Wednesday, December 22
 ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

 

NOORANI'S NOTES

 

If you haven't already, please let us know if you want to continue
receiving Noorani's Notes by clicking this link
, or any other link in this e-mail.
Thanks!  

More Syrians are leaving their homes in search of a better life,
"even though the 10-year-old civil war has wound down
and conflict lines have been frozen for years," report Sarah El
Deeb and Christoph Noelting of the Associated Press
.  

"They are fleeing not from the war's horrors, which drove hundreds of
thousands to Europe in the massive wave of 2015, but from the misery of
the war's aftermath," including severe poverty, corruption and a
"wrecked infrastructure," they note. 

More than 78,000 Syrians have applied for asylum in the European
Union this year - a 70% increase from last year, per EU data. 

Meanwhile, John Leicester of the Associated Press
 writes how a
network of hundreds of volunteers working along the Italy-France
border are providing welcome, comfort and shelter to migrants making
the trek up the freezing Alps.  

Since around 2016, volunteers have come "[a]rmed with thermoses of
hot tea and the belief that their own humanity would be diminished if
they left pregnant women, children and men young and old to fend for
themselves," writes Leicester. 
"... In the Alps, on both sides of the border, the approach is
essentially humanist and humanitarian, grounded in local traditions of
not leaving people alone against the elements." 

Welcome to Wednesday's edition of Noorani's Notes, our last
edition for 2021. A big thank you to the NN team for all their hard
work (support them here
). Have
a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year. And, of course, if you have
a story to share from your own community, please send it to me
at [email protected]
. See you in January! 

[link removed]

U.S. POPULATION - The U.S. population grew by only
0.1 % this year - a record low - due to the COVID-19
pandemic, per Census Bureau data
 published
Tuesday. Another record: "It was the first year in which growth from
births exceeding deaths fell below net arrivals from abroad, according
to the bureau," report Paul Overberg and Janet Adamy of The Wall
Street Journal
. The
U.S. recorded 148,000 more births than deaths, while net migration to
the country grew by 245,000. For more context, see the breakdown
 from Luke
Rogers, chief of the Census Bureau's Population Estimates Branch.
Meanwhile, NPR
's
Joel Rose reports that pandemic restrictions and Trump-era cuts
also contributed to the more than 1 million immigrant workers missing
from the workforce this year.  

**'WE URGE YOU'** - The Biden administration "has issued dozens
of denials" to Afghans seeking safety in the U.S. - and while the
total number of denials is still small, "advocates fear they represent a
larger trend," reports Andrea Castillo for the Los Angeles Times
. "Tragically,
tens of thousands of Afghans and their families now face persecution and
death threats from the Taliban, as well as threatened deportation back
to Afghanistan for those who made it to third countries," wrote a
coalition of 55 lawmakers in a letter to USCIS on Monday. "We urge
you to ensure that all vulnerable Afghans, including those in third
countries and those still stranded in Afghanistan, are paroled into the
United States and not left to languish in legal limbo." 

Meanwhile, local communities continue to welcome and support Afghan
refugees:  

* Minnesota-based Alight, formerly known as the American Refugee
Committee, is preparing to resettle some of the 250 Afghan
families moving to Minnesota from military bases this
January. (Learfield Wire Service
) 

* In less than one week, community volunteers in Charlotte, North
Carolina, "worked to collect donations - thousands of dollars of
groceries, boxes full of PediaSure, Ensure, multivitamins, and other
essential items added to Amazon and Walmart wish lists" for Afghan
refugees in need. (Briana Harper, WCNC
) 

[link removed]

CENTRO DE ESPERANZA - The nonprofit Centro de Esperanza recently
opened its doors as a new migrant resource center in the Mexican
border town of Sonoyta, reports Clara Migoya of the Arizona Republic
. With
support from U.S. donors, the resource center will provide migrants
"two meals a day, clothing, basic medical attention, legal information,
entertainment and education for children," as well
as provide temporary shelter for about 10 people in urgent
need. "We all migrate from one place to another. When I was in San Luis
Rio Colorado, they gave me a hand when I had nothing to eat,"
said Sonoyta municipal president Luis Enrique Valdez. "Those are
things that teach you how to lend a hand." 

A 

**MEXICAN CHRISTMAS** - For The Lily
, Betty
Chavarria gives an intimate perspective on how she's keeping her
Mexican traditions alive this Christmas with her two-year-old
daughter, Sofía. As they spend Christmas away from her mother,
Betty writes she's re-creating family traditions both for her
daughter's sake and to be transported to her own childhood.
With illustrations by Jennifer Dahbura, the piece is a "road map"
for a Mexican Christmas, from a recipe for tamales de rajas to a
playlist of classic holiday songs and more. I'm making the
tamales.  

Thanks for reading, 

Ali 

 

DONATE

 

**Follow Us**

 

[link removed]
[link removed]
[link removed]
[link removed]

 

 

 

The

**Only in America** podcast brings you to the people behind our
nation's immigration debate.

 

Listen now on:

 

**iTunes**
,
**Stitcher**
,
**Spotify** ,
and **more.**

 

 

National Immigration Forum

10 G St NE, Suite 500

Washington, DC 20002

www.immigrationforum.org

 

Unsubscribe from Noorani's Notes

or opt-out from all Forum emails.

 
_________________

Sent to [email protected]

Unsubscribe:
[link removed]

National Immigration Forum, 10 G St NE, Suite 500, Washington, D.C. 20002, United States