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This week's collection of articles features the apparent failure of an international meeting to address the refugee crisis in Iraq and surrounding countries, and new measures by the Australian federal and state governments to facilitate employment for migrant workers. The positive impact that citizenship can have on integration rounds out this week's look at the most important stories on the global movement of people.
- Politicians, administrators and experts from Syria, Egypt, the Arab League and United Nations relief organizations, as well as representatives of the United States, the European Union, Turkey, Iran, Russia and Japan attending as observers met in Amman, Jordan this week to discuss how best to address the needs of Iraqi refugees. Attendants expressed frustration at what seems to have been little more than a talking shop, as the New York Times reports. While the focus should have been the development of an economic, security and infrastructural strategy for dealing with the refugees, aid was the central focus of most of the discussions. The conference came just two days after Amnesty International had warned that the Iraqi refugee situation was nearing a breaking point. More than two million Iraqis have now fled the sectarian violence raging in their country and almost two million others are internally displaced. A humanitarian crisis of unforeseen dimensions looms, if immediate action isn't taken, the organization warns – and conferences like Friday's meeting in Amman are clearly insufficient to address the pressing situation. Amnesty calls on both the Iraqi government to live up to its promised aid payments but also demands Western governments offer generous resettlement packages. We have covered the tenuous situation of Iraqi refugees in a number of blogs in the past, particularly the reluctance of many EU governments to accept additional displaced Iraqis fleeing the insecure situation in their homeland.
- In a related story in the same paper, US officials have admitted they are not acting fast enough in issuing visas to Iraqi refugees.
- The US State of Georgia has introduced some of the harshest legislation against illegal immigrants in the nation. Its full effect is only now becoming clear. Local police officers and sheriffs have essentially been given the right to decide the deportation of illegal migrants and can run immigration status checks even in routine measures, such as traffic controls. A recent case reported in the LA Times proves just how this new legislation could increase the vulnerability of those that already live without legal protection.
- Newsday columnist Sheryl McCarthy criticizes the exploitation many migrant workers are subject to in lower-than minimum wage jobs in New York and all across the country in her weekend commentary.
- The Australian government looks set to invest into new measures to help businesses provide English language education on the job. The Western Australian newspaper is also reporting that the state labor government will invest AUS $50 million towards a major revamp of the Adult Migrant English Program (AMEP), which is essentially the ticket to legal residence and eventual citizenship in Australia. In related news, a new study by the University of New England's (UNE) Centre for Applied Research in Social Sciences has revealed that migrants are better educated, more law-abiding, are generally healthier and less dependent on welfare than the average Australian-born citizen. Now that is some food for thought…
- The St. Pete Times from Florida offers a glimpse into the difficult situation many migrant families face, when the parents are undocumented migrants but the children are US nationals. What happens to the children, when the parents are jailed or deported? The legal situation is still unclear and decisions generally made on a case-by-case basis.
- And finally an inspiring story from the New York Times on the role citizenship can have on integrating even the oldest of migrants.
