Remittances to Reach $630 billion in 2022 with Record Flows into Ukraine

But economies dependent on flows from Russia will see major declines

WASHINGTON, May 11, 2022 Officially recorded remittance flows to low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) are expected to increase by 4.2 percent this year to reach $630 billion. This follows an almost record recovery of 8.6 percent in 2021, according to the World Banks latest Migration and Development Brief released today.

Remittances to Ukraine, which is the largest recipient in Europe and Central Asia, are expected to rise by over 20 percent in 2022. However, remittance flows to many Central Asian countries, for which the main source is Russia, will likely fall dramatically. These declines, combined with rising food, fertilizer, and oil prices, are likely to increase risks to food security and exacerbate poverty in many of these countries.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has triggered large-scale humanitarian, migration and refugee crises and risks for a global economy that is still dealing with the impact of the COVID pandemic, said Michal Rutkowski, Global Director of the Social Protection and Jobs Global Practice at the World Bank. Boosting social protection programs to protect the most vulnerable, including Ukrainians and families in Central Asia, as well as those affected by the wars economic impact, is a key priority to protect people from the threats of food insecurity and rising poverty.

During 2021, remittance inflows saw strong gains in Latin America and the Caribbean (25.3 percent), Sub-Saharan Africa (14.1 percent), Europe and Central Asia (7.8 percent), the Middle East and North Africa (7.6 percent), and South Asia (6.9 percent). Remittances to East Asia and the Pacific fell by 3.3 percent; although excluding China, remittances grew 2.5 percent. Excluding China, remittance flows have been the largest source of external finance for LMICs since 2015.

The top five recipient countries for remittances in 2021 were India, Mexico (replacing China), China, the Philippines, and Egypt. Among economies where remittance inflows stand at very high shares of GDP are Lebanon (54 percent), Tonga (44 percent), Tajikistan (34 percent), Kyrgyz Republic (33 percent), and Samoa (32 percent).

On the one hand, the Ukraine crisis has shifted global policy attention away from other developing regions and from economic migration. On the other hand, it has strengthened the case for supporting destination communities that are experiencing a large influx of migrants, said Dilip Ratha, lead author of the report on migration and remittances and head of KNOMAD. As the global community prepares to gather at the International Migration Review Forum, the creation of a Concessional Financing Facility for Migration to support destination communities should be seriously considered. This facility could also provide financial support to origin communities experiencing return migration during the COVID-19 crisis.

Globally, the average cost of sending $200 was 6 percent in the fourth quarter of 2021, double the SDG target of 3 percent, according to the Banks Remittances Prices Worldwide Database. It is cheapest to send money to South Asia (4.3 percent) and most expensive to send to Sub-Saharan Africa (7.8 percent).

The costs of sending money to Ukraine are high (7.1 percent from Czech Republic, 6.5 percent from Germany, 5.9 percent from Poland, and 5.2 percent from USA). The global goodwill towards refugees and migrants from Ukraine opens an opportunity to develop and pilot programs to facilitate their access to jobs and social services in host countries, apply simplified anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing procedures for small remittance transactions to help reduce remittance costs and mobilize diaspora bond financing.

The war in Ukraine has also affected the international payment systems with implications for cross-border remittance flows. The exclusion of Russia from SWIFT has added a national security dimension to participation in international payments systems.

Lowering remittance fees by 2 percentage points would potentially translate to $12 billion of annual savings for international migrants from LMICs, and $400 million for migrants and refugees from Ukraine, added Ratha. The cross-border payment systems, however, are likely to become multipolar and less interoperable, slowing progress on reducing remittance fees.

World Bank Launches International Working Group to Improve Data on Remittances

The COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine have further highlighted the need for frequent and timely data. In April, the World Bank, under the auspices of KNOMAD and in collaboration with countries where remittances provide a financial lifeline, launched an International Working Group to Improve Data on Remittance Flows. Having improved data on remittances can directly support the Sustainable Development Goal indicators on reducing remittance costs and help increase the volume of remittances. This will also support the first Objective of the Global Compact on Migration, to improve data.

Regional Remittance Trends

Remittance flows to the East Asia and Pacific region fell 3.3 percent following a 7.3 percent drop in 2020. Flows reached $133 billion in 2021, close to 2017 levels. Excluding China, remittances to the region grew by 2.5 percent in 2021. Remittances to the Phillipines benefitted from job creation and wage gains in the United States where a large number of Filipino migrants live. Among economies where remittance inflows constitute a high percentage of their GDP are Tonga, Samoa, the Marshall Islands, the Philippines, and Fiji. Excluding China, remittance inflows are projected to grow by 3.8 percent in 2022. The average cost of sending $200 to the region fell to 5.9 percent in the fourth quarter of 2021 compared to 6.9 percent a year earlier.

Remittance inflows to Europe and Central Asia increased by 7.8 percent in 2021, reaching historic highs of $74 billion. The growth was due in large part to stronger economic activity in the European Union and rebounding energy prices. In 2021, Ukraine received inflows of $18.2 billion, driven by receipts from Poland, the largest destination country for Ukrainian migrant workers. Personal transfers constitute a vital source of finance and growth for the economies of Central Asia, for which Russia is the prime source. As a share of GDP, remittance receipts in Tajikistan and the Kyrgyz Republic were 34 percent and 33 percent respectively in 2021. Near-term projections for remittances to the region, which are expected to fall by 1.6 percent in 2022, are highly uncertain, dependent on the scale of the war in Ukraine and the sanctions on outbound payments from Russia. By contrast, remittance flows to Ukraine are expected to increase by over 20 percent in 2022. The average cost of sending $200 to the region fell to 6.1 percent in the fourth quarter of 2021 from 6.4 percent a year earlier.

Remittance flows to Latin America and the Caribbean surged to $131 billion in 2021, up 25.3 percent from 2020 due to the strong job recovery for foreign-born workers in the United States. Countries registering double-digit growth rates included Guatemala (35 percent), Ecuador (31 percent) Honduras (29 percent), Mexico (25 percent), El Salvador (26 percent), Dominican Republic (26 percent), Colombia (24 percent), Haiti (21 percent), and Nicaragua (16 percent). Recorded flows to Mexico include funds received by transit migrants from Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Venezuela, Cuba, and others. Remittances are important as a source of hard currency for several countries for which these flows represent at least 20 percent of GDP, including El Salvador, Honduras, Jamaica, and Haiti. In 2022, remittances are estimated to grow by 9.1 percent, though downside risks remain. The average cost of sending $200 to the region was mostly unchanged at 5.6 percent in the fourth quarter of 2021 compared to a year earlier.

Remittances to the developing countries of the Middle East and North Africa region grew by 7.6 percent in 2021 to $61 billion, driven by robust gains into Morocco (40 percent) and Egypt (6.4 percent). Factors supporting the flows were economic growth in host countries in the European Union as well as transit migration which further boosted inflows to temporary host countries such as Egypt, Morocco, and Tunisia. In 2022, remittance flows will likely ease to a 6 percent gain. Remittances have long made up the largest source of external resource flows for developing MENAamong ODA, FDI, and portfolio equity and debt flowsaccounting for 61 percent of total inflows in 2021. The cost of sending $200 to MENA fell to 6.4 percent in the fourth quarter of 2021 from 6.6 percent a year ago.

Remittances to South Asia grew 6.9 percent to $157 billion in 2021. Though large numbers of South Asian migrants returned to home countries as the pandemic broke out in early 2020, the availability of vaccines and opening of Gulf Cooperation Council economies enabled a gradual return to host countries in 2021, supporting larger remittance flows. Better economic performance in the United States was also a major contributor to the growth in 2021. Remittance flows to India and Pakistan grew by 8 percent and 20 percent, respectively. In 2022, growth in remittance inflows is expected to slow to 4.4 percent. Remittances are the dominant source of foreign exchange for the region, with receipts more than three times the level of FDI in 2021. South Asia has the lowest average remittance cost of any world region at 4.3 percent, though this is still higher than the SDG target of 3 percent.

Remittance inflows to Sub-Saharan Africa soared 14.1 percent to $49 billion in 2021 following an 8.1 percent decline in the prior year. Growth in remittances was supported by strong economic activity in Europe and the United States. Recorded inflows to Nigeria, the largest recipient country in the region, gained 11.2 percent, in part due to policies intended to channel inflows through the banking system. Countries registering double-digit growth rates include Cabo Verde (23.3 percent), Gambia (31 percent), and Kenya (20.1 percent). Countries where the value of remittance inflows as a share of GDP is significant include the Gambia (27 percent), Lesotho (23 percent), Comoros (19 percent), and Cabo Verde (16 percent). In 2022, remittance inflows are projected to grow by 7.1 percent driven by continued shift to the use of official channels in Nigeria and higher food prices migrants will likely send more money to home countries that are now suffering extraordinary increases in prices of staples. The cost of sending $200 to the region averaged 7.8 percent in the fourth quarter of 2021, a small decline from 8.2 percent a year ago.

PRESS RELEASE NO: 2022/060/SPJContactsIn WashingtonRebecca Ongrong@worldbank.org

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Migration and Development Brief 36 - A War in a Pandemic: Implications of the Ukraine crisis and COVID-19 on global governance of migration and...

