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An Andean War? Managing Colombia's Disgruntled Neighbors

An Andean War? Managing Colombia's Disgruntled Neighbors

Messages of distrust between the Colombian Government and Hugo Chavez were considered no more than showboating after Hugo Chavez made headway in getting two Colombian citizens released, followed by open support for the rights of the kidnappers to be represented as a legitimate political party. Anger and frustration in Colombia which has been literally torn […]

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Weekly news roundup

Weekly news roundup

This week's news roundup features the Bush administration's last ditch attempts at addressing the immigration issue in absence of fundamental policy reform. We also look ahead to the immigration issues at stake in the Spanish elections on March 9. Germany breathed a sigh of relief, when the deadly blaze that killed nine Turks, including two […]

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Paranoia on the Frontier: NAFTA and the US Election

Paranoia on the Frontier: NAFTA and the US Election

No other issue seeks to dominate the next few months than the troubles in the US economy. Besides the well documented mortgage lending scandal, the roots of the fragile US economy are the movement of large amounts of manufacturing jobs to China as well as the approximately one-third to one-half of US debt that is […]

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Taking Lessons from Fidel: A New Vision for Poverty in Latin America

Taking Lessons from Fidel: A New Vision for Poverty in Latin America

  With the retirement of Fidelito, an assessment of the positives and negatives of the Cuban Revolution has taken place in media all around the world. People hate Castro as much as others love him, mainly because while he has injured many and denied basic rights to activists living in Cuba, he has also earned […]

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Ireland's New Migrants: Multicultural Wishes for St. Patrick's Day

Ireland's New Migrants: Multicultural Wishes for St. Patrick's Day

A legal dilemma often presents itself to officials who come into the presence of families who are both a mix of legal and illegal family members living in the same country. We encountered this a few times in our own legal consulting to refugees who came into contact with us in Canada. The International Herald […]

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Weekly news roundup

This week's look at migration headlines from around the world features a critical look at France's new quota regulations, a dilemma for policy-makers in Ireland, close scrutiny of migrant treatment by the justice system in the US and new challenges ahead for Germany's integration policy. Reporting from Dublin, Jason DeParle of the New York Times […]

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FPA Video Interview: Former Venezuelan Diplomat Diego Arria on Chavez's Venezuela

FPA Video Interview: Former Venezuelan Diplomat Diego Arria on Chavez's Venezuela

The Foreign Policy Association and The European Courier in February 2008 produced a Video Interview on Chavez's Venezuela and the future of democracy in the country in a frank discussion with former UN Permanent Ambassador to the United Nations for Venezuela Diego Arria. In the interview, Arria describes how Chavez's actions in the last few […]

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Mexican-Americans and Felipe Calderon: Making Policy in the US Election

Mexican-Americans and Felipe Calderon: Making Policy in the US Election

 *This post has also been cross-posted in the FPA's Latin America Blog. Mexico has always had a mixed relationship with its citizens abroad. Problems dealing with poverty in Mexico have not tarnished pride in their roots. Class divisions never quelled a strong sense of nationhood with its citizens on every social strata. While many Mexican's left […]

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Fidelito's Permanent Vacation

Fidelito's Permanent Vacation

Today the well known leader of the island nation of Cuba, Fidel Castro has started on the first steps to the end of his legacy. He retired finally after 49 years of rule since the Cuban Revolution. He is well known as the one of the only leaders in Latin America to successfully stand up […]

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Mexican-Americans and Felipe Calderon: Policy in the US Election

Mexican-Americans and Felipe Calderon: Policy in the US Election

 Mexico has always had a mixed relationship with its citizens abroad. Problems dealing with poverty in Mexico have not tarnished pride in their roots. Class divisions never quelled a strong sense of nationhood with its citizens on every social strata. While many Mexican's left the country since the 1970's, it was often for economic opportunity […]

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Weekly news roundup

Weekly news roundup

The big story in Europe this week was Turkey's president Recep Tayyip Erdogan's visit to Germany and the controversial speech he gave to 20,000 of his expat voters regarding integration or assimilation into their host nation. A separate commentary on that question will follow shortly on this blog. In the meantime, Australia is stepping up […]

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Compensating for Chavez: Who's Fair and Equitable?

Compensating for Chavez: Who's Fair and Equitable?

Since the 1930s there has been a debate on how to compensate private companies when their assets they have invested from abroad gets Nationalised by local governments. These debates have always been heavy in Latin America which has been for the most part dependent on foreign investment since the colonial period and have been the […]

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Political Therapy on Super Tuesday

Political Therapy on Super Tuesday

Among the hype of Super Tuesday, I thought a frank and brief opinion on the Republican and Democratic Candidates would be a nice relief from the overkill of information and issues coming out of mainstream media about who might be the next President. I hope my perspective, not being a US citizen and from the […]

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Do you speak my language?

Do you speak my language?

Apologies for an extended absence, but this blog author has been applying to grad school (yet again) to pursue a degree in comparative migration policies. As such, I have been thinking about related issues for a number of weeks and thought I would share some of my recent writing. Please find one of my essays […]

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Between Bananas and Big Macs: Economic Realities in the US and Latin America

Between Bananas and Big Macs: Economic Realities in the US and Latin America

I was lucky to be able to see a lecture at the LSE by the newly minted head of Argentina's national bank after the first President Kirchner came into power. This was, as many know after a series of failed Presidents in a record amount of time and a massive financial collapse of Argentina's economy. […]

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