MPI's Migration Information Source Newsletter

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May 1, 2020

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Feature
A Proxy War on Minorities? India Crafts Citizenship and Refugee Policies through the Lens of Religion
www.migrationpolicy.org/article/india-controversial-citizenship-amendment-act-register-citizens
The Modi government's push for a Citizenship Amendment Act and National Register of Citizens sparked deadly riots and chilled India's 200 million Muslims, who fear being relegated to second-class citizenship -- and for some, even statelessness. This article explores actions by Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party, the significance of Bangladeshi illegal immigration as a driver, and what a register of citizens in Assam might mean for India.

Spotlight
Venezuelan Immigrants in the United States
www.migrationpolicy.org/article/venezuelan-immigrants-united-states
Until recently, the Venezuelan immigrant population in the United States was relatively small compared others from South America. But it has grown significantly, reaching 394,000 in 2018, as Venezuela's destabilization has driven large-scale emigration. Compared to other immigrants in the United States, Venezuelans have higher levels of education but are also more likely to live in poverty, as this Spotlight explores.
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EDITOR'S NOTE

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought our globalized and fast-paced world to a significant halt, among other things chilling travel and migration. Airplanes now fly carrying few if any passengers, crops sit unharvested due to a lack of seasonal workers, and refugees in the process of resettlement are caught in a state of limbo. Around the world, the effects of closed borders, national lockdowns, and other restrictions on human mobility are more evident than ever.

Global travel for tourists, business professionals, and migrants is at a historic low. Eerily empty airport terminals reflect the 96 percent drop in U.S. airline travel that has occurred due to border restrictions, stay-at-home orders, and fear of exposure. With an International Air Transport Association survey finding that 40 percent of recent travelers are planning to wait at least six months until after the virus is contained to resume flying, the future of the travel industry, which generates $2.6 trillion in economic output and supports 15.8 million jobs in the United States alone, is on shaky ground.

The restriction of travel has in turn affected humanitarian operations such as refugee resettlement. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) have temporarily suspended resettlement, due to airline logistical concerns, border restrictions, and the risk of infection. While nearly 64,000 refugees were offered resettlement through UNHCR in 2019, that total represented just 4.5 percent of the estimated 1.4 million refugees in urgent need of resettlement.

In the European Union, where freedom of movement is a cornerstone of the European project, travel restrictions, lockdowns, and worker resistance to travel in an uncertain period are posing major headaches for agricultural producers and health-care operations, as MPI Europe's Monica Andriescu explores in a new Migration Information Source article out today -- which is celebrated as Labour Day in Europe and other parts of the world. Each spring, hundreds of thousands of eastern European and northern African workers migrate to farms in western Europe for the harvest. This year due to border closures and concerns about leaving home countries where the pandemic is less severe, farming associations have sounded the alarm about labor shortages. France and Germany began recruiting campaigns to attract domestic workers, but as the Telegraph reported this week, farm work is not always so appealing: Of 50,000 British workers who expressed an interest in picking fruits and vegetables, just 112 actually took the jobs on offer. As a result, workarounds are being created, such as chartering planes to fly in Eastern European seasonal farm workers. International labor mobility is centered on matching labor supply to demand as a mechanism to sort out inefficiencies in national labor markets. But does this always work out so neatly? And who reaps the benefits and who bears the costs? Andriescu takes on these questions in her article.

You can read it here: [link removed]

As the pandemic has reordered life around the world, raising questions about global supply chains, who is an "essential" worker, safety nets, and so much more, it remains to be seen how deep and lasting the effects will prove to be on human mobility.

Best regards,

Editor, Migration Information Source

[email protected]

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NEW FROM MPI

The COVID-19 Pandemic Suggests the Lessons Learned by European Asylum Policymakers After the 2015 Migration Crisis Are Fading
www.migrationpolicy.org/news/pandemic-lessons-learned-europe-asylum-fading
By Hanne Beirens

As COVID-19 Slows Human Mobility, Can the Global Compact for Migration Meet the Test for a Changed Era?
www.migrationpolicy.org/news/covid19-global-compact-migration-faces-test
By Lena Kainz

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HAVE YOU READ

The Emigration of Health-Care Workers: Malawi's Recurring Challenges
www.migrationpolicy.org/article/emigration-health-care-workers-malawi%E2%80%99s-recurring-challenges

Naturalization Trends in the United States
www.migrationpolicy.org/article/naturalization-trends-united-states

Does Migration Increase Happiness? It Depends
www.migrationpolicy.org/article/does-migration-increase-happiness-it-depends


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