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban attends a press conference after signing an agreement with Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Jansa on cross-border regional cooperation. (Photo by Luka Dakskobler/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

The war in Ukraine continues to draw our attention away from one of the biggest global news stories of our time: illegal migration.

Europe is on the front lines of this mass migration into the West, but the changes will be so enormous that they will affect the United States as well. The old continent is facing catastrophic change of the sort that might open the door to leaders who will make Viktor Orbn, Hungarys right-wing prime minister, seem liberal in comparison. Jnos Batsnyi, a Hungarian poet famous in his own homeland, once wrote: Cast your watchful eyes on Paris! When it comes to Europe, American readers do well to pay attention not only to the news from Ukraine but to the borderlands of Europe as well.

Of course, migration and immigration have always been present to some extent in the Western world and always will be. The question is not whether there will be immigration, but where migrants come from, whether they are young men only, and what cultural beliefs they will bring with them.

Even mere discussion of the social changes brought about by migration triggers the liberal media in both the U.S. and Europe. They see its mention as potential incitement to hatred, leading to horrific events such as the 2019 Christchurch massacre. Though all decent observers should be careful not to incite hatred, we would be fools to ignore the facts, which exist independently of how we feel about them.

The inconvenient facts of Europes migration crisis are these: First, the population of the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region will see drastic growth in the coming decades. Second, the MENA region is set to lose much of its drinking water and food sources. Third, advances in electric vehicles and renewable energy sources could soon rob the region of much of its GDP. All of this will prompt millions of people from this region to leave for Europe.

The confluence of these factors will dramatically affect Europes cultural and political milieu, and will do so in a way that legitimizes hardline European politicians of the right. Put another way, if you dont like Viktor Orbns style of right-wing politics, wait till you see who comes after him.

Before we have a look at the influences behind the mass relocation of people today, lets try and imagine how such a huge wave of migration would take place. Although the last such event in Europe happened in 2015, for Southern Europe it started a little earlier, in 2014. By that time, one million Syrians had left their war-torn country and more than 600,000 had applied for asylum in the E.U. The Syrian civil war began in 2011, so realistically, three to four years after a more serious cataclysm, a migration crisis could develop in Europe. The immediate reaction of some highly conservative, nationalist countries, such as Hungary, was to close the borders in 2015. However, countries with liberal or moderate conservative leadership immediately responded according to a doctrinal inclusive attitude and invited the masses to Europe. We can remember the slogan of the then conservative German Chancellor Angela Merkel: Wir schaffen das, meaning we will solve it! It seems unlikely that the elite controlled by Brussels would react differently in the event of another crisis.

Contrary to Merkels slogan, the E.U. has not even solved the integration of one million people. Today we can safely say that Merkels immigration policy has been a complete failure. While in 2022 only 12.6 percent of foreigners in Germany were unemployed (thats more than a million people), 65 percent of Syrians were unable to make a living in Germany and were therefore weighing down the social system. Crime statistics do not show any better data either. In 2019, non-German citizens committed 35 percent of crimes in Germany. It is worth highlighting again the role of the Syrians: In the same year, Syrians were responsible for 12.2 percent of violent crimes. And although refugees make up only 1 to 2 percent of the German population, in 2018, for example, 12 percent of all sexual crimes were committed by refugees.

Negative social changes like this do not go unnoticed by the European masses. Immigration is fundamentally viewed negatively by people around the world, and especially in Europe. In countries where the negative effects of migration can be openly discussed, such as Hungary, Poland, or the Czech Republic, a significant proportion of the population rejects migration. A recent survey looked at the question of whether, according to the population of different E.U. member states, 70 million migrants could be successfully integrated into Europe in the coming years. The responses were staggering: It was not only Eastern European countries who found this scenario completely unrealistic, but even the more liberal German, French, Dutch, Swedish, and Flemish societies. Yet the number of 70 million is still a relatively low estimate. Incidentally, according to Eurobarometer, in 2018-2019, the European population was concerned about migration above all else.

It is not difficult to imagine that European elections in the future will be more and more about the topic of migration. The migration crisis of 2015 shook the continent, eliminating parties in the long run (think of the German CDU) and elevating parties (think of the further strengthening of Fidesz in Hungary after 2015). We have not even talked about the rise of terrorism. As is well known, several perpetrators of the attack on the Bataclan and other cafs in Paris on November 13, 2015, entered Europe during the wave of migration with false documents. The true identity of some perpetrators is still unknown.

Although many people do not remember this because of the Covid-19 pandemic, in March 2020 another migration crisis unfolded on the Turkish-Greek border. The Turkish side accused the Greek border guards of using live ammunition, which Greece denied. But let us be honest, by 2050, they will certainly be using live ammunition. And mass migration will not only be a burden upon Southern Europe. Last November, the Polish border guards fought off masses of Arab migrants on the Polish-Belarusian border with rubber bullets, tear gas, and water cannons. Muslim masses last attempted to occupy these areas in the 17th century.

Europes borders are slowly becoming a zone besieged by illegal immigrants from all directions. How long will European politicians be able to hold back the far right? By far right, I do not mean people who want to defend their homeland and their borders, but people who want to shoot with live ammunition people who look different, and whose coming to power can only bring suffering to all the people of Europe, both Christians and Muslims. They will not be the far right of the Budapest kind, but of the Christchurch kind.

***

What are the main factors causing mass migration? The most obvious one is overpopulation. Drastic population growth in the countries of the MENA region is no new phenomenon. According to U.N. data, which was analyzed in English by historian Tams Dezs, director of the Budapest-based Migration Research Institute, the regions population grew from 193 million in 1955 to 879 million in 2018. In 2018, Europes population was 746 million; the increase was therefore almost equal to Europes total population in just over 60 years. Iran, for example, had a population of 19 million in 1955, yet it has a population of 84 million today, and in 2011, 61 percent of its population was under the age of 34.

What can we expect in the future? According to conservative U.N. projections, the regions population could grow to one billion between 2020 and 2050, an increase of 400 million over the next 30 years. Let us not forget that with this calculation we have not even mentioned all the other countries in the world that do not belong to the MENA region, such as Sub-Saharan Africa, Oceania, South America and Central and East Asia.

One of the most dramatic effects of climate change will undoubtedly be a shortage of drinking water. According to the U.N. definition, when a territory withdraws 25 per cent or more of its renewable freshwater resources it is said to be water-stressed. According to a March 2022 study by Statista, the water stress level will be highest in the region we are discussing by 2040 (above 80 percent). But we may not have to wait that long. According to recent research by Pew, the worldsdry areas are getting drier much more quickly than previously thought. For example, in Iran, per capita water availability is set to fall by 50 percent by 2050.

Why is the issue of water so important? The New Security Beat blog, maintained by the Wilson Center, explains: Decreased water availability can be the principal cause of civil unrest and localized violence. Water stress can be exploited by non-state actors, violent extremist organizations, insurgents, and other belligerents. There will be more and widespread occasions of civil unrest and localized violence, with a greater sense of urgency to change perceived governmental inadequacies. The increase in war and terrorism will inevitably increase the willingness to migrate, as we saw in 2015 for Syria.

Those who pay attention not only to the daily news of the Russo-Ukrainian war, but also to the broader studies, may not be surprised to hear this: the war has already shaken the worlds food supply, and we are still at the beginning of the process. All this will be cumulatively true for the MENA region. According to Niels Graham and Inbar Peer of the GeoEconomics Center: Together, Russia and Ukraine account for nearly a third of global wheat exports. However, following Russias attack on its neighbor, both vital supply chains have been crippled. The war will impact global grain markets now acutely in the MENA region, with possibly devastating economic and political ripple effects.

What does this mean in practice? For example, Iran is one of the largest consumers of grain in the world. The country was already struggling with grain shortages due to the drought in 2021, so a huge number of imports were expected for the 2021/2022 marketing year. The country is projected to need 5 million tons of grain this year, making it the fifth largest grain importer in the world, just behind Egypt. However, the huge demand will certainly remain unmet. Ukraine and Russia account for more than a quarter of global wheat exports and nearly a fifth of corn. One of the main buyers of wheat will therefore remain bereft of sources.

According to Tams Dezs, the phenomenon of the spread of electric cars cannot be ignored either when considering the future of the MENA region. While we cant fully predict changes in oil production, both Bloomberg and J. P. Morgans predictions suggest that electric cars could account for half or more of the global car fleet by 2050. It is therefore logical to conclude that the crude oil-producing countries in the region in question, whose GDP largely relies on hydrocarbon production, will face declining market demand. This could lead to a massive loss of income and unemployment. In 2018, for example, according to the World Bank, oil rents accounted for 20 percent of Irans GDP, 43 percent in Libya, 39 percent in Iraq, and 21 percent in Syria.

According to a 2018 Gallup survey, 24 percent of the population in the MENA region wanted to emigrate in 2017. The numbers have only grown since then. According to an article in December 2021, the tendency to emigrate in Iran is 33 percent, but this was typical of the entire Arab world: two out of five young Arabs want to leave their homeland, and in some countries such as Lebanon, Libya, Yemen, and Iraq even two-thirds of young men.

