Category Politics & Policy
The Lesson of the San Antonio Smuggling Case: The US Needs Immigration Reform
By Aaron Robles On Sunday July 24, 2017, a semi-truck driver stopped in a Walmart parking lot in San Antonio, Texas, to inspect the contents of his trailer. As he lifted the latch to the rear door and opened the container, he found a dreadful scene- scores of immigrants dying of heat exhaustion. Earlier that […]
Strong partnership with North Africa lacking but necessary in Europe’s refugee response
By Luca Orfanò When on 3 October 2013, a boat carrying migrants from Libya to Italy sank off the Italian island of Lampedusa, the entire world witnessed the ineptitude of the world’s richest continent in front of a group of terrorized and desperate refugees. That night, more than 350 women, children and men lost their […]
Trump’s Paris Accord withdrawal and the human sacrifices of capitalist climate change
Denial of climate science is only the symptom of a much deeper problem that confronts the planet. It is the endemic crisis-ridden capitalism that lashes about like an injured dragon, breathing fire here and whipping its tail over there. Fatally wounded, capitalism seeks regeneration through any means—whether by the seizure of precious natural resources or […]
Australian politics explainer: the White Australia policy
By Benjamin T. Jones The Conversation is running a series of explainers on key moments in Australian political history, looking at what happened, its impact then, and its relevance to politics today. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has repeatedly claimed that Australia is the world’s most successful multicultural nation. While the sentiment has bipartisan support today, […]
Language learning for migrant children in Germany: separate or inclusive?
German schools currently receive newly immigrated children without knowledge of the local language in so-called ‘Vorbereitungsklassen’, ‘Sprachlernklassen’ or most commonly ‘Willkommensklassen’ – Welcome Classes. The basic idea is to group newly arrived children together to allow them to learn the German language in a supportive and non-competitive environment for up to one year before they […]
Reflecting and producing society through the right to vote
In May 2016 the UK’s highest court, the Supreme Court, upheld the decisions of the High Court and Court of Appeal, confirming that UK citizens who had been living outside the country for more than 15 years would be unable to vote in the EU referendum the following month. This decision came after two British […]
Sanctuary Cities in the United States: Fact vs. Fiction
So-called “sanctuary cities” have been all over the American news since Trump signed an Executive Order (EO) entitled “Enhancing Public Safety in the Interior of the United States” on January 25. Cities like San Francisco and Seattle are suing the federal government over the EO, while some Republican lawmakers are supporting it. Trump himself has […]
Class Action Lawsuit Alleges Illegal Forced Labor Practices in Colorado Immigration Detention Facility
Last month, a federal judge in Colorado granted class action status in a lawsuit alleging that private prison company The GEO Group, Inc., forced immigrant detainees to work in a detention facility. While the case is ongoing, it comes amid ever greater concerns regarding the future of immigrant detention in the United States. The suit, […]
The Forgotten Soldiers of Lesvos
By Shala Gafary The Trump supporters were right — militants are among the refugees arriving in Europe. Men who know how shoot a gun, kill their enemy, and pluck an aircraft of the sky. They are fanatic in their beliefs and relentless in their objectives. Our land is ours and we are willing to give up our […]
No endless summer of welcome: volunteerism in Germany since 2015
The so-called ‘European refugee crisis’ of 2015 – during which over 1 million people applied for asylum in Germany – was not perceived as a crisis by the hundreds of thousands of volunteers who rushed enthusiastically to assist them. The enthusiasm has dimmed since then owing to changing public perceptions of refugees and asylum seekers […]
