The entire concept of free movement of persons should be revised. EU MS imposing restrictions on other MS should look elsewhere for lessons and best practices!
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10 months ago
When do you become a migrant?
So, you find yourself away from your birthplace, from home, maybe even abroad. Does that make you a migrant? Depending on the time spent abroad, you might as well be one. But crossing a border makes you a migrant? Getting a residence permit in the country of destination makes you a migrant? Getting a job abroad? A work permit? Or maybe working undocumented? Voting in elections at the embassy of your country? Perhaps all of the above. A TV beer commercial aired in my home country proclaimed that you, as a teenager boy, - yeah, it was kind of gender-biased, but that's not the issue here, and yeah, I grew up quite early, but that's also not the issue - you become a grown up when you have your first beer with your father. By analogy, if you allow me, you become a migrant when you transfer money home to your folks for the first time using a money transfer operator. Today, I became a migrant. It feels good. Although I cannot get rid of a dilemma: does a 6% transfer fee make you more a migrant than does a 6% alcohol by volume beer with your dad make you an adult?
To tell you the truth, in the former case, I can also add that I am working abroad, and more specifically I work on migration-related issues, I have a residence card, do not recall how many times I have crossed the border, voted in elections like a good citizen that I am, and for a few days I've also been an irregular migrant worker but shhhh.... Basically, money transfer is the cherry on the cake, the end of my migration bildungsroman, the beginning of the diaspora experience. In the latter case, well, let's just say that 6 beers later I felt quite responsible, adult-like, I mean, it was the first time I decided to use the actual toilet and not the bush. On the other hand, 6 beers later for my dad didn't feel that much adult-like, more like puerile, or how would you call him giving cartoon names to each bottle of beer? We had Tom, Jerry, Spike, Scooby, Shaggy, and Mr Flinstone, the favorite. So, if your first beer with your father makes you a grown up, what does it make him? I don't know, but what I do know is when it's clear for your folks that you've become a migrant: yes, exactly, when they send you the first package with home-made pickles, across borders, in a mini-van. Pretty much in the same way I got abroad (in a mini-van, not in a jar of pickles). Legally. Until next time, stay legal.
To tell you the truth, in the former case, I can also add that I am working abroad, and more specifically I work on migration-related issues, I have a residence card, do not recall how many times I have crossed the border, voted in elections like a good citizen that I am, and for a few days I've also been an irregular migrant worker but shhhh.... Basically, money transfer is the cherry on the cake, the end of my migration bildungsroman, the beginning of the diaspora experience. In the latter case, well, let's just say that 6 beers later I felt quite responsible, adult-like, I mean, it was the first time I decided to use the actual toilet and not the bush. On the other hand, 6 beers later for my dad didn't feel that much adult-like, more like puerile, or how would you call him giving cartoon names to each bottle of beer? We had Tom, Jerry, Spike, Scooby, Shaggy, and Mr Flinstone, the favorite. So, if your first beer with your father makes you a grown up, what does it make him? I don't know, but what I do know is when it's clear for your folks that you've become a migrant: yes, exactly, when they send you the first package with home-made pickles, across borders, in a mini-van. Pretty much in the same way I got abroad (in a mini-van, not in a jar of pickles). Legally. Until next time, stay legal.
Immigration in video cartoons
Migration has become in recent years a hot topic on the agenda of many governments, organizations, fora, groups, societies and even individuals. It is a multifaceted phenomenon and all its various aspects are to varying degrees subject to public scrutiny. Media, politicians, NGOs, international organizations, academia and many others have long-term dedicated efforts to research, debate, argue and condemn migration. It is not surprising that references have occurred in such instances as video cartoons. Below, a selection of such mentions, which I think apply beyond the US context.
1. The need for low-skilled, foreign labour is often not acknowledged at policy levels - see for example the restrictions imposed by various EU member states on the circulation of low-skilled migrants from other EU countries, and especially those that joined the union in 2004 and 2007. Such limitations - against an increasing domestic demand and various push factors in countries of origin (among other factors) - often lead to irregular employment of migrants. The below clip speaks out: employment of immigrants is a matter of agreeing the right terms between demand and supply!
2. Communication. Language is one of the biggest obstacles to migrant integration. In certain theories about/approaches to migrant integration learning the language of the country of destination begins at home. Yet, the process of integration can be described as a bi-directional one: the host country can also undertake efforts to facilitate the migrants' incorporation, including speaking the migrant's native language. In some cases, a migrant's ability to speak the language of his/her country of destination might have an impact on the attitudes of the guest society towards migrants.
3. Immigration debate. When a conversation involves two speakers that are uninformed about who the others are, what their intentions, customs, socio-demographic characteristics are, the debate is death. The importance of cultural mediators should not be overlooked but in the same time their selection should pass the objectivity test before! And not least, whenever a Parliament or a Congress or a Government continues to debate legislation that will affect the lives of immigrants, it is important to remember that we might as well be a nation of immigrants (just go back to your history classes).
To be continued
1. The need for low-skilled, foreign labour is often not acknowledged at policy levels - see for example the restrictions imposed by various EU member states on the circulation of low-skilled migrants from other EU countries, and especially those that joined the union in 2004 and 2007. Such limitations - against an increasing domestic demand and various push factors in countries of origin (among other factors) - often lead to irregular employment of migrants. The below clip speaks out: employment of immigrants is a matter of agreeing the right terms between demand and supply!
2. Communication. Language is one of the biggest obstacles to migrant integration. In certain theories about/approaches to migrant integration learning the language of the country of destination begins at home. Yet, the process of integration can be described as a bi-directional one: the host country can also undertake efforts to facilitate the migrants' incorporation, including speaking the migrant's native language. In some cases, a migrant's ability to speak the language of his/her country of destination might have an impact on the attitudes of the guest society towards migrants.
3. Immigration debate. When a conversation involves two speakers that are uninformed about who the others are, what their intentions, customs, socio-demographic characteristics are, the debate is death. The importance of cultural mediators should not be overlooked but in the same time their selection should pass the objectivity test before! And not least, whenever a Parliament or a Congress or a Government continues to debate legislation that will affect the lives of immigrants, it is important to remember that we might as well be a nation of immigrants (just go back to your history classes).
To be continued
UK Police officers given translation guide to deal with Romanian crime suspects. It wasn't me, guv! Cross my heart, chief! It was the Bulgarian! No, wait, it was the Polish! Uh, sorry, it was the Albanian! No, wait, it was that African-American over there! but you don't have a translation guide for them, do you? Wanna buy one?
The migration walls
Great Wall of China. Construction first started about 200 BC, to keep out the barbarians: Huns and Mongols in this case
US-Mexico border, between Tijuana and San Diego. It is believed that hundreds of people die every year of thirst, exhaustion or drowning while trying to cross - far more than died crossing the Berlin Wall.
Frontier of Melilla (Spanish Enclave in Morocco). The army guards the wall after an attempt at mass crossing.
Legal immigrants waiting for immigration clearance at US border.
In curand, pe marile bloguri
eu am barba, blogu' nu, dar acum sigur o sa ii creasca, mare si stufoasa sa aiba tot migrantul si non-migrantul care viziteaza blogu' de ce sa traga. deci pe curand
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