In what direction will these masses leave the MENA region? They cannot go to Southern Africa precisely because of climate change, destabilization, and war. In the Sub-Saharan region, according to a Gallup survey just quoted, 33 percent of the locals were inclined to emigrate, and that was five years ago. Russia, India, and China will not let these masses in, as these countries are not very famous for their liberal immigration policies anyway, and India and China are overpopulated even today. It makes sense that these masses will head for Europe, if only because the liberal elite in Brussels has not learned from the 2015 crisis and continues to make inviting, inclusive statements, which are regularly covered by the Arabic-language media. From this, the masses draw the simple conclusion: come here, there will be peace, water, food, and work, here we welcome you!

***

So let us summarize all that has come before. The population of the Muslim world, which is already suffering from a lack of resources, is projected to grow, according to organizations that cannot be accused of spreading far-right propaganda, by a population equal to that of the E.U. by 2050. Meanwhile, there are negative social phenomena, cataclysms and upheavals hovering above this region, even one of which would be able to move the masses. Yet we have just listed at least five factorsin overpopulation, climate change, water scarcity, violence, unemployment, food shortageseven one of which could trigger a new, more powerful wave of migration than ever before, and all of which have already begun.

Why are the liberal Brusselites interested in fostering mass migration to Europe? How can they not see the social unrest and dangerous developments their actions ferment? The answer is most likely that they can see it, but they do not care. The European liberal elite has decided that the merits of turning the Old Continent into Terra Nova, the New Land for the New Europeans outweighs the downsides. Most of all they want to stay in power, a feat that is becoming increasingly difficult for left-wing and liberal parties in Western Europe, at least without the Muslim vote.

As the European right turns its attention more and more to the woes of the classical working class, so does the left concentrate more and more on the social situation and rights of the migrant masses. And the migrant masses do know how to say thank you. In the United Kingdom, 85 percent of Muslims voted on the Labour Party at the 2017 parliamentary elections, and the same trend could be detected between 2005 and 2015 as well. The British Vote Smart movement, supported by Muslim news portals and the Muslim Council of Britain, has focused on calculating the maximum number of council mandates attainable based on the Muslim population and encouraging strategic voting. Among British Muslim councilors, left-wingers were strongly overrepresented during the last two local elections. The European left is becoming more Muslim while the Muslims of Europe are becoming more left-wing.

Surveys in two other Western European countries with a large immigrant community show similar results. In the 2004 Belgian regional elections, 45.7 percent of the Muslims eligible for voting supported the Socialists, 13.3 percent the Liberals, and only 7.1 percent the Christian Democrats. During the 2007 parliamentary elections, 42.3 percent of Muslims voted for the Socialists, 16.7 percent for Christian Democrats, 14.7 percent for Liberals, and 12.2 percent for the Greens.

In France, during the 2007 French presidential elections, in the rst round, 64 percent of Muslim voters voted for socialist candidate Sgolne Royal, 19 percent for center-right candidate Franois Bayrou, and 1 percent for right-wing candidate Nicolas Sarkozy. In the second round, 95 percent of Muslim voters supported Royals camp. Just a few days before writing, a similar result occurred. Some 69 percent of the French Muslim population voted for Jean-Luc Mlenchon in the first round of the 2022 French presidential election. Behind him, second was Liberal Emmanuel Macron with 14 percent, and third with Marine Le Pen on the right with 7 percent of the Muslim vote. Mlenchon performed best in Muslim-populated neighborhoods, and perhaps unsurprisingly, Muslim leaders in France called for supporting Macron before the second round.

The growing Muslim population in Europe will, of course, demand a voice in politics over time, as we can already see in the case of the British Labor Party or the immigrant party DENK in the Netherlands and in the case of the United States (think of Ilhan Omar). The script described by Michel Houellebecq in his book Submission does not seem so detached from reality: One day, Western or Northern European countries may be led at least in part, if not entirely, by individuals with an immigrant background. In todays globalized world, America cannot escape the same troubles.

T.S. Eliot rightly pointed out that the main problem with liberalism is that it contributes to the dismantling of the very liberties that had helped bring it about in the first place. Brussels is making the same mistake today: It is persecuting the Hungarian right and its migration policy by referring to it as far right, and not seeing the reality that if Europe does not catch up with Hungarys position soon by 2050 the continent will face a real far right. The day will come when we will think of Viktor Orbn as a moderate, liberal politician, and perhaps even in Brussels they will feel nostalgic for the good old days when all they had to do was write angry communiqus against Hungary.

Lszl Bernt Veszprmy is a Hungarian historian and the editor-in-chief of Corvink, the popular science journal of Mathias Corvinus Collegium.

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Will Orban Be Remembered as a Liberal? - The American Conservative

Author: Matt Withers, ANU

Sri Lanka is in the grips of its worst economic crisis since independence. Behind recent headlines, the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed structural problems that were decades in the making. The origins of todays foreign exchange crisis are rooted in the colonial plantation sector, failed industrial policy and the faade of stability afforded by migrant remittances.

There are numerous immediate causes for the sovereign debt crisis, some of which are certainly attributable to the economic mismanagement of the Rajapaksa and Sirisena governments. Heavy international borrowing, excessive spending on largely uneconomical infrastructure projects, populist tax reforms and misguided agricultural policies have all contributed to Sri Lankas inability to weather the economic consequences of the pandemic.

Fixation on these interventions has lent support to a simplistic belief that Sri Lankas macroeconomic problems would disappear under a liberal market economy. Amid the chaos and deprivation of recent weeks, free market think tanks have espoused a tired ensemble of neoliberal reforms spanning fiscal austerity, monetarism, privatisation of state-owned enterprises, and freer trade as a pathway to recovery. Yet in the absence of any compelling examples of economic development guided by the invisible hand of market forces and extensive evidence to the contrary, calls to embrace IMF loan conditions ignore deeper structural problems that have primed the economy for crisis.

When Sri Lanka gained independence in 1948, its export sector was dominated by plantation cash crops mainly tea, rubber and coconut. With rubber prices buoyed by the Korean War and tea prices spiking shortly after, Sri Lanka enjoyed a brief period of relatively favourable terms of trade. These terms were sufficient to run a surplus and amass foreign exchange reserves, but the opportunity for industrial development was eschewed in favour of food subsidies, agricultural investment and a liberal import regime.

Declining terms of trade and the political intractability of welfare spending quickly exposed Sri Lankas over-reliance on the primary sector. The ILO observed that apart from Burma, Ceylon was the only country in Asia earning less foreign exchange in 1968 than in 1958.

The lack of resolution to Sri Lankas first foreign exchange crisis ensured the inevitability of the current one. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, jarring shifts between ideologically opposed regimes lurched the economy from autarky to partial liberalisation and back again without achieving an effective industrial policy.

The 1977 election of the JR Jayewardene government heralded a turning point, with new legislative powers used to usher in a sweeping liberalisation of the economy. Having famously declared, Let the robber barons come!, Jayewardene dismantled import controls, floated the currency, deregulated the banking system and created export processing zones for garment manufacturing. While limited foreign direct investment did come, GDP and export growth did not. The garment sector steadily created a new stream of low value-added export revenue, but not enough to offset bourgeoning imports or the economic repercussions of civil war. As of 2020, Sri Lankas export profile remained dominated by primary and low value-added goods with poor terms of trade.

Crucially, the Jayewardene government also removed restrictions on international migration, facilitating Sri Lankas relatively late entry into the Gulf labour market and laying the foundations of the remittance economy. Rapid growth in aggregate remittances from low-wage domestic and construction workers provided foreign exchange receipts to cushion the trade deficit and create some macroeconomic stability. The employment fix of temporary migration and the foreign exchange buffer of remittances has enabled Sri Lanka to endure poor terms of trade and evade the industrialisation question for decades.

But this was only possible if migration continued apace. The gradual collapse of the remittance economy has arguably been the most destabilising shock of the pandemic. Remittances accounted for almost 10 per cent of GDP in 2019. While various explanations have been given for their unexpected resilience during 2020, there was a precipitous collapse in 2021. If current monthly values are annualised, remittance receipts for 2022 will total US$2.4 billion just half of 2021 earnings. With workers returning and annual departures significantly reduced, an inevitable strain has been placed on already limited employment opportunities in both rural and urban areas.

The unprecedented shock of COVID-19 has exposed the instability of Sri Lankas economy and the absence of an endogenous engine for employment, exports and growth. Stripped of the veneer provided by migration and remittances, these underlying structural constraints have been laid bare for the first time since the 1977 pivot to economic liberalisation. These are problems that another laissez-faire turn will not fix. Just as the open economy oversaw deteriorating terms of trade as high standards of living were propped up by the poorest, embracing IMF reforms will do the same now.

What Sri Lanka needs is robust industrial policy capable of generating employment, diversifying export production, and building value into the local economy. This is a challenging task, and now is not the time for the government to take its hands off the steering wheel.

Matt Withers is Lecturer in the School of Sociology at the Australian National University.

