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the makeup of migrants in New York City!

Analysis of immigration court data conducted [[link removed]] by Gothamist found that “Migrants from Africa, Asia, Europe and regions outside of Latin America now make up nearly half of New York City's newest arrivals, reflecting a sharp departure from traditional migration patterns.”

As recently as three years ago, migrants from South and Central America made up the “vast majority” of cases in immigration courts in New York City. Today, however, that majority has been “eroded.” Their share has gone down to just over half in 2023, compared to nearly three quarters in fiscal year 2021. In that same period, “the share of Asian migrants with new local immigration cases increased over 10% in the same period, and the share of African migrants in the same position increased over 8%.”

Gothamist attributed the shift not only to “the growing diversity among migrants crossing the US-Mexico border as political and economic pressures intensify in different parts of the world,” but also to the fact that word is spreading that, increasingly, asylum seekers are being granted entry.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the vast majority of migrants with addresses in New York State are indeed still in New York City (increasingly so, in fact, given 78% listed such addresses in 2023, while only 61% did in 2021 and 59% in 2019). And while the borough of Queens is still their main destination, Manhattan and the Bronx are also increasingly popular.

Dissent Dismissed

Jewish Currents has a new interview [[link removed]] conducted by organizer and researcher Emma Saltzberg with Geoffrey Levin, historian and author of the new book “Our Palestine Question: Israel and American Jewish Dissent, 1948-1978.”

Levin outlines a few key takeaways: that American Jewish concern for Palestinian rights isn’t new; that state actors frequently influenced how American Jews engaged with the question of Palestinian rights; and that American Jewish groups were having “nuanced and complicated debates” on the relationship between antisemitism and anti-Zionism as early as the 1930s.

Saltzberg and Levin also explore how the understanding of Zionism has changed over the decades; the different ways in which American Jewish groups dealt with the issue of Israel’s treatment of Palestinians; and how, contrary to popular belief, American Jews who are critical of Israel often have engaged closely and extensively with the country. Levin concludes that “[t]hese people all kind of failed; they were pushed out. The critical American Jews were fired. I think a lot of American Jews thought the problems would just go away.” But perhaps if they had succeeded in getting a more open discourse 70 years ago, “we would probably be in a healthier place right now, both in terms of the American Jewish community and American discourse more broadly.”

FORWARD TO A FRIEND [[link removed]] Gandhi, Gone?

Writing in The Drift, Aditya Narayan Sharma looks at [[link removed]] how the Hindu right has used the image of Mohandas Gandhi. Gandhi is “not only an icon of Indian independence, but a uniquely potent international symbol of peace and nonviolence,” writes Sharma. But his ubiquity masks that “his reputation is far from settled.”

Sharma is interested in particular in how the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, nods to Gandhi’s brand while “working to counter his core values,” most notably Hindu-Muslim unity, and a pluralism that faced opposition from both Muslim leaders and also the religious right in India. In fact, “A major organ of Hindutva is the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a volunteer paramilitary group founded in 1925, and it was a 37-year-old RSS affiliate named Nathuram Godse who assassinated Gandhi on Jan. 30, 1948.”

The BJP is not the only party using Gandhi’s image: the Congress Party (Gandhi’s former party) has said this year’s elections as a choice between Gandhi and Godse. But the BJP, for its part, “paints itself as the inheritor of Gandhi’s values rather than the spiritual home of his killer, rewriting history in the process.” Modi regularly praises Gandhi, visits his memorial, and has claimed to draw inspiration from him — all the while, “the National Education Council has removed inconvenient facts from high school textbooks, like that Hindu nationalists opposed Gandhi’s pursuit of peaceful Hindu-Muslim relations, and that the RSS was briefly banned after his murder.” And over the last five years, Sharma writes, Modi has claimed Gandhi as precedent for “distinctly non-Gandhian ends,” like claiming that 2019’s Citizenship Amendment Act was doing Gandhi’s bidding, despite the fact that critics noted the legislation discriminated against Muslims. This warping of history is also being achieved through the media and cinema, Sharma notes, offering a critique of Gandhi from the left — one that needs to truly be grappled with if Gandhi’s actual values are to be adhered to.

FORWARD TO A FRIEND [[link removed]] DEEP DIVE Twitter Is Making You Worse

If you, like me, use the social media site X, formerly and better known as Twitter, the results of the following study will probably not surprise you, though they may make you feel a little worse about how you have chosen to spend your days online and confirm some long-held suspicions.

