The Guardian (November 19)
“The Home Office has announced another set of measures designed to signal ever more ferocious intent to control the nation’s borders.” This is a mistake, apparently to appease “the irate chorus that fulminates against perceived inundation by foreigners.” It overlooks the reality of declining migration and logical outcomes. “With migration patterns simply following the current [downward] trajectory,” undesirable consequences need to be addressed. Who will provide social care when the already “struggling sector” is facing “a mounting recruitment crisis”? Without students from overseas, “many universities… will be pushed over the brink.” On top of it all, the contracting ratio of working-age adults will make growth ”harder to achieve” and decrease “Treasury revenues… with painful fiscal consequences.”
Tags: Borders, Consequences, Control, Ferocious, Foreigners, Home Office, Migration, Overseas, Recruitment crisis, Revenues, Social care, Students, Treasury, Universities, Working-age
The Guardian (September 24)
“European leaders have been pulled to the right on migration, the climate crisis and Israel. Their weakness is undermining the democratic principles on which the EU was built.” If they “remain still and silent, hoping Trump will simply fade away, they risk giving up not just their dignity but their political agency. By doing so, they are allowing far-right forces to fill the void and tilt the balance permanently.”
Tags: Climate crisis, Democratic principles, Dignity, EU, Europe, Far right, Israel, Leaders, Migration, Political agency, Risk, Silent, Still, Trump, Undermining, Void, Weakness
The Economist (April 26)
“Africans need jobs. The rest of the world needs workers. Migration from Africa is a mega-trend that transcends today’s populist surge” and it is already taking place on a colossal scale. Over 20 million emigrants from Africa now “live outside the continent, a three-fold increase since 1990. That is higher than the number of Indian migrants outside India or Chinese migrants outside China—two big diasporas from countries with populations of similar size to the African continent.”
Tags: 1990, 20 million, Africa, China, Diasporas, Emigrants, India, Jobs, Mega-trend, Migrants, Migration, Populations, Populist surge, Workers
Time (March 1)
“Until the 1970s, women in the most prosperous Asian economies like South Korea, Japan, and China were having more than five children on average. Today, that trend is starkly different.” And not just in Asia. Globally, “fertility rates have decreased worldwide” for seven decades. “Even in the most advanced economies, the rate is now 1.6 children per couple, compared to the recommended rate of 2.1 for countries wanting to keep a steady population without any migration.”
Tags: 1970s, Advanced economies, Asia, Asia. Fertility rates, Children, China, Japan, Migration, Population, Prosperous, South Korea, Steady, Women
ABC New (December 26)
Due to unexpectedly high migration, “fears that Australia would enter a technical recession during 2023 didn’t eventuate.” Still, “for many, life in 2023 certainly felt recession-like as Australians faced more interest rate hikes, a rising tax bill and a still-increasing cost of living that again outpaced wage growth.”
Tags: 2023, Australia, Australians, Cost of living, Fears, Interest, Migration, Outpaced, Rate hikes, Tax bill, Technical recession, Wage growth
Bloomberg (November 25)
“Since the Brexit vote in 2016, the UK government is yet to deliver major legislative change with significant benefits for businesses. Instead, companies have had to grapple with higher paperwork costs on trade, a tighter labor market spurred by a reduction in EU migration and a weaker pound increasing import costs. Brexit has also had a political cost of aggravating tensions in Northern Ireland and hurting diplomatic relations with the EU.”
Tags: Benefits, Brexit, Businesses, Costs, EU, Government, Import, Labor market, Migration, Northern Ireland, Paperwork, Pound, Trade, UK, Weaker
New York Times (October 22)
Recent reports released by the federal government make clear that “climate change poses a widening threat to national security.” The reports lay out “the ways in which the warming world is beginning to significantly challenge stability worldwide.” These include “Worsening conflict within and between nations. Increased dislocation and migration as people flee climate-fueled instability. Heightened military tension and uncertainty. Financial hazards.”
Tags: Climate change, Conflict, Dislocation, Government, Instability, Migration, Military, National security, Reports, Stability, Tension, Threat, U.S., Uncertainty, Worldwide
Investment Week (March 3)
“If China fails to get ‘back to work’ and is unable to cushion the impact of the coronavirus by April the ‘global ramifications will be enormous.’” At a recent Investment Week Conference, Karen Ward, chief market strategist for EMEA at J.P. Morgan Asset Management, also urged investors to “keep an eye on figures tracking Chinese coal consumption and labour migration as key indicators of the growing impact on the country’s economy.”
Tags: China, Coal, Consumption, Coronavirus, EMEA, Global ramifications, Impact, Indicators, Investors, J.P. Morgan, Labour, Migration
Time (June 18)
“German Chancellor Angela Merkel faces a political crisis that could reshape Europe’s migration crisis and potentially end her ten years in power” as a standoff “over Germany’s liberal migration policies threatens to collapse the fragile coalition that Merkel presides over.”
Tags: Coalition, Collapse, Europe, Germany Merkel, Migration, Political crisis, Standoff
Fortune (February Issue)
The cost of “suffocating air pollution” is higher than imagined. The World Bank had estimated in 2016 that air pollution resulted in health costs of $5 trillion a year, but other losses could especially hit developing countries. “High pollution levels are capable of causing net out-migration of 5%—a potentially devastating economic blow, especially because those most likely to leave are wealthy and educated.”
Tags: Air pollution, Cost, Devastating, Educated, Health, Migration, Suffocating, Wealthy, World Bank
