Europe’s refugee crisis hasn’t gone away. While the grubby deal between the EU and Turkey has staunched inflows to Greece, many refugees are trapped there and various walls and barriers block the Balkan route, record numbers of people are taking the longer and more dangerous crossing from lawless Libya to Italy. More than 2,000 people have died trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea so far this year, according to the IOM. …
Continue readingDoes World Refugee Day make a difference?
“This not about sharing a burden. It is about sharing a global responsibility, based not only the broad idea of our common humanity but also on the very specific obligations of international law. The root problems are war and hatred, not people who flee; refugees are among the first victims of terrorism.” — UN Secretary-General, António Guterres Tuesday, June 20th, was World Refugee Day, the 17th of its kind. It …
Continue readingBrexit: A solution in search of a problem
Philippe’s newsletter last week included the quote “Brexit matters to voters not because of what it is, but what it brings”. The past week only brought more uncertainty about purpose. Why did we just have an election? And whatever the voters once thought leaving the EU would bring, many voters now think of Brexit as a solution in search of a problem. And some find the most contrived arguments to find a problem: the right-wing tabloids …
Continue readingThe upside to an era of political upheaval
We live in an age of political turmoil. Many people are angry, fearful and confused. Old loyalties are breaking down and new cleavages are appearing. Nothing is settled. Take the UK election results this week. A year ago, Britons shocked the political establishment by narrowly voting to leave the European Union. People voted Leave for all sorts of reasons after a dirty campaign marked by lies and xenophobia. Power then …
Continue readingEU aid to refugees abroad isn’t a substitute for offering humanitarian protection
Our Refugees Work study highlighted how refugees in advanced economies often become entrepreneurs. Think of Google co-founder Sergey Brin, hedge-fund manager and philanthropist George Soros and Asian business magnate Li Ka-Shing. But what of those who remain trapped in refugee camps in developing countries? While they have far fewer opportunities, some manage to overcome huge obstacles to start successful businesses and social enterprises. In a new blog post for OPEN, Jackie Edwards highlights how refugee …
Continue readingAfrica’s refugee-camp entrepreneurs
By Jackie Edwards Karrus Hayes started small. With a $50 loan and some free space donated by a church, he created a school for refugee children in Budubaram camp in Ghana. But Hayes, himself a refugee from Liberia, didn’t stop there. He has built a much bigger non-profit organisation called Vision Awake Africa For Development that offers community college and micro-finance services to other refugee social entrepreneurs – and builds …
Continue readingThe cost of cutting immigration
The surest way to cut immigration is to crash the economy – and Brexiting Britain is leading the way. Official figures released this week confirmed that growth slowed to a mere 0.2% in the first three months of the year, while net migration – arrivals minus departures – fell by a quarter to 248,000 in 2016. With the pound worth much less and inflation outpacing wages, Britain is a less attractive …
Continue readingAre there long-term benefits from immigration?
Immigrants often initially face suspicion or hostility. That immediate emotional response colours the political debate on immigration, which tends to focus on negative perceptions about its short-run impact: that immigrants take local jobs, put pressure on public services, and so on. To make matters worse, once those fears prove misplaced and established immigrants, their children, grandchildren and other descendants change a country for the better, it tends to be forgotten that those …
Continue readingHas populism peaked?
After the Brexit vote and the election of Donald Trump last year, many had a sense of foreboding about the elections this year in the Netherlands, France and Germany. Xenophobic nationalists who claim to speak for “the people” (their supporters) against “liberal elites” (their opponents) had the wind in their sails. As Marine Le Pen of the far-right National Front put it in her debate with Emmanuel Macron last week, “I think I’m …
Continue readingThe DSM strategy at half-time
Today, the European Commission has published its “half-time results” on the Digital Single Market project. Any exercise in self-assessment ought to be taken with a pinch of salt, and this is no exception. As expected, the Commission’s half-time report is a mixed bag of nuts. Brussels hails DSM as a success even in areas where it didn’t do enough – like audiovisuals; it calls for more action on areas where Europe …
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