Tag Archives: migration
A letter to my brothers: our ancestors defied borders, and so must we
For my brothers, who know our family, but few of our stories. Dear boys, We are neither refugees nor their children. We are their grandchildren. The first time I learned the proper noun, the verb ‘Partition’, I was five. Dad nestled a plate of sliced apples between us on the couch and allowed me to […]
Conflict, insecurity & exploitation: Migration in the Horn of Africa
This blog post represents one of a series marking the publication of a new book, Understanding Migrant Decisions, edited by Belachew Gebrewold and Tendayi Bloom. It includes material presented in Chapter One of the book. By Belachew Gebrewold The Horn of Africa is marred by complex and systematic internal and external political, economic and social-cultural factors that result in […]
Making a New Home: Olveston, Linden, and the Jewish Museum of Australia
In 2002 I visited Poland for the first time. I took an overnight train from Berlin and arrived in Katowice on a freezing November morning. The skies were overcast, buses belched smoke, and the ground was covered in muddy ice and snow. In other words, it was miserable. And yet, as I made my way […]
Cry the Beloved Prejudice: Reflections on South Africa
A few weeks ago I discovered an intruder in my back yard. An uninvited guest who had taken root among the natives. When I asked my gardener about the exotic foreigner who seemed so nonchalant about interrupting my peace and quiet (and views), he simply replied, “definitely not from here. Probably South African.” Strange. If […]
Yemen’s Water Collapse: The Impending Arabian Human Migration Crisis
By Adela Jones Environmental stressors present a series of challenges on global migration patterns due to their affect on human survivability. Variations in accessibility to vital natural resources, such as freshwater and arable land for crop production, are natural climatic fluctuations likely to be exacerbated by anthropogenic climate change. Periodic droughts are expected to become […]
A Close Look at Broad Trends: Migration in the Americas through the Lens of One Nicaraguan Migrant
By Gloriana Sojo Migration in the Americas has long been dichotomized as a “South” to “North” movement. That is, people moving from Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) to the United States and Canada. However, a closer look at the region – and the available data – reveal much less unidirectional, and more dynamic and […]
The Migrants Keep Coming: Jacob Lawrence’s Migration Series
What are the greatest achievements in American arts on the theme of migration? John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath comes to mind, as do Dorothea Lange’s photographs of migrant farm families. I would add Jacob Lawrence’s Migration Series now on show at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. In sixty small panel paintings, Lawrence […]
‘Who the hell do you think you are?’ … almost fiction
‘We could all live on drugs, pee in our pants, drown in mud and puke sitting in the streets, covered with self-pity, if we really insist on indulging our hardships and scars, right?’ says R. No, he does not say it. He spits it, he yells, thunders it with his glass-blue eyes lightning through the […]
As Waters Rise, a Race to Migrate with Dignity
Kiribati, a small cluster of islands in the Pacific Ocean, may be completely submerged in water in just a few decades. Residents are already seeing profound effects of climate change in their day-to-day lives, from acidification of the ocean, extreme weather and changes in rainfall patterns, to increasingly poor food security and a contaminated water […]
Should we be worried about the global migration arms race?
By Tendayi Bloom As the smoke dispersed from New Year’s fireworks displays around the world at the start of 2015, the realities of the migration arms race were playing out. In the Mediterranean on the 31st December and 2nd January, two unmanned cargo ships full of people were left to drift towards Europe. In […]