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The making and masking of Sri Lanka's debt crisis - East Asia Forum

Stop Mass HomelessnessHelp us stop mass homelessness

Unless we act, the UK is facing a homelessness crisis this autumn.

Andy Hewett, head of advocacy at the Refugee Council, told The Big Issue: This is misleading for several reasons. There is no queue for these people to jump the vast majority will have no other way to come to the UK and claim asylum. It is completely incorrect to imply that they are not genuine, when seven out of 10 go on to be recognised as refugees by the government.

People escaping war and persecution deserve a fair hearing on UK soil, wherever they are from, and whatever their age or gender.

We need to provide more safe routes for refugees and address the reasons they are forced to flee instead of blaming, stigmatising or punishing people who have been through so much already.

Likewise, Paola Uccellari, interim chief executive of the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants said: Sadly, our leaders seemintent on scapegoating people whove fled harm, a perverse tactic used to score headlines and distract from their own political failures.

But were not stupid. The public can see what theyre trying to do and wont fall for it. If Boris Johnson truly wanted to, he could easily prevent perilous crossings and save lives by creating safe routes here, like humanitarian visas a travel document that would allow people who need protection to travel by train or ferry, just like you or I, to claim asylum.

Its time this government stopped demonising people forced to flee. What we need are fair and effective asylum rules that allow people to travel safely and rebuild their lives in our communities.

Official Home Office figures, as reported by The Times, reveal nine in 10 migrants who crossed the Channel last year were male and 28,526 peoplecrossed the Channelin 1,034 small boats.

But Colette Batten-Turner, founding executive director of Conversation over Borders, said Boris Johnsons remarks play into a harming and sexist narrative around the deserving migrant versus the undeserving migrant.

She explained: While we do receive more men than women travelling on small boats into the UK, there are multiple practical reasons behind this and much of it comes down to this governments refusal to provide safe and legal routes to asylum.

Batten-Turner said women and children are statistically more likely to be subject to sexual abuse, trafficking, violence and exploitation while travelling from a war zone to a safe country.

And due to a lack of safe and legal routes to the UK, people have to rely on people smugglers, who are notoriously expensive. Many families only have the resources to send one member on the dangerous journey, and statistically men are more likely to survive it.

She added: Once they have refugee status, many of the men we work with then hope they can apply through Family Reunion for their wife and children to join them. Therefore, by demonising male asylum seekers and making it increasingly difficult to claim asylum in the UK, this government is in fact making it more difficult for genuinewomen and child refugees to reach safety.

By portraying male asylum seekers as economic migrants not people fleeing imminent peril this government deliberately stokes division and feeds into harmful narratives around who is deserving of our help.

On Johnsons use of the phrase queue jumping, Dr Peter William Walsh, senior researcher at the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford, added: The language is somewhat misleading as it implies there is a system of queuing to access the UKs asylum system. There isnt. If you want to claim asylum in the UK the only route to doing so is to enter the UK, and for most the only way to do that is by irregular means such as in a small boat or in the back of a lorry.

The choices that people make to seek asylum in the UK rather than in other safe countries are complex and its probably reasonable to assume that most asylum seekers in France did not arrive there directly from a conflict zone either. If the entire weight of refugee crises is to be borne by immediately neighbouring states, that places a massive burden on them, which in itself creates challenges and both national and international tensions. The UK takes a relatively small share of Europes asylum seekers.

He added: One of the features of the new Nationality and Borders Act is a penalisation of those granted refugee status who arrived in the UK to claim asylum by irregular means which is basically all asylum seekers because there is no way of entering the UK legally to claim asylum preventing them from bringing family members for reunification. A consequence of this is likely to be reducing the share of women and children the UKs asylum system supports.

Charities continue to condemn Home Secretary Priti Patels Rwanda plan, and are pushing for safer routes for refugees.

Uccellari added: As we said in April, this governments Rwanda scheme should have no place in our asylum system. No-one seeking safety in the UK should face deportation to a country half way round the world, but the fact we now know Priti Patel plans to ship LGBTQ+ people, trafficking and torture survivors to Rwanda, putting them at grave risk, shows us just how depraved these plans are.

Its time Priti Patel stopped dreaming up diabolical ways to treat people seeking safety here whether thats deporting people to Rwanda, or opening up prison-like asylum camps in rural Yorkshire. What we need are fair and effective asylum rules, which give people the chance to come here safely and build their lives in our communities.

Originally posted here:

Boris Johnson criticised for saying male refugees are 'queue jumping' ahead of women and children - Big Issue

The number of illegal immigrants entering Greece in 2015 (874,735) to 2019 (92,838), with only 27,396 illegal immigrants in camps today, demonstrates a massive reduction.

The government did not specify what happened to the illegals who left the camp, so it is important to point out that there are two ways of officially leaving the camps:

1) Getting the Asylum visa2) Getting deported

Given the current political structure in Greece and its government, its far more likely that the illegal immigrants who left the camps did not leave Greece at all and instead received their visa.

From there, many left for Germany or other European countries but many still stayed in the country.

After the critical period of March 2020 , Greece strengthened the protection of its borders, whether by sea or land, with Turkey.

This has resulted in both a reduction in migration flows and arrivals, and a better management of situations, especially at sea, in order to protect as much as possible the lives of people trying to cross the Aegean, starting with Turkey.

It is indicative that in 2020, migration flows decreased by 79.5%, while in 2021 they decreased by an additional 41.1%.

In the first quarter of 2022 (as of March 31), only 1,907 migrants had entered the country from the land or sea border with Turkey.

It is indicative that at the beginning of the great immigration crisis, in 2015, 874,735 immigrants had entered the country, a huge number in proportion to the current data.

At the same time, the expansion of the list of safe countries in the last three years has brought several returns of immigrants to their homelands, with the result that the number of residents is drastically reduced.

It is noted that in relation to December 31, 2019, reductions of more than 70% are recorded.

At the same time, the enhanced surveillance of the maritime borders implemented by the Greek authorities undoubtedly contributed to the better protection of the lives of migrants.

In more than 1,500 cases handled by the Greek authorities at sea during the critical period from March 2020 until today, minimal loss of life of third-country nationals has been recorded, in contrast to the other migration corridors / other migration routes of the Central and Western Mediterranean.

The data for 2021 and the comparison of the numbers, are the biggest proof for the way in which the Greek authorities manage the delicate balances, the difficult situations and above all the human life with the required respect.

In the Eastern Mediterranean, the area where the Greek authorities are essentially called to be active in immigration, only 111 deaths were recorded, which translates to 5%.

By contrast, in the Western Mediterranean the figure rises to 19% (384 deaths), while in the Central Mediterranean it rises to 76% with 1,553 deaths of third-country nationals attempting to enter Europe by sea.

Meanwhile, on Tuesday night, Sydney Greek leaders met to raise funds to honor the unsung migrant heroes of the Greek community on the National Monument to Migration at the Australian National Maritime Museum, in recognition of the 200th anniversary of Greek independence.

The Greek Independence Bicentenary Project Fund is a collaboration between the Museum, a group of Greek philanthropists, and community organizations to honor Greek Australian migrants.

The individuals being honored will be chosen by the Greek community in partnership with the Greek Welfare Centre.

The event, at Ripples Maritime Museum, featured remarkable images from The Evzones Collection by photographer Nick Bourdaniotis and, thanks to the generosity of the photographer, two were auctioned for the Bicentenary Project Fund.

On the night $32,950 was raised. This will be added to $18,400 already raised from a range of donors including philanthropists Bill Drakopoulos, Emmanuel Alfieris, Ahepa National Educational Fund Incorporated, the Daughters of Penelope, the Lemnos Association of NSW, and AHEPA NSW.

All donations in support of the Greek Independence Bicentenary Project are fully tax-deductible and can be made to the Museum until 30 June 2022. The Project aspires to honor 200 people of Greek heritage who do not have the means to donate for the commemoration.

READ MORE: 70+ violations of Greek airspace by Turkish fighter jets, naval cooperation aircraft and UAVs.

See the article here:

Migrant Numbers In Greece Have Decreased By 70.5% Since 2019 - GreekCityTimes.com

Exiles: Three Island Journeys

William Atkins

Faber, pp. 336, 20

What does home mean? Where your dead are buried, as Zulus believe? Or where you left your heart, as a migrants saying goes? In these pages William Atkins melds history, biography and travel into a meditation on exile and the meaning of home. It is a volume for our times, as the author seeks to reveal something about the nature of displacement itself.

Part One introduces the three 19th-century political exiles who form the spine of the book. Louise Michel (1830-1905), the illegitimate daughter of a maid in Haute-Marne, became an anarchist and Communard, who murdered policemen with her Remington carbine. Dinuzulu kaCetshwayo (1868-1913), the young king of the Zulu nation, took up arms to resist southern Africas colonial overlords. The Ukrainian-born socialist revolutionary Lev Shternberg (1861-1927) committed himself to the overthrow of tsarism. All three were packed off to remote islands, each a banished exile similar to a Roman relegatio like Ovid, whom Atkins invokes.

