MPI's Migration Information Source Newsletter

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May 1, 2021

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Spotlight
Immigrants from the Dominican Republic in the United States
www.migrationpolicy.org/article/dominican-immigrants-united-states-2019
Immigrants from the Dominican Republic are the fourth-largest Hispanic immigrant group in the United States, and number nearly 1.2 million people. This population has increased almost tenfold since 1960, but remains mostly concentrated in just a few metro areas. This article provides an overview of Dominican immigrants in the United States.

U.S. Policy Beat
Border Challenges Dominate, But Biden's First 100 Days Mark Notable Under-the-Radar Immigration Accomplishments
www.migrationpolicy.org/article/biden-100-days-immigration
During his first 100 days in office, U.S. President Joe Biden took more than three times as many executive actions on immigration as predecessor Donald Trump. While rising encounters at the U.S.-Mexico border have captured major attention, Biden has been remarkably active in areas that have received far less attention, including interior enforcement. This article explores the administration's actions during its first three months.


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EDITOR'S NOTE

Kenya appears to have doubled down on efforts to close a pair of refugee camps, one of which was once the largest in the world.

In March, the Interior Ministry demanded the UN refugee agency develop a plan to close the Dadaab and Kakuma camps within 14 days, saying there was "no room for further negotiations." Kenya's high court temporarily blocked that effort, and UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi claimed the camps would remain open.

Still, the UN refugee agency this week agreed to work with Kenya "to finalize and implement a roadmap on the next steps towards a humane management of refugees in both camps." An initial proposal called for "enhanced voluntary repatriation" and novel arrangements for refugees from elsewhere in East Africa, among other steps. Kenya wants the process completed and the camps closed by June 2022.

The 30-year-old Dadaab camp, near Kenya's eastern border with Somalia, was once the world's largest refugee complex, with more than 500,000 mostly Somali refugees. Roughly 224,000 people live there now, and another 206,000 live in the northwestern Kakuma camp. The facilities are some of Africa's longest-running refugee camps, and their former residents include current U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), who spent several years in Dadaab as a child, and supermodel Halima Aden, who lived in Kakuma.

The most recent threat of closure has stirred anxieties among residents, given that conditions in origin countries such as Somalia, South Sudan, and elsewhere remain dire.

This is not the first time Kenya has taken steps to close Dadaab, which it claimed has been used by the jihadist group al-Shabaab. A Kenyan court previously blocked the camp from closing in 2017, and the government has been accused of using refugees as leverage for international aid and political support. The recent demand comes amid a dispute between Kenya and Somalia over a maritime boundary.

Whether or not the camps are entering the last 14 months of their existence, reflections on their long-term future are overdue. Groups such as Doctors Without Borders and Human Rights Watch have supported efforts to integrate the camps into their surrounding communities. Many refugees have lived in the camps for all or virtually all of their lives.

"We are not chasing people away, but a camp is not a permanent thing," Kenya's cabinet secretary for foreign affairs, Raychelle Omamo, said this week. "It is a place of limbo." So far, that limbo has lasted for 30 years and counting.


Best regards,

Julian Hattem

Editor, Migration Information Source

[email protected]


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NEW FROM MPI

The Integration of Immigrant Health Professionals: Looking beyond the COVID-19 Crisis
www.migrationpolicy.org/research/integration-immigrant-health-professionals-beyond-covid-19
By Jeanne Batalova, Michael Fix and José Ramón Fernández-Peña

Immigrant and U.S.-Born Parents of Young and Elementary-School-Age Children: Key Sociodemographic Characteristics
www.migrationpolicy.org/research/immigrant-us-born-parents-young-children
By Jacob Hofstetter and Margie McHugh

European Strategy on Voluntary Return and Reintegration Advances Action within Bloc, Leaves More to Discuss with Countries of Migrant Origin
www.migrationpolicy.org/news/european-strategy-voluntary-return-reintegration
By Camille Le Coz


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HAVE YOU READ?

The "Trump Effect" on Legal Immigration Levels: More Perception than Reality?
www.migrationpolicy.org/article/trump-effect-immigration-reality

An "Informal" Turn in the European Union's Migrant Returns Policy towards Sub-Saharan Africa
www.migrationpolicy.org/article/eu-migrant-returns-policy-towards-sub-saharan-africa

Who Belongs? Statelessness and Nationality in West Africa
www.migrationpolicy.org/article/who-belongs-statelessness-and-nationality-west-africa


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MEDIA CORNER

Alexander Betts offers practical and relevant policy options in "The Wealth of Refugees: How Displaced People Can Build Economies."
[link removed]

Nicholas R. Micinski, a former guest on our Changing Climate, Changing Migration podcast, offers a primer on global migration governance in "UN Global Compacts Governing Migrants and Refugees."
www.routledge.com/UN-Global-Compacts-Governing-Migrants-and-Refugees/Micinski/p/book/9780367218836

President Donald Trump's efforts to dismantle the U.S. asylum system are examined in "The End of Asylum," by Andrew I. Schoenholtz, Jaya Ramji-Nogales, and Philip G. Schrag.
[link removed]

Museum of London curator Domenico Sergi examines how museums approach refugee displacements in "Museums, Refugees and Communities."
www.routledge.com/Museums-Refugees-and-Communities/Sergi/p/book/9780367147952

"Asylum as Reparation: Refuge and Responsibility for the Harms of Displacement," by James Souter, argues that countries have an obligation to provide asylum to certain individuals.
www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9783030624477

Aviva Chomsky dives into the history of instability undergirding migration from Central America in "Central America's Forgotten History: Revolution, Violence, and the Roots of Migration."
www.beacon.org/Central-Americas-Forgotten-History-P1650.aspx

Parthiban Muniandy provides an ethnographic study of city-dwelling refugees and migrants in "Ghost Lives of the Pendatang: Informality and Cosmopolitan Contaminations in Urban Malaysia."
www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9789813361997

In "Solidarity in the Media and Public Contention over Refugees in Europe," Manlio Cinalli, Hans-Jörg Trenz, Verena Brändle, Olga Eisele, and Christian Lahusen look at how news coverage shapes public attitudes towards refugees.
www.routledge.com/Solidarity-in-the-Media-and-Public-Contention-over-Refugees-in-Europe/Cinalli-Trenz-Brandle-Eisele-Lahusen/p/book/9780367419950


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