Sunday, September 25, 2016
News and Views from the Global South
Migration & Refugees
The Lost Kids at Rome’s Termini Station: Child Migrants Exploited
Rome ..... Termini station, 2:00 pm on a Tuesday afternoon. Five young boys are standing next to the escalators, constantly shifting, dispersing, meeting up again. They are laughing, typing on their phones, chatting, smoking. They seem like average teenagers with fancy hairstyles and smart clothes. But every once in a while, they nervously glance over to the security personnel circling Termini station. Or carefully examine older men walking by.
Population Growth Extremes: Doublers and Decliners
While the world’s population of 7.4 billion is growing at 1.1 percent per year – about half the peak level of the late 1960s – enormous differences in demographic growth among countries are increasingly evident and of mounting concern to countries and the international community.
Community Conversations in Ethiopia Prevents Exploitative Migration
Five years ago, when Meliya Gumi’s two daughters, Gifty* and Chaltu,* aged 16 and 18, migrated to Dubai and Qatar respectively, as domestic workers, everyone thought they were moving towards a better future. As a widowed mother of eight with little resources, living in the village of Haro Kunta in the Oromia region of Ethiopia, Gumi had a difficult time making ends meet.
UN Refugee Summits Fall Short for Children
As Olympic swimmer Yusra Mardini opened the floor for US President Barack Obama’s leaders’ summit on refugees, she embodied a hope unavailable to most child refugees.
Migrant Workers in the Gulf Feel Pinch of Falling Oil Prices
In the Al Quoz industrial area of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), a number of medium and large-sized buses can be spotted transporting workers clad in company uniforms to distant worksites early in the morning. In the evening or, in certain cases, late at night, these workers are brought back to labour camps in the same buses.
Towards Safe Migration and Decent Work for Women in Nepal
In August it’s blazing hot in Kathmandu. Dawa Dolma Tamang, 32, sits on a chair at Pourakhi’s office—an organization that works with migrant women workers—staring out of the window. “I want to send my children to a better school and support my husband to make a decent living. I want to make my family whole again," she says.
UN Refugee Summit: “No Cause for Comfort”
With record numbers of forcibly displaced persons around the world, many were left disappointed by the outcome of a high level UN summit designed to address the issue by bringing together world leaders on the sidelines of the UN's annual General Assembly.
Muslims in Europe: Can There Be Social Harmony ?
Although 20 million Muslims reside in Western Europe, establishing social harmony between the Muslim community and their European counterparts has proved exceedingly challenging.Much to the dismay of international humanitarian agencies and anti-racism activists,the language of exclusion and prejudice persists.
From Where I Stand: Nahimana Fainesi
“This is my second time living in communal camps, second time running away from civil war to protect myself. What made me leave [Burundi] was the problem of random people invading others’ homes, attacking those without husbands. They would enter with knives. Before they kill you, they would first rape you. When I saw those attacks, and people dying, I left with my one-year-old son. I didn’t have the chance to get all my children because it was a case of everyone for themselves, running for their lives.
In Host Country Lebanon, Refugee and Rural Women Build Entrepreneurship, Cohesion and Future
“When we were forced to leave our country, I never thought that a community in Lebanon would accept and treat me as an active member, the way I have been at the Kfeir Women’s Working Group,” says Hiba Kamal, an 18-year-old refugee from Syria who travelled to Lebanon with her family five years ago fleeing instability in her own country.
Italy’s Second Economy: The Impact of Bangladeshi Migration
Hardly a street can be found in Rome without a Bangladeshi-run mini-market. Much like the typical Italian coffee bars, they have now become an intrinsic part of Roman infrastructure.
UN Summit Won’t Resolve Refugee Resettlement Impasse
Next week’s landmark UN summit on refugees and migrants was supposed to help resettle one in ten refugees, instead UN member states have settled for vague gestures, including a campaign to end xenophobia.
Yemeni Refugees Still Stuck on Wrong Side of the Water
Tears emerge from the slit of 20-year-old Gada’s black niqab face veil. After more than a minute’s silence she still can’t answer the question: How bad was it in Yemen before you left?
Migrant Labour Fuels Tensions in Mauritius
They come from Bangladesh, China, India and Madagascar, mainly to run the machines in the textile industry here. But they do all kinds of other jobs too, from masons to bakers, house cleaners and gardeners.
Mexico, a Democracy Where People Disappear at the Hands of the State
“Go and tell my dad that they’re holding me here,” Maximiliano Gordillo Martínez told his travelling companion on May 7 at the migration station in Chablé, in the southern Mexican state of Tabasco. It was the last time he was ever seen, and his parents have had no news of him since.Next Page »
Human migration is a matter of global concern. Flows of migrants and refugees influence and change the social, economic and political dynamics of their destinations -- and the places they have left behind. IPS covers crucial issues such as migrant and refugee rights, irregular or undocumented migration, human trafficking, remittances, displaced persons and forced labour. And the positive: in many cases migration creates a new dialogue among civilisations. Migrants themselves become the building blocks of bridges connecting different cultures.
