es], and calls this a “humanitarian tragedy”: Son niños que son orillados a cruzar la frontera solos. No lo hacen por aventura, sino porque muchas...
Cuba: The Joys of Getting Older
Cuban diaspora blog My big, fat, Cuban family shares 59 “wonderful truths” about aging.
Migrants in Times of Crisis
Julen at the Artisan Consulting Network points [es] at some of the problems should migrants and their condition of being threatened, strangers, others: Coy glances, whispered conversations. The other is no longer mine. Maybe he thought that some day he would be. Or not. But not now, it is no longer...
Galician Influence in Argentina
The digital edition of Rumbos [es] magazine analyzes the Galician influence in Argentina, and explains the country had two big migratory flows: between 1857 and 1930, a millon Galician arrived; and between 1946 and 1960, came another 110,000. From that total amount, 600,000 made Argentina their final home. Thus, half...
A 5-Minute Video Could Be Your Ticket to New York
The United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC) invites young people under the age of 25 to submit original 5-minute videos on migration, diversity and social inclusion to the Plural+2014 film festival. Three winning videos will receive $1000 and the makers will be invited to New York City to attend an...
EU Survey Indicates Correlation Between Anti-Minorities Views and Ideological Right
The French blog Rue89 analyzes the results [fr] of the Pew Center Survey on attitudes toward immigrants and minority groups in the European Union. Rue89 highlights that Roma population are the most ostracized minority group, especially in Italy and France : It also highlights that negative opinions about Roma, Muslims and...
Infographic: Who Are China’s Rural Migrant Workers?
“Rural migrant worker”, a unique term in China,refers to a class of citizens no longer employed in the agricultural sector who nevertheless retain their legal status as peasants. ChinaFile published an interesting infographic explaining their situations and the problems rural migrant workers are facing in today's society.
Who Benefits from Trafficking Women from Madagascar to the Middle East?
Aaron Ross reports on his investigation in the heart of the ongoing human trafficking of young women from Madagascar to Middle Eastern countries: For some enterprising businessmen, the collapse heralded a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. So-called placement agencies sprang up in Antananarivo and other cities across Madagascar, promising the good life in...
Asylum Seekers Face Uncertainty in East Timor
Sharna Jade Bremner probes the situation of asylum seekers in East Timor: Asylum seekers have been arriving in Timor since the early 2000s, however the exact number that are still in the tiny half-island nation remains unclear. Fear and anxiety are rife in the asylum seeker community, and many people...
The Daily Lives of Sub-Saharan Immigrants in Prague
Chadian blogger Réndodjo Em-A Moundona [fr] writes about the daily lives of African immigrants in Prague [fr] : Une petite discussion avec ces Africains suffit pour se rendre à l´évidence que la communauté n´est ni menacée, ni totalement intégrée. Comme fille africaine, il est quasi impossible de trouver un travail conséquent [..] En général, les...
Ethnic North Korean Schools in Japan Face Ever-Hostile Situation
‘Koreans living in Japan‘ is a vague word glueing very different groups together under the same umbrella term. Based on their affiliation to North/South Korea and the timing of diaspora (whether it happened before/after the Japanese imperial rule during the World War 2 ear), each sub-group goes by a different name,...
Seeking Asylum in Australia Is ‘Getting Real Ugly’
Gary Sauer-Thompson pulls no punches in his assessment of the latest crisis at Papua New Guinea's Manus Island asylum seeker detention centre. It is part of the so-called Pacific Solution. In a post for his blog Public Opinion, it's getting real ugly, he calls it a concentration camp… designed to...
South Korea: Being Native English Teacher and Reverse Racism
Geoffrey Fattig of Jeollamite blog shares his brutally honest opinion on reverse and latent racism in South Korea, urging fellow native English teachers who under-appreciate a fairly good working condition to stop whining. Some of the highlights of his post are: On the whole, though, Korea is a pretty easy place...
Why Young Chinese Flock to First Tier Cities?
Offbeat China explains why young Chinese want to migrate to first tier cities in spite of the polluted environment and expensive property price.
Photos: Chinese New Year Holiday Travel Rush
The Spring Festival, or lunar new year, is China's most important holiday for family reunions. According to The Ministry of Transportation, around 258 million train trips are estimated to be made during this year's Spring Festival, which runs from January 16 to February 24. China's news website iFeng.com shows images of people...
Haiti, D.R.: Stateless in the Dominican Republic
jmc strategies blogs about the issue of Haitian statelessness in the Dominican Republic, specifically addressing anti-Haitian sentiment, questionable labour and living conditions, and forced repatriations, while offering solutions to the impasse.