A new study [[link removed]] by Victoria Oldemburgo de Mello, Felix Cheung and Michael Inzlicht, “Twitter (X) use predicts substantial changes in well-being, polarization, sense of belonging, and outrage,” is out now in Communications Psychology. The study found that Twitter use is linked to decreased well-being. More specifically, being on Twitter is related to increased political polarization and outrage — and also a sense of belonging. The authors found that this was true across demographics and personality types. However, the inferred use of Twitter could shift the result: more passive usage was associated with less well-being; more social usage with a stronger sense of belonging; and information-seeking with outrage.

The authors conducted an experience sampling study, meaning participants were surveyed more than once a day over several days so that changes over time could be captured. This is still a self-report method. However, where traditional self-report methods are hindered by recall bias, experience sampling allows the participants to better recall events and occurrences.

For this study, at least 300 participants answered at least one of the authors’ experience sampling surveys, though this number was reduced to 252 after participants who failed attention checks or didn’t respond to enough surveys were rejected. They collected data between March and June 2021.

Notably, most of the Twitter behavior respondents’ reported was passive: in 74% of surveys in which Twitter use was reported, respondents reported scrolling their Twitter feeds.

In 66% of surveys, people said they used Twitter for entertainment. In 49% of surveys, for information seeking. Twenty-three percent used it for interacting with others, while 18% cited escapism as their reason. For just 2%, Twitter was predominantly for self-promotion. For the most part, for whatever reason they were there, they found like-mindedness: “Participants reported encountering people whose opinions differed from theirs 14% of the time they were on Twitter,” the authors wrote.

Loneliness was found only at the between-person level, not the within-person level, suggesting to the authors that it may not be the case that Twitter inherently exacerbates loneliness. Rather, loneliness might be driving users to Twitter. Still, “At the between-person level, people who used Twitter a lot were lonelier and more bored.” They also found that, at the between-person level, those who retweeted a lot were more polarized; those who used Twitter as escapism were more outraged; and those who used Twitter for social interaction had a stronger sense of belonging.

The authors also identified a “surprise finding”: at the within-person level, those using Twitter for entertainment were more polarized. The authors speculated that there was a systemic explanation: whatever the reason you’re on Twitter, you’re in an echo chamber.

LEARN MORE [[link removed]]

FORWARD TO A FRIEND [[link removed]] SHOW US THE RECEIPTS

Sakaya Shingu wrote [[link removed]] about the evolution of our nuclear imaginations on screen from “Gojira,” the 1954 original, to last year’s “Godzilla Minus One.” “In the conclusion of the original movie, when Gojira was defeated, Dr. Kyohei Yamane, a paleontologist character, warned of the threat of more devastation as long as nuclear testing is repeated. ‘But, if we keep on conducting nuclear tests, it’s possible that another Gojira might appear somewhere in the world, again,’ Yemane cautions,” Shingu wrote, noting that the new movie doesn’t have to state the obvious: Godzilla’s remaining cells are shown dividing and growing in the ocean. The threat still looms.

Rushali Saha argued [[link removed]] that the European Union’s Indo-Pacific strategy is relatively uncoordinated, and that this gives the impression that Europe is not a strategic actor in the region. Individual countries are increasingly making their presence known and felt. But the union is not working in tandem, and so, as EU officials themselves have made clear they know, Europe is still seen as an “extra-regional” actor. As Saha put it, “While individual member countries are bilaterally expanding ties with members in the Indo-Pacific, it is unclear whether they will be willing to do so under the EU umbrella … Until then, the EU approach to the Indo-Pacific will remain one where the sum of its parts is greater than the whole.”

Michael Fox traveled to Guatemala and reported [[link removed]] on the history and legacy of United Fruit, the Boston-based banana company, which was founded in 1899 and quickly became a regional force. It ran not only banana plantations and railways, but also the post office and telephone service, and controlled hundreds of acres of land by the 1930s. Buildings from the neighborhoods constructed for United Fruit employees can still be found today. For some, United Fruit meant housing and good wages. “But, according to historians, it was not easy work. It involved long, backbreaking hours, no rights, dangerous quantities of pesticides, and irregular pay. United Fruit ran its operations like a kingdom, and it had a huge sway over the countries in the region,” reported Fox. It also gave us the term Banana Republic.

FORWARD TO A FRIEND [[link removed]] WELL-PLAYED

This was NOT in Dante [[link removed]] …

…and this wasn’t in Foucault [[link removed]]!

And she was right to do so [[link removed]].

They crossed that bridge when they came to it [[link removed]].

Something to consider [[link removed]].

An American Tail Tell Signs [[link removed]].

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Critical State is written by Emily Tamkin with Inkstick Media.

The World is a weekday public radio show and podcast on global issues, news and insights from PRX and GBH.

With an online magazine and podcast featuring a diversity of expert voices, Inkstick Media is “foreign policy for the rest of us.”

Critical State is made possible in part by the Carnegie Corporation of New York.

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