When most political leaders talk about migration and security, they usually refer to threats rather than opportunities. Prof. Khalid Koser, the executive director of the Global Community Engagement and Resilience Fund (GCERF), a Geneva-based public-private fund supporting local prevention of radicalization around the world, believes that’s back-to-front. Migration is not only beneficial to societies and economies, Koser says, but can also help prevent violent extremism....
When people ask me where I’m from, I tell them, 'Texas', rather than the United States. We Texans are notoriously prideful of our beloved state and its heritage, and as far from home as I may be, I am no exception to this rule. However, it’s been over three years since Texas was actually home; meanwhile, I’ve lived on two more continents: two years in Morocco as an English teacher, and a year here in the Netherlands for my master’s degree, beginning my second as a research assistant....
Education policies for the transition and integration of immigrant students are increasingly important in ethnically diverse countries like Canada. Yet the ability to support children’s integration varies greatly across countries, linked to a wide-range of national and regional characteristics. The impacts of these differences have been observed in the results of international achievement surveys – most notably the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). PISA results consistently ...
When the so-called refugee crisis reached a peak in 2015, the German Development Agency (GIZ) started a new line of investigation: checking the links between corruption, migration and forced displacement. The investigations have a clear gender angle, reflecting the depths of suffering faced by migrant women and girls. On behalf of the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), the Anticorruption and Integrity Programme of GIZ convened a session on ‘Corruption and Migration: ...
It’s difficult to be wholeheartedly critical of colonialism when one’s family history is so closely intertwined with it. My great-grandparents joined the historical wave of Chinese labour emigration of the late 19th and early 20th century to what was then British Malaya....
Immigrants and refugees, especially those from developing nations, are often portrayed by segments of the media and policy makers as an economic burden, a threat to our social cohesion and “our way of life.” However, immigrants and immigrant youth can help build nations like Canada. They are a great source of economic potential, while also contributing to a rich cultural mosaic. But immigrants must be supported with appropriate education and training policies....
Dr. Melissa Siegel, who runs the Migration and Development group at UNU-MERIT, was appointed Professor of Migration Studies at Maastricht University in August 2016. She gives her inaugural lecture on ‘Migration &: The Depth and Breadth of Migration Studies’ on 2 June 2017. Howard Hudson caught up with her to find out more. What’s the backstory to your intriguing lecture title? It was meant to be thought-provoking. The point is to show how migration is linked to so many things in the wo...
Researcher Elaine McGregor recently authored the second edition of the ‘MOVEMENT Report: A Global Civil Society Report on Progress and Impact for Migrants’ Rights and Development. She also wrote the first edition. Diego Salama caught up with her to find out more. The full report is embedded below or available here. What did the first edition focus on? At the global policy level there is an annual meeting of the Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD) which rotates, every year, fro...
I am an Indian, born and raised in East Africa, living in Canada, and am married to an American of Polish descent. Something I have always grappled with is that although I have integrated well everywhere I have lived, I don't feel like I fully fit in anywhere either, and I struggle to pinpoint a single place I’d call 'home'....
As a Canadian, my 'mygration' story is not unusual – a mix of different places and several unknowns. For a start, I know a lot more about my mother’s side than my father’s. The father of my grandma arrived in Canada as a young child, and his family had left Russia because antisemitism was (once again) on the rise. The story goes that my great-grandfather was whipped in the face by a policeman on horseback, leaving a permanent scar under one eye. This was the final straw, pushing the family to le...