MPI's Migration Information Source Newsletter

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October 15, 2021

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Country Profile
Once Primarily an Origin for Refugees, Ethiopia Experiences Evolving Migration Patterns
www.migrationpolicy.org/article/ethiopia-origin-refugees-evolving-migration
In 1980, more than 2.5 million Ethiopian refugees lived in other countries. Now, Ethiopians are more likely to migrate for labor reasons, particularly to the Middle East and southern Africa, and meanwhile the country has become a refuge for humanitarian migrants from its neighbors. This article traces the history of migration from, to, and through Ethiopia.

Feature
The Changing Concepts around Immigrant Integration
www.migrationpolicy.org/article/changing-concepts-immigrant-integration
Immigrant integration is a complicated process that cannot fully be measured by any single metric. Understandings of immigrant integration have changed over time, and this article explores how the methods of measuring integration outcomes have evolved alongside these changing frameworks.

Spotlight
Afghan Immigrants in the United States
www.migrationpolicy.org/article/afghan-immigrants-united-states
The dramatic evacuation from Afghanistan may bring more than 50,000 new Afghan immigrants to the United States, according to government predictions. These new arrivals would join a small but growing population of Afghans in the United States, most of whom have arrived since 2010. This article provides insights into this immigrant group, many of whom arrived on the Special Immigrant Visa.


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EDITOR'S NOTE

Former refugee Abdulrazak Gurnah won the Nobel Prize for Literature this month for what the Nobel organization described as "his uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism and the fate of the refugee in the gulf between cultures and continents."

Gurnah, who fled from his native Zanzibar to England in the 1960s amid persecution, has published ten novels and multiple short stories. His best known work may be "Paradise," from 1994, which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and tells the tale of a boy struggling with colonialism and violence in East Africa. "By the Sea," from 2001, more explicitly confronts issues of migration, refugee status, and identity as it reveals the relationships between two immigrants in England.

Gurnah is far from the first acclaimed writer to have moved between countries. Even looking just at recent Nobel laureates, migrants are plentiful. Peter Handke grew up in Austria but has spent decades living in France; Kazuo Ishiguro was born in Japan and moved to the United Kingdom as a child; Svetlana Alexievich was born in Ukraine but at times has lived elsewhere in Europe due to her criticism of the then-Soviet Union. The list goes on. While the act of migration may not be central to all their work, experiences attempting to integrate into different cultures are common touchstones.

In fact, in other fields immigrants are disproportionately likely to win Nobel Prizes, at least in the United States. Since 1901, immigrants have comprised 35 percent of the U.S. residents to win Nobel Prizes in chemistry, medicine, and physics, according to analysis from the National Foundation for American Policy (NFAP). Included in that group are three laureates in 2021: Scottish-born David W.C. MacMillan, who won for chemistry; Japanese-born Syukuro Manabe, who won for physics; and Lebanese-born Ardem Patapoutian, who shared the prize for physiology or medicine.

Some of this scientific success may be explained by the high quality of U.S. academic institutions, which draws outstanding researchers from around the world. NFAP points to key laws including the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Director Ur Jaddou, meanwhile, has attributed immigrant success to the United States being "a country of possibilities."

Whatever the reason, the fact that immigrants are so visible at the highest level of literature and science is also a reflection on the prominent role that migration plays more generally. Although less than 4 percent of the global population is comprised of international migrants, the experience of crossing borders plays an outsized role in our popular culture, our stories, and our lives.

Best regards,

Julian Hattem

Editor, Migration Information Source

[email protected]


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NEW FROM MPI

As the United States Lifts Travel Restrictions, Its New Vaccination Requirements Could Shape the Future of Global Mobility
www.migrationpolicy.org/news/us-vaccination-requirements-shape-future-mobility
By Meghan Benton

Labor Shortages during the Pandemic and Beyond: What Role Can Immigration Policy Play?
www.migrationpolicy.org/news/labor-shortages-pandemic-immigration-policy-role
By Kate Hooper

African Migration through the Americas: Drivers, Routes, and Policy Responses
www.migrationpolicy.org/research/african-migration-through-americas
By Caitlyn Yates and Jessica Bolter

Migración africana a través del continente americano: impulsores, rutas y respuestas normativas
www.migrationpolicy.org/research/migracion-africana-continente-americano
By Caitlyn Yates and Jessica Bolter

Toward a Better Immigration System: Fixing Immigration Governance at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security
www.migrationpolicy.org/research/fixing-immigration-governance-dhs
By Doris Meissner and Ruth Ellen Wasem


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HAVE YOU READ?

Will the Taliban's Takeover Lead to a New Refugee Crisis from Afghanistan?
www.migrationpolicy.org/article/taliban-takeover-new-refugee-crisis-afghanistan

Once a Destination for Migrants, Post-Gaddafi Libya Has Gone from Transit Route to Containment
www.migrationpolicy.org/article/once-destination-migrants-post-gaddafi-libya-has-gone-transit-route-containment

Naturalization Trends in the United States
www.migrationpolicy.org/article/naturalization-trends-united-states-2017


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MEDIA CORNER

Reece Jones analyzes racial elements of U.S. immigration policy in "White Borders: The History of Race and Immigration in the United States from Chinese Exclusion to the Border Wall."
www.beacon.org/White-Borders-P1736.aspx

In "Those We Throw Away Are Diamonds: A Refugee's Search for Home," Mondiant Dogon and Jenna Krajeski describe Dogon's traumatic departure from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and his complex relationship with the violence he fled.
www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/635245/those-we-throw-away-are-diamonds-by-mondiant-dogon-with-jenna-krajeski/

Stories of 14 LGBTQ migrants living in Johannesburg come together in "Seeking Sanctuary: Stories of Sexuality, Faith and Migration," by John Marnell.
[link removed]

Journalist Jay Caspian Kang intertwines his own family's story with that of the growing Asian immigrant population in the United States in "The Loneliest Americans."
www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/580138/the-loneliest-americans-by-jay-caspian-kang/

Parag Khanna discusses a new era of large-scale migration and mobility in "Move: The Forces Uprooting Us."
www.simonandschuster.com/books/Move/Parag-Khanna/9781982168971

In "Unfree: Migrant Domestic Work in Arab States," Rhacel Salazar Parreñas turns her attention to Filipina workers in the United Arab Emirates and the kafala system that regulates their presence.
www.sup.org/books/title/?id=32851


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