In Part Two, the author, whose previous books include The Immeasurable World, an account of seven desert journeys, fills out the three periods of exile and follows in the footsteps of his rebels. In the French colony of New Caledonia in the South Pacific, 17,000 miles from Paris, Michel studied papaya jaundice and tried to farm silkworms. Dinuzulu departed for the British dependency of St Helena in the South Atlantic, 2,500 miles from home, travelling on a mail ship (as I did: in my case the last one, in 2016). There he and his 13-strong retinue hosted a party for Queen Victorias birthday. The St Helena Guardian praised Dinuzulus dignity. He wrote home: I am like the fly wrapped round in the spiders web, though its heart is yet alive.

Sakhalin Island in the Russian Far East, a byword for bleakness and isolation, lies 28 miles north of Japan in the Sea of Okhotsk. Shternberg went there, 11,000 miles from home. He devoted himself to ethnography and produced a study of the Nivkhi people, known to Chekhov as Gilyak: Anton Pavlovich made Sakhalin famous when he published a book on the penal colony in 1893 (he overlapped with Shternberg, but the pair never met).

Atkins is a character in the story rather than an agent of the material: in effect he becomes the books fourth protagonist, weaving his experiences with those of his subjects, making links between him and them (during their sea voyages they are freed to occupy a common realm outside space and time). He is an amiable companion, deploying an engaging conversational tone (I have the feeling... ) and positioning himself as far as he can from the Ive-Got-a-Big-One tribe of white chumps in remote lands. At a party in the absolute shade characteristic of banyans in New Caledonia, he hears a Kanak telling his neighbour: If he [Atkins] doesnt dance Ill kill him.

It is hard to jemmy travelogue into historical material. Even though the author labours at his links with determination and intelligence, the transitions dont always work. The effort slows the narrative. But Atkins hears echoes of the past in the present as the rest of us could all the time if we listened.

Michel emerges as the fullest character, because she left more primary material, notably a published memoir. Atkins marshals that and all his sources adroitly. He is an able writer, picking the fertile fact from the heap of negligible things. Michels friend Victor Hugo said he had to eat rat pt during the Commune; Atkins has latex sausage on the overnight ferry from Vanino to Sakhalin.

Part Three covers the post-exile periods. A crowd of 20,000 met the 50-year-old Michel and her five cats at Saint-Lazare seven years after she had sailed away. (Streets and schools carry her name today.) She continued living a public life as a radical activist, often from a prison cell. When the 38-year-old Dinuzulu steamed back to Africa after seven years on St Helena, his entourage swollen by progeny and five donkeys, a boundary commission had divided his kingdom into dozens of petty chiefdoms. Home was no longer home, and things went badly for him. As for Shternberg, away for eight years, Engelss proto-ethnography had influenced him, and when the German read his Sakhalin field reports, he rejoiced that they supported the Marxist theory of social evolution. Shternbergs Social Organisation of the Gilyak People came out in 1905.

Atkins says he was drawn to his subjects because their lives were shaped by three winds that blow strongly today nationalism, autocracy and imperialism. He wrote memorably in The Immeasurable World about the migrant crisis, in that case the Mexican tragedy in Arizona. This new book ends with the assertion that his own nostalgia, evoked by the voyages described, is for a country that no longer exists his own, the sceptred one that for so long welcomed strangers and exiles: the safe harbour.

See the original post here:

A meditation on exile and the meaning of home - The Spectator

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is run by my good friend David Beasley. Under his leadership, WFP was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize for its efforts to combat hunger, promote peace in conflict-affected areas and prevent the weaponization of food as part of war and hostilities.

David will remain at WFPs helm for another year, which is very good news. The world is about to find out just how vital his steady leadership is during a time of crisis.

Global food prices are a whopping 34 percent higher than they were this time last year. The high cost of food has complicated humanitarian efforts to help those suffering from food insecurity at a time the world is seeing those in need increase dramatically.

The massive market disruptions brought on by Russias ruthless invasion of Ukraine will make it more difficult for WFP and other organizations to feed the hungry. Ukrainian ports are closed, and likely to remain so until the invasion ends. Additionally, Russia is threatening to only export agricultural and food products to countries it considers friendly. This spells trouble for many nations that rely on exports out of the Black Sea.

Russia and Ukraine are major grain exporters to regions of the world most at-risk for food insecurity-driven conflict. On average 18 percent of corn, 30 percent of wheat, 71 percent of barley, and close to 80 percent of sunflower-based cooking oils are exported from these two countries annually. Disruptions in the supply of these commodities will affect food security and further increase ballooning global inflation.

President Biden has acknowledged the looming threat of international food shortages is going to be real. Despite this pronouncement, his administration has been slow to act.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has not provided Congress its plans to address the forthcoming global food crisis and support domestic producers efforts to meet increasing demand.

Its past time for the administration to do that as well as empower American farmers to help ward off this emergency.

If USDA were to grant flexibilities for current or prospective participants in its programs, such as the Conservation Reserve Program, millions of acres of cropland and pasture that would have otherwise remained idle can be farmed for food production. Its a win-win solution.

Time is of the essence. An estimated 323 million people are at risk of food insecurity this year. Furthermore, WFP estimates more than 44 million people around the world are on the brink of famine.

Arkansas family farmers stand ready to help to bridge the gap globally and help bring down food costs here at home. President Biden should allow them to scale-up capacity to aid those desperately in need.

As major importers of Ukrainian and Russian agriculture products, countries across North Africa and the Middle East have experienced a significant increase in wheat prices as domestic production has been crippled by droughts. These same nations will be dealt another blow when the supply of wheat exported via the Black Sea dwindles. The economic conditions in these parts of the world are already grim. Inaction could very well lead to Arab Spring 2.0.

Violence breaking out in any of these countries could also result in migrant crises with tragic consequences as people take drastic measures to flee their war-torn homelands.

David Beasley and his dedicated team at WFP are on a mission to prevent these scenarios from occurring. Farmers in The Natural State and across the country can help accomplish that goal. However, what is missing is leadership from the Biden administration to make this happen.

Follow this link:

More Must be Done to Address the Looming Global Food Shortage - Log Cabin Democrat

Abdelfetah Mohamed is a volunteer with the Italian Red Cross. He works as the cultural mediator on the Ocean Viking, a search and rescue ship operated by SOSMditerrane, with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies providing humanitarian assistance on board. He is from Eritrea.

I sought safety. That was my destination. I wasnt thinking of European cities or towns. I just wanted to be safe.

Thats why I left my country. Its why I didnt stop in those nearby either I had to keep moving. First through Sudan and Libya, then on a wooden boat across the Mediterranean Sea, where I was eventually picked up by a rescue ship.

More than 10 years have passed since then, and I live in Italy now. But through my work, I find myself reliving that experience over and over.

The most important part of my job is telling the people we rescue: You are safe. Its as if Im also telling their mothers, telling their brothers and sisters and all their villages too. I celebrate this moment with them; I celebrate their lives with them. Because too many others never get to hear those words.

In the last few months, weve seen tremendous solidarity with those fleeing the war in Ukraine; it is incredibly inspiring. Yet witnessing the overarching willingness to help victims of this crisis, while so many who flee suffering and persecution elsewhere end up at the bottom of the sea, raises the question: Do human lives really carry such difference in value?

It was never my first choice to undertake such a dangerous journey to seek safety so far from home. But the lack of available legal channels to access international protection made it my only option it was a necessity. And while states argue about migration policies and practices, for us volunteers, it is simply about saving lives and alleviating suffering.

When I left Eritrea 20 years ago, fleeing compulsory military service and forced labor programs, I didnt know where Europe was, what it was like or how to get there. It also didnt occur to me that I was saying goodbye to my family, and my country, for the last time. Like my brothers and sisters in Ukraine today, my only concern was avoiding bullets. And I am one of the relatively few from my part of the world fortunate enough to reach a place of safety in the end.

When I was traveling through the desert in Libya, I remember seeing a group of people women, men and children lying crumpled on top of each other, naked. I asked the driver why they were naked, and he told me that their car had broken down and they had burned everything to try and attract attention, including their own clothes.

What is the use of clothing anyway, when one is facing death? They were just some unknown people, who came into the world naked, and left naked. People so off the radar they had to burn everything in the hopes of being seen.

Still, even that was not enough.

You meet merchants of death in Libya too those who organize the trips to leave by boat, who are your only hope of escaping that hell. When you experience how horrible life there is the prisons, torture, gangs and slave markets you are not afraid of death, only of dying without trying.

When I finally reached the coast and went toward the waiting boat, I could barely walk from both fear and hope. I saw mothers throwing their children onto the boat and following after them. I did not wonder why a mother would throw her child inside this small boat. I was sure that whatever she had seen must be more terrible than the sea and its darkness.

We set out at night. Eventually, the time comes when you cant see anyone, not even yourself, but the prayers, crying and moaning remain. At that moment, the sounds of children are the only source of certainty that you are still alive.

We were at sea like this for three days until the rescue ship found us.

One might ask why someone decides to go through all this. But just look at what is happening in the countries people are coming from: the suffering caused by conflict, hunger, poverty, climate change and many other factors that are often present in their surrounding countries too.

