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The dramatic drop in immigration is contributing to worker shortages, Dante Chinni of NBC News reports.
Net migration into the U.S. stood at more than 1 million in 2016. Since then it has dropped more than 75%, to 247,000 in the Census Bureau’s last fiscal year. "When you look at the kinds of jobs foreign-born workers tend to fill, you can see some of the industries that have taken hits in the pandemic," including service industries, natural resources and construction, Chinni writes. And the shortage could help drive inflation.
As Bryan Walsh writes in Vox, "Reversing that decline should be a national priority, and one that, unlike increasing births, is absolutely within reach."
U.S. population growth between July 2020 and July 2021 was the lowest on record, Walsh notes, primarily because of a steep decline in fertility rates — but the nosedive in immigration rates is not helping.
How much immigration do we need to avoid demographic upheaval? We have a data-driven answer.
Welcome to Monday’s edition of Noorani’s Notes. If you have a story to share from your own community, please send it to me at [email protected]. And a thank you to my friends and colleagues, Bri Stensrud and Matt Soerens, for their incredibly generous comments to Baptist News Global’s
Jeff Brumley.
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SAME OLD MPP — The Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) program, also known as "Remain in Mexico," is up and running again at the border near San Diego and Tijuana, Kate Morrissey reports in the San Diego Union-Tribune — without some of the changes the Biden administration promised. The stories of the first two men returned to Tijuana under the restart raise several concerns: They were not allowed to confer with attorneys, despite promises of access to legal counsel. Their documents have errors, and their "court notices do not indicate an address where the immigration court can contact the men ... a major issue in the program’s first iteration because, if hearing dates change, the court cannot inform the people expected to show up, and people who don’t show up to immigration court can be
ordered deported in their absence." This feels like the same old (awful) MPP.
OBLIGATION, OPPORTUNITY — "I witnessed Christ there in those who suffered and felt closer to God as I worked to serve them." These are among the reflections of Sara Hilgenberg, minister of Family Programming and Church Outreach at First Christian Church of San Angelo, Texas, who volunteered to help Afghan evacuees on a military base for three weeks. In her piece in the Odessa American, Hilgenberg writes that helping these new arrivals is not just a Christian obligation but "an incredible opportunity to grow closer to God. In countless moments during my time on the military base, I experienced the nearness of the Lord through ‘the brokenhearted’ and ‘crushed in spirit’ (Psalm 34:18). Each day I was amazed at what I can only describe as divine provision."
Here are the latest stories of local welcome:
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Veteran-led Team Rubicon helped host Afghans at Camp Atterbury in Indiana, an effort that ended Friday. In a letter, the team thanks residents of the Hoosier State for their hospitality and support. (The Herald-Times)
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In his job with Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Green Bay, Afghan immigrant Sayed Wardak is helping newly arrived Afghans get settled in Wisconsin. (Sam Lucero, Catholic News Service)
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Gulf Coast Jewish Family and Community Services has resettled 164 Afghan refugees in the St. Petersburg, Florida, area, and expects to help a total of 250. (Waveney Ann Moore, St. Pete Catalyst)
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A new AmeriCorps resettlement program in Minnesota will help resettle about 750 Afghan refugees arriving in the next few months. (Kelly Smith, Star Tribune)
And, a local story to track:
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In spite of labor shortages that Afghan evacuees — who have been thoroughly vetted — could help fill, Cambria County, Pennsylvania’s, Vision Together 2025’s president was pressured to clarify "they are not looking to bring in ‘Afghan refugees,’ but rather ‘legally vetted immigrants.’ " (Nicole Fuschino, WJAC News)
‘PERSONIFY AND HUMANIZE’ — In part 1 of a two-part interview for Texas Public Radio’s "Fronteras," Norma Martinez talks to Jason De León, who is using anthropology and archeology to understand migrants' journeys. De León, a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, and director of the Undocumented Migration Project, collects and studies items migrants have left behind on the journey north. The goal is "to personify and humanize migrant deaths, and explain how those deaths are directly related to inhumane border policies," Martinez writes. De León asks, "Why is it that the things that people’s Irish ancestors or Italian
ancestors or people who were coming through Ellis Island — those materials were valorized, while the things that undocumented folks from Latin America were leaving behind were considered garbage?"
NINE YEARS — Australia’s detention of tennis star Novak Djokovic when he arrived for the Australian Open has made headlines, but Australia’s treatment of refugees generally deserves attention as well. As Jason Scott of Bloomberg News reports, asylum seekers describe the hotel where Djokovic is detained "as lacking exercise equipment, poorly ventilated and susceptible to Covid outbreaks. A sign hangs inside one window reading ‘9 YRS LONG.’ " Australia has made life difficult for asylum seekers for more than two decades, including the use of an isolated island for detention. "We all know Novak is going to get out within just a few days, but these other poor people won’t," says Sophie McNeill, the Australia researcher for Human Rights Watch.
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