Immigration 5 – Can politicians handle that?

Political leaders are notorious for their short-term outlook and their self interest as well as those of their financial backers. Can they muster the commitment, the long-term view and the courage that would come with drafting a sustainable emigration policy? At this point I think not. Who should take the lead on it though? Could the UN or an affiliated agency tackle the problem without widespread members’ support? Alternatively, some nation states could show leadership by undertaking the project, thinking it through and leaving no stone unturned. Could it be the United States; I doubt it, but there might be no other way…

Immigration 4 – Comprehensive treatment needed

It seems counterproductive to have nations handle immigration on a piecemeal basis when the basic problems and challenges are the same whether we talk about Europe, North America or certain parts of Asia. It would appear that the United Nations should be the ideal body to spearhead a comprehensive program capable of defining a general and sustainable set of directions that would help all member nations, and create a continuum in terms of policies, targets and appropriate strategies and tactics. At the moment, each nation that is faced with a particular situation related to immigration devises its own plan and frequently has to resort to re-inventing the wheel and seeking isolated solutions that are meant to address specific symptoms rather than the root causes of the situation.

Immigration 3 – The nationality question

None of us chose our birthplace and in most cases, our nationality. In fact what does nationality means? Family ties, culture, education, religious traditions, language, race to name a few. Contrast that with what makes us human, that is the pool of traits and physical features all humans share in common. Then compare to other species (dogs, cats, birds, fishes) and it’s pretty obvious that all humans are very much homogeneous and very similar. This observation shows the artificial nature of what define and differentiate our different nationalities. What can be seen as differences is in fact very trivial and is dwarfed by the large, solid elements that unite us.

Immigration 2 – The lure of boom

Work then become one critical element in allowing harmonious waves of immigration.
When no work is available, there should be no reason for human migration as it would exacerbate human suffering. At present, it appears that when there’s a booming economy in a northern nation, this simple reality creates a vacuum that steers people in search of a better life towards it. It happens haphazardly, by hearsay or by way of modern communications. Nothing is orchestrated. Maybe there’s there an opportunity to organize a labor market that is more efficient and in particular, that can anticipate labor needs both geographically and in terms of skills needed. The proposition gets a bit more complicated as the need for labor may fluctuate (seasonally or during periods of boom and bust) and mechanisms should be envisioned to regulate this.

Immigration 1 – Seamless planet

I want to start this discussion by looking at the planet, from space. It looks so seamless that