And those who leave dont just do it for themselves theyre an investment for their families and communities. One of my friends sends the money he earns back home to build a school in his village. Another one has funded access to safe water. The money that migrants around the world send home is three times more than what comes from aid.

The Ukraine crisis and the response to it have now shown us what is possible when we put humanity first, when there is global solidarity and the will to assist and protect the most vulnerable. This must be extended to everyone in need, wherever they come from.

Nobody should have to experience what I have been through in my own country, on my migration journey or when I arrived in Europe.

Everyone deserves to hear the words, Youre safe.

The rest is here:

En route to Europe I didnt fear death only dying without trying - POLITICO Europe

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Experience of discrimination during COVID-19 pandemic: the impact of public health measures and psychological distress among refugees and other...

SET amid glorious rolling farmland, the picturesque North Yorkshire village of Linton-on-Ouse is an unlikely epicentre of Britains migrant crisis.

It lies some 300 miles from Dover, with ponies clip-clopping beneath its cherry blossom trees.

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There is one shop, few buses and its only pub is currently closed.

Yet soon the close-knit community of around 700 could be joined by as many as 1,500 male asylum seekers housed in a reception centre in a former RAF base, yards from Lintons main street.

The Government plan has been met with dismay by many villagers and the facility has already been christened Guantanamo-on-Ouse by a local councillor.

Teaching assistant and mum-of-one Jade Bov, 49, told me: Were all a bit shell-shocked. Were just a small village with one road in and one road out. An extra 1,500 people roaming around it is going to have an impact, whatever the Home Office say.

Villagers I spoke with stressed they are not racist or against accepting asylum seekers but said that Linton-on-Ouse was completely unsuited to a large reception centre.

IT consultant Omar Flatekval, 47, who has lived in the village for eight years, described Linton as idyllic.

The dad-of-four added: We love living here. Theres horse-riding out the back, a school in the village, its wonderful.

That will change with 1,500 new arrivals, wherever they come from. The village wont be able to cope with that amount of people.

Linton-on-Ouse is a cornerstone in Home Secretary Priti Patels latest attempt to fix what she calls the broken asylum system which currently costs the UK 1.5billion a year.

Asylum seekers predominantly adult single men from Syria, Iran, Iraq and Eritrea will live at the centre while their claims are processed.

They will be free to come and go from the old RAF base but will be expected back on site by 10pm.

Announced to little fanfare at the same time as a plan to send some asylum seekers 4,000 miles to Rwanda, central Africa, it aims to cut the eye-watering 4.7million daily bill for housing migrants in hotels.

But refugee charities have labelled the new centre a cross between a hostel and a low-security prison.

City of York Lib Dem councillor Darryl Smalley called it a Guantanamo-on-Ouse plan, after the controversial US detention camp in Cuba.

He said it was an ill-thought-out, cruel and morally bankrupt ploy to reduce our obligations to the most desperate people.

The Home Office insists the centre will provide safe and fit-for-purpose accommodation for asylum seekers who would otherwise be destitute.

A spokesman added: To suggest otherwise or to make inaccurate, extreme comparisons is offensive, misleading and scaremongering.

Locals say they were not consulted about turning the former RAF base, ten miles north of York, into a giant one-stop migrant reception centre.

Health worker Neil Goodridge, 59, who lives in the village, said: Were a relatively liberal country and all for helping out but migrants need to be somewhere where they will have services. This is the wrong place.

Were a village of 700 people and they are effectively dropping 1,500 single men here. Its an invasion for us. Down in Westminster theyve thought, Weve got a military base which is surrounded by fences. But it isnt, its a 760-acre open site.

Were a village of 700 people and they are effectively dropping 1,500 single men here. Its an invasion for us.

Ive got no issues with people coming to Britain but I just think it should be a better location. Theres no facilities here for them.

The Home Office says the site will have self-sufficient accommodation and provisions for healthcare, faith and other services on site to minimise impact on the local community.

But shop assistant Emily Gowlett said: There will be more people coming than actually live in the village now. Theres not a lot for them to do here. Theres only four buses daily to the village so they cant really go anywhere.

The 28-year-old mum-of-two added: I havent got issues with people coming to Britain but I think the reception centre should be in a better location. Theyd be happier in a city with more to do.

Some villagers are worried about the effect on house prices.

According to property website Rightmove, the average home in the area is worth just under 238,000.

Corporate trainer Paul Gerrad, 62, had already decided to move before the plans were announced.

He said: I think if it was families coming people wouldnt be worried but its 1,500 young men. Ill be honest, Im glad were moving.

Local Tory MP Kevin Hollinrake has written to the Home Secretary asking her to overturn the plan.

He wrote: While supportive of providing safe harbour and government accommodation for those fleeing persecution, I do not believe that the small rural village of Linton-on-Ouse is the appropriate place to house up to 1,500 young, male asylum seekers.

Local authority Hambleton District Council is to mount a legal challenge to the plan just as this week the Prime Minister criticised liberal lawyers for trying to scupper the Rwanda asylum plan, which No10 now concedes could take months to implement.

The backlog of asylum seekers in hotels is not only vexing the Home Office but the migrants themselves.

An ill-thought-out, cruel and morally bankrupt ploy to reduce our obligations to the most desperate people.

Traumatised after fleeing the Taliban, Farhad Tabesh now lives in a spa hotel on the Manchester Airport Relief Road.

A former admin worker for the British Embassy in Kabul, the articulate 22-year-old told me: I have good skills. I want to get a job and move from the hotel to my own place.

It may be a long wait. For Farhad is among 12,000 Afghans currently languishing in hotels, waiting to be housed costing taxpayers a staggering 1.2million a day.

I first met Farhad whose name we have changed at a jumble of tents on a freezing canal bank at Grade-Synthe near Dunkirk on January 21.

With his decent English and a personable smile, he told me: When I get to Britain Id like to go to university and then work in a bank.

Shivering in the drizzle, he told how he had fled Afghanistan in 2019 after working for a Kabul logistics company that did work at the British and Australian Embassies there.

After receiving Taliban threats because he was working for the British, he fled via Pakistan, Iran, Turkey, Greece, Italy and then France, before taking a 2,500 journey on a rickety dinghy across the English Channel.

Nearly 700 migrants have made it across the Channel in just three days this week. A record 7,389 have made it to the UK this year, treble last years rate.

Farhad whose uncle was shot by the Taliban was then housed in the Best Western Manchester Airport Stanley Hotel, where he has remained, kicking his heels, for three months.

The four-star hotel which is currently closed to the public has a Very Good rating on travel website Tripadvisor, though its spa is now closed.

But two of the most recent Tripadvisor reviews were scathing, with one saying avoid should be demolished.

Another post last year said the food was awful and his party had been treated like cattle.

I havent got issues with people coming to Britain. Theyd be happier in a city with more to do.

But when I met Farhad nearby he said he was very grateful to be housed at the hotel, ten miles from Manchesters centre, and to receive free health care and ample food.

He said: Its a good hotel. We all have our own room and I like the food. I appreciate the help Ive received very much.

Theres maybe around 50 people here from Afghanistan, Syria, Iran, Pakistan and Africa. Its all young, single men.

The Home Offices new plan would see new arrivals who were not transported to Rwanda staying at the Linton-on-Ouse centre while their claims are processed.

Kevin Robinson, 65, who runs a guest house in the village, said: Were told it wont be secure so asylum seekers can walk in and out as they wish.

If these are people applying for the right to live in the UK and they think they wont get permission, theyll just walk out and disappear to Leeds or London.

Yet Priti Patel will hope this tranquil village a world away from Middle East trouble spots will ease the broken system she presides over.

If not, the patience of voters could soon wear thin.

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Inside the sleepy Yorkshire village which will soon house 1,500 asylum seekers where locals are ... - The US Sun

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has led to the death of civilians, destruction of lives and livelihoods, and displacement of millions of people. It has also attracted unprecedented media coverage, explains Dr Eva Pooska-Kimunguyi, a Research Fellow in the Department of Media and Communications. This article is based on her research project that explores political and media constructions of the war and highlights their contradictions, racism, and open hypocrisy.

The distinct character of the coverage of the war in Ukraine suggests that whether the war is covered or not, whether civilian fighters are seen as heroes or suspects, whether refugees are deemed worthy or not, largely depends on the racial background of its subjects. Racism remains a dominant organising force of the global politics of war.

There was an initial confusion about the kind of words to describe the developments in Ukraine when the images of Russian tanks rolling into its territory emerged. The special military operation, a term promoted in Russias official narrative of the invasion, did not find traction amongst western media with global aspirations. The New York Times, for example, talked about tensions, the German broadcaster Deutsche Welle chose to inform on a war and the BBC spoke of a large military offensive. The Financial Times aimed at a bit of precision by calling it Putins war. The CNN reported on Russia early movements as an invasion, as did the French international broadcaster which talked about the Russian invasion from the start. Europes top officials condemned the Russian aggression and a hideous and barbaric venture of Vladimir Putin. Whatever the choice of words each outlet decided to use, news stories began pouring by the hundreds.

Other wars have been covered largely with a veil of silence. The war in Yemen, for example, has entered its eighth year. Over 400,000 people have been killed and almost four million have been displaced. Saudi Arabia and its coalition keep bombing and blocking the cities, depriving the people of food and medicine. Western countries keep supplying the weapons to Saudi Arabia and stay silent on the growing death toll. Global media have dedicated a handful of stories to this catastrophe. The lives of the Somalis, Eritreans, Palestinians or Yemenis are seen as less newsworthy, their plight as undeserving of the audiences attention.

The conflicts in Ethiopia, Syria, Somalia, Kashmir, Palestine, or Afghanistan also have not received the same level of media attention as the developments in Ukraine. Instead, most of the Western media has displayed a distinct lack of concern for peoples right to freedom, sovereignty, equality, justice, their right to have rights. This absence of coverage leaves their perpetrators off the hook, unaccountable for their atrocities and military occupation. To Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), it is clear that the world is not treating the human race the same way as he questions whether the world really gives equal attention to Black and white lives.

The coverage of resistance against Russias aggression in Ukraine has quickly become the main theme of the broadcasts. When Ukrainian civilians took up arms in an act of defence, western media have supported their right to resistance and sovereignty. They praised the digitally savvy public opposition for outwitting Russian invaders. They provided instructions about how to protect yourself against cyberattacks, as if media themselves were part of the war, preparing people for battle.

As Ukrainian civilians hurl Molotov cocktails at Russian tanks and produce self-made bombs, similar acts committed elsewhere are treated differently by the same media. Young Palestinians, for example, defending their homeland from their occupants, are better known as suspects who hurled Molotov cocktails at passing drivers, endangering their lives. That the arrests follow and death comes to teenage boys is reported as a fact of life in the West Bank, a natural way of dealing with a terrorist cell, a term not afforded to Ukrainian civilians for their defence of their homeland. Media coverage of the Palestinians suffering does not condemn their oppressor in the same way the Ukrainian oppressor is denounced. Reporting on the Israeli military operations in the West Bank bears a striking resemblance to the Russian terminology used to describe the Russian activities in Ukraine.

The supportive discourse of war and popular resistance offered by western media to Ukraine is missing from their representations of other wars and other acts of resistance. The sheer number of stories devoted to the struggle of Ukrainians leave other genocides, wars and ethnic cleansings underreported, silencing other peoples right to have rights.

Previous discourses of forced migration in Europe turned refugees into a threat. Populist leaders led the discursive construction of Europe under siege. Examples include campaign posters with people of colour heading towards the white cliffs of Dover; the fear of Islamisation of the Netherlands and of the Muslim invasion threatening the Christian identity of the Hungarian nation. The discourse of threat was picked up by the EU leadership. Jean-Claude Juncker, for example, the President of the EU Commission at the time of the 2015 crisis, saw refugees as frightening numbers and refused to house all the misery of the world despite Europes imagined status of a haven of stability. What he forgot to include in his address to the EU Parliament was how Europe was the cause of this misery, how Europeans and their American allies generated those migrants by their own invasions and occupations, and how the plunder of the Global South after independence by the advanced economies from the Global North, including Europe, appropriated from the South commodities worth $2.2 trillion enough to end extreme poverty 15 times over.

Media narratives of migration followed suit. In the UK, reporting on the earlier migration crisis saw refugees as the source of crime and violence. News pointed to rioting migrants in Greece, saw them as driving crime in Germany, and thematically connected migration to law and order, mostly illegality. The language of a migrant mayhem, employed by the media on the left, right and centre organised migrants into boxes: their brown-ness, black-ness and Muslim-ness was connected to criminality and terror, their Eastern European-ness evoked the language of plantations that reduced humans to physical capacities to be put at the service of the British consumer. Overall, the racialised mix of knowledge produced by the media re-created the age-old hierarchies of the colonial system based on division amongst humans into superior and inferior species.

This collective production of culturally prejudiced knowledge by media and political discourses created refugees as Europes enemy, and divided humans into us and them.

The discursive exercise of turning refugees into threat is missing from narratives about Ukraine. The Bulgarian Prime Minister Kiril Petkov, for example, saw his fellow Easterners in a different light from previous waves of migration:

These [Ukrainians] are not the refugees we are used toThese are our relatives, family. These are Europeans, intelligent, educated people, some of them are programmers. We, like everyone else, are ready to welcome them. This is not the usual refugee wave of people with an unclear past. None of the European countries is worried about them.

The intellectual capacity of Eastern Europeans was less appreciated by the British immigration minister who rushed to turn the Ukrainian refugees into cheap labour to stock up on the (sub)human resources otherwise depleted by Brexit and Covid pandemic. Although the minister was forced to change his mind, and doors were opened to them, the Home Secretary worked out a plan to discard other asylum seekers to Africa, not too far from the place where her personal migrant journey began before dictator Idi Amin declared no room in Uganda for the countrys 80,000 Asians. Patel is now expelling others, especially the male boat people of darker colours, that she thinks are less worthy of protection.

Other European countries that have long been advocating for stricter border controls and against admitting more refugees to the European Union rushed to open their borders to the Ukrainian refugees from day one of the war. This is not to criticise Europeans for their words and actions. On the contrary, the generosity of citizens, the wide-open hearts, homes and borders, as well as job offers, are all to be praised for solidarity and acts of kindness in the hour of need. The same warm welcome was not, however, extended to the refugees from Syria, Afghanistan, or Libya when walls were erected, migrants pushed back, or left to die at the borders of the European nations. Hence, the current compassionate discourse, swift policy and immediate action reveal Europes double standards for non-white asylum seekers.

Media reporting has also been accused of different treatment of the Ukrainian refugees from the very beginning. CBS foreign correspondent saw Ukraine as civilised, not as:

a place, with all due respect, like Iraq or Afghanistan, that has seen conflict raging for decades. This is a relatively civilized, relatively European I have to choose those words carefully, too city, one where you wouldnt expect that, or hope that its going to happen.

For a BBC reporter, it was very emotional to see European people with blue eyes and blond hair being killed every day.

Ukrainians fleeing death and destruction are not seen as migrants by the western media. They receive the rightful place as refugees in the politics of war. They are not constructed as Europes enemy. They are seen as people, not a threat, caring for their homeland, families, and children. They have names, faces, and skills that can be useful to host countries. Most importantly, they have a voice that tells their personal stories. Media genuinely worry about their problems, safety and wellbeing, as citizens organise help. And here again, the affectionate headlines reveal double standards of some western media in their coverage of the war in Ukraine, a treatment not afforded to other people fleeing different wars and persecution.

How do we explain the different treatment of various wars, resistance, and refugees by western media?

The first answer brings race and racism to the fore. Media are complicit in promoting how we see and think about occupation, resistance, refuge, of whos worthy and who is not, of who deserves rights and who does not, from a specifically racial lens. Media have a role to play in the creation of race and racial divisions.

But there is another explanation that lies at the bottom of medias perceptions, especially those in the West. Media are not independent or objective observers, as we are frequently told. They have strategic political objectives to drum up support for specific ideologies, a specific world order. They manufacture consent for the war if this world order is to be created or maintained through it. When the aggressor is Russia, the pronounced enemy of the liberal West, the media message generates anger at the atrocities committed, sympathy and solidarity towards the victims. When the liberal West drops bombs on Middle Eastern and African towns and populations, information silence descends on the media. This silence protects the occupiers and their allies and does not keep them accountable for their pursuit of death. Media are no mere observers whose job is to report the objective world to their audiences. They are subjective co-creators of the shifting global order in a bigger game of geopolitics. This game continues to revolve around nationalism, its intrinsic violence that makes space for capital and is shaped around the colour line. Their audiences, imagined as made of playdough, are moulded, influenced, and manipulated to dance to the same tune. It is up to us to stop dancing.

This article givesthe views of the author and does not represent the position of theMedia@LSE blog, nor of the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Note on funding: This article is part of the research project on media and migration funded by Polish National Agency for Academic Exchange (NAWA) under the MAD Project PPI/APM/2018/1/00019.

Featured image: Photo by engin akyurt on Unsplash

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War, Resistance and Refuge: Racism and double standards in western media coverage of Ukraine - London School of Economics

First published MAY 11, 2022 Updated 7 hours ago

Immigration

The Government is selling it as the smart option and the answer to the business communities prayers, but will the new immigration settings ingrain inequities in migrant communities?

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, speaking to a Business NZ lunch in Auckland on Wednesday via video call, said she was having the very 2022 experience of isolating with her family, before announcing the final stages of border reopening will be moved up to July.

She followed the announcement up with the similarly very 2022 experience of fielding a question from Max Key, who approached the microphone and asked the Prime Minister if she was worried about intergenerational fairness, what with the big build-up in government debt from all the borrowing with the Government.

Ardern batted the question away with a reference to the questioners own father, comparing current government debts to those following the Global Financial Crisis, when Key Sr was at the helm.

But while there was a self-congratulatory and optimistic tone underlying the new settings, which see the border fully reopening on July 31 and Government support to shift away from a reliance on low-skilled migrant labour, the spectre of economic dread did seem to hang over some of the reveal.

There are heavy clouds over the world at the moment, Ardern said after recounting a visit to the ports of Singapore - a way station for a fifth of New Zealands total exports - where shipping containers were stacked high as far as the eye could see.

The immigration settings change was packaged as a salve to one of the larger problems the Government is willing to admit exists around immigration - a heavy reliance on low-skilled migrant labour.

A big part of this is the introduction of a Green List of roles which would allow expedited residency. Its a move Ardern called both a significant milestone and a chance to put immigration settings on a more sustainable footing.

These roles include health workers, tradespeople, engineers, teachers, dairy farm managers and tech sector specialists. The list will be divided into two groups, with 56 roles on a straight-to-residence pathway and 29 roles on a two-year work-to-residence pathway.

Immigration Minister Kris Faafoi - appearing in physical space - called the new settings a rebalance and said it would support certain sectors to transition away from their reliance on lower wage migrants, which Covid-19 has shown is not a sustainable business model.

But while Ardern said the steps taken today were the smart option - saying overall we had an opportunity here to get smart about immigration, and we've taken it - questions were raised about the visa processing capacity at Immigration New Zealand, which has seen some visa wait times of overa year despite increases in expenditure and staff in the past few years.

Faafoi said he was reasonably confident that the push for extra immigration staff and the automating of many visa processes by bringing them online will stop the office from being overloaded.

Its a different tack to last month when the Prime Minister gave limited visa processing capacity as the reason why non-visa waiver travellers may have to wait until October to enter.

Furthermore, restricting the residency pathways to specific roles and necessitating double the median wage to be eligible for roles not on the Green List may cut off migrant workers who could fill some of the countrys most important labour shortages.

Greens immigration spokesperson Ricardo Menndez March pointed out that groups like aged care workers and migrants from countries like India and the Phillipines were less likely to be served by new immigration pathways requiring them to be above wage thresholds.

The Government is effectively entrenching a two-tier immigration system: one that rewards high-income migrants while keeping low-waged workers on a precarious and temporary status, he said.

The Greens are calling for an immigration rebalance that is centred on workers rights and the wellbeing of our communities. This announcement fails to provide certainty for the types of job many low-income and essential workers who we congratulated throughout the pandemic.

Perhaps the true intentions of the announcement are made clear by choice of venue - a meeting of the business leaders of Auckland, rather than in front of migrants and people with family still stuck overseas.

Its sending a signal that what they are doing is reducing migrants to economic units to support businesses making profit as opposed to just human beings who are making contributions to our communities and deserve to be treated as such, Menndez March said.

Median wage is $27 an hour, meaning that the double median wage requirement of visa pathway for non-Green List roles needs to be an hourly wage of $54, or over $112,000per year.

There are just over 54,000 migrants in New Zealand on temporary visas who earn less than the wage cap, meaning they are likely to be blocked from the expedited residency pathways.

The countries most represented in this group are India (14,373) and the Phillipines (12,052).

A wage gap that leaves migrants from the Global South more often in lower-earning categories means there is certainly more to be happy about in todays announcement for migrants from wealthier countries.

What we know is the large majority of people earning less than 200 percentof median wage are people like from India and the Phillipines and the reality is by setting pathways to residency that are tied to wages, on top of the fact we know there is a wage gap, we are creating a white immigration policy - whether it is intentional or not, Menndez March said.

This is of particular relevance for sectors like aged care, whichsource a large number of migrant workers from countries like the Phillipines.

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Not much for low-waged migrants in immigration reset - Newsroom

Governor Also Announces Additional Action On The Border

PHOENIX Governor Doug Ducey is calling on the leaders of social media companies to step up and take action to protect youth from cartel recruiting messages luring them into transnational human smuggling activity.

In a letter to the leaders of four social media companies, Governor Ducey called on thecompanies to do a better job at monitoring their platforms and preventing them from beingexploited by cartels. The Governor wrote:

Cartels [are] preying on those seeking refuge for a better life, and facilitating the flow of drugs into American communities. And these criminals are using your companies social media platforms to make it happen.

Transnational criminal organizations and cartels are capitalizing on misguided policies and lack of action by the federal government to smuggle dangerous drugs, weapons, vulnerable people and more over the border.

Social media serves as the recruiting method for these criminals. Arizona law enforcement has tracked posts and messages that mislead American citizens, who are often young, glamorizing a lifestyle made possible by human smuggling pay days.

In a story last week in the Sierra Vista Herald, Cochise County Sheriff Mark Dannels described social media posts offering drivers $2,000 per person to take over the border illegally and ways to evade law enforcement. Sheriff Dannels office partnered with Border Patrol, the Arizona Department of Public Safety and local law enforcement to crack down on erratic drivers bringing migrants over the border, but have seen the cartels offering to pay more money and entice drivers to take their chances with law enforcement.

In the letter to social media companies, the governor outlined the steps they can take to curb illegal activity on their platforms.

Your companies have established reporting mechanisms for criminal behavior, but we need stronger action to prevent this activity that is drawing our young people into a life of crime. Inaction only enables cartels to victimize countless youth and families. This crisis presents a real opportunity for you and your companiesto take action and make a difference.

The governor and law enforcement have worked closely to direct resources to mitigate this problem. Most recently, following ameeting with county sheriffs at the end of April, Governor Ducey signed legislation to crack down on human smuggling.

These social media recruitment efforts lure teens and young adults into life-threatening smuggling operations way beyond what any child should experience. They are told to break traffic laws to evade police, endangering themselves, passengers and law enforcement as seen at the end of April when a Phoenix teenager was involved in an attempted human smuggling operation that turned deadly.

I applaud Governor Ducey for reaching out to social media companies to stop this criminal activity,said Pinal County Sheriff Lamb.Most Americans do not realize how blatantly the cartels are utilizing social media platforms to recruit young Americans to participate in dangerous drug and human smuggling. Cracking down on cartel operations is a team effort. Were all Americans we need to band together to stop transnational criminal organizations at every turn.

Additional Border-Related Actions

In addition to the letter, the governor announced additional actions aimed at enhancing border security and alleviating the impact of an unsecure border on Arizona communities. The efforts are made possible by use of the Border Security Fund, which was established in 2021 in partnership with the Arizona Legislature.

TheDepartment of Emergency and Military Affairs (DEMA) is sending additional National Guard personnel to assist DPS with efforts to counter human smuggling. The service members will provide data analysis and administrative assistance, collaborating with Arizona Border Strike Force analysts at the Arizona Counter Terrorism Information Center (ACTIC).

With Arizona community resources under all-time demand, and little action or assistance from the federal government, individuals who entered Arizona seeking asylum have the opportunity to voluntarily be transported to Washington, D.C. The transportation will include meals, and onboard staffing and support.

DEMA and the Department of Agriculture are actively working with farmers and other landowners along the southern border to provide support to secure their property from the influx of migrant crossings.

BACKGROUND

On April 19, Governor Ducey and 25 other governors launched the American Governors' Border Strike Force, a partnership to do what the federal government wont: secure the southern border. Governors Ducey and Abbott joined Martha MacCallum on Fox News to talk about the initiative that same day.

On April 1, Governor Ducey called on the Biden administration to maintain Title 42 to protect public health and safety.

In his January State of the State address, Governor Ducey proposed the idea for the American Governors' Border Strike Force. He said, Texas Governor Greg Abbott and I are teaming up to form the American Governors' Border Strike Force a commitment between states to do what the Biden administration is unwilling to do: Patrol and secure our border.

On November 30, 2021, Governor Ducey sent a team of the states top law enforcement officers to meet with their counterparts in Texas to discuss the current border crisis, share best practices, and discuss future partnerships, including the American Governors Border Strike Force. The delegation included Major General Kerry Muehlenbeck, Department of Public Safety Director Heston Silbert and Department of Homeland Security Director Tim Roemer.

On October 6, 2021, Governor Ducey joined Governor Abbott and eight other governors in Mission, Texas, for a border security briefing and press conference, where they detailed a ten-point plan for the Biden administration to resolve the border crisis.

On September 20, 2021, Governor Ducey and 25 fellow governors requested an urgent meeting with President Biden to find meaningful solutions to the border crisis. Their hope was to meet with the president and his team directly to discuss actions the administration can take. Secretary Mayorkas responded two months later on November 24, but has not taken meaningful actions.

In July 2021, Governor Ducey successfully lobbied the Biden administration to continue Title 42 border protections and called on Congress to protect Title 42 from future Biden interference.

On June 10, 2021, Governor Ducey and Governor Abbott sent a letter to all U.S. governors asking them to send available law enforcement resources to the border.

On May 11, 2021, Governor Ducey joined 19 fellow governors to call on President Biden and Vice President Harris to reverse their destructive border policies.

On April 20, 2021, Governor Ducey issued a Declaration of Emergency and deployed the Arizona National Guard to the states southern border to support local law enforcement efforts.

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Governor Ducey Calls On Social Media Companies To Crack Down On Cartel Recruiting That Glamorizes Human Smuggling Across The Border - Governor Doug...