MPI's Migration Information Source Newsletter

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September 2, 2020

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Feature
Southeastern Europe Looks to Engage its Diaspora to Offset the Impact of Depopulation
www.migrationpolicy.org/article/southeastern-europe-seeks-offset-depopulation-diaspora-ties
Southeastern Europe is experiencing one of the sharpest depopulations in the world, with countries such as Bulgaria, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Croatia on pace to see their populations shrink by at least 15 percent in coming decades. To counter this trend, governments in the region, NGOs, and the private sector are increasingly, if unevenly, tapping into large diaspora communities to spur economic growth and strengthen cultural ties.

Country Profile
Haiti's Painful Evolution from Promised Land to Migrant-Sending Nation
www.migrationpolicy.org/article/haiti-painful-evolution-promised-land-migrant-sending-nation
For more than a century, Haiti was considered a prime destination for migrants from the United States and around the world. In the wake of the Haitian Revolution, Haiti marketed itself to freed slaves and others as an island haven where they could break free from the strictures of the United States and a global system of slavery. That changed in the 20th century. Now, there are roughly 1.6 million Haitians living in other countries.


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EDITOR'S NOTE

It was a bold call that reverberated around the world five years ago this week. "Wir schaffen das," claimed German Chancellor Angela Merkel, shortly after visiting a refugee center near Dresden. "We can do it."

The number of asylum seekers and other migrants coming to Germany was beginning to ascend, and Merkel would soon open the doors to as many as 1.2 million of them, many from Syria, over 2015 and 2016. As a political matter, the phrase began to haunt Merkel. Critics including the far-right Alternative for Germany threw it back in her face. They blamed the welcoming policy for encouraging large numbers of arrivals and tied it to violence and criminal acts blamed on recently arrived migrants and asylees, including sexual assaults on New Year's Eve in Cologne and other cities, and, in 2016, a suicide bombing at a music festival in Ansbach carried out by a failed asylum seeker.

Five years later, did Germany "do it?" Merkel seems to think so. She "would make essentially the same decisions" if she were asked to repeat the period again, she said at a press conference last week. More and more migrants have found work in Germany; still, only half of those who have arrived since 2013 have full-time paying jobs, according to a study released earlier this year. Among German residents, 51 percent rejected Merkel's asylum policy in a new survey, compared to less than one-third who support it. Tellingly, the proportion of respondents who once supported the policy but have changed their mind was more than three times as large as those who once rejected it but now support.

The story has been different -- but no less complicated -- elsewhere in the world. Last week marked three years since Myanmar's security forces launched a violent crackdown on the Rohingya people in the country's western Rakhine state, sending more than 650,000 into neighboring Bangladesh. Many moved into crowded camps and informal settlements in Bangladesh's southern Cox's Bazar district, where other Rohingya had been living for years. Combined with earlier-arrived migrants, there are now approximately 1 million Rohingya in the country.

Bangladesh has had no interest in taking a cue from Germany. The Rohingya are "a threat to security," Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said last year. She has pushed to have them repatriate, despite earlier failed attempts and efforts by Myanmar to make return more difficult. The government has limited assistance available to migrants and conditions in the camps have deteriorated.

There are obvious and major differences between the two countries. Despite being led by women who have been in office for at least a decade, Germany and Bangladesh took sharply different approaches when confronted with major upticks in arrivals of people fleeing conflict. Managing these arrivals looks different in different settings, but these two cases offer a display in miniature of the differing paths that countries have taken. Whether or not they can "do it" depends on what they intend to do.

Best regards,

Julian Hattem

Editor, Migration Information Source

[email protected]


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NEW FROM MPI

Immigration Enforcement and the Mental Health of Latino High School Students
www.migrationpolicy.org/research/immigration-enforcement-mental-health-latino-students
By Randy Capps, Jodi Berger Cardoso, Kalina Brabeck, Michael Fix, and Ariel G. Ruiz Soto

Venezuelan Migrants and Refugees in Latin America and the Caribbean: A Regional Profile
www.migrationpolicy.org/research/venezuelans-latin-america-caribbean-regional-profile
By Diego Chaves-González and Carlos Echeverría-Estrada

Un perfil regional de los migrantes y refugiados venezolanos en América Latina y el Caribe
www.migrationpolicy.org/research/perfil-regional-migrantes-refugiados-venezolanos-america-latina-el-caribe
By Diego Chaves-González and Carlos Echeverría-Estrada


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HAVE YOU READ

The New Reality: Germany Adapts to Its Role as a Major Migrant Magnet
www.migrationpolicy.org/article/new-reality-germany-adapts-its-role-major-migrant-magnet

As #DefundThePolice Movement Gains Steam, Immigration Enforcement Spending and Practices Attract Scrutiny
www.migrationpolicy.org/article/defundthepolice-movement-gains-steam-immigration-enforcement-spending-and-practices-attract

Japan's Labor Migration Reforms: Breaking with the Past?
www.migrationpolicy.org/article/japan-labor-migration-reforms-breaking-past


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MPI IS HIRING

The Migration Policy Institute seeks exceptional candidates for two new positions. Learn more and please share with your networks!

Policy Analyst/Associate Policy Analyst, Human Services Initiative
www.migrationpolicy.org/about/work-mpi#Human%20Services%20Initiative

Program Assistant, National Center on Immigrant Integration Policy
www.migrationpolicy.org/about/work-mpi#Program%20Assistant,%20NCIIP


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MEDIA CORNER

The migration policy world gets a new glossary with the bilingual "A is for Asylum Seeker: Words for People on the Move," by Rachel Ida Buff.

Michael Kagan's "The Battle to Stay in America: Immigration's Hidden Front Line" focuses on Las Vegas as a microcosm for the U.S. immigration legal system.

Author Steven Dudley tells the complicated story of an oft-sensationalized criminal organization formed by migrants in "MS-13: The Making of America's Most Notorious Gang."

The National Immigration Forum has begun a new series of its "Only in America" podcast, focusing on racial justice an immigration. A previous series, asking "How did we get here?" features an interview with MPI's Doris Meissner.

"A Better Life?" is a new podcast from Feet in 2 Worlds documents how COVID-19 is affecting immigrants in the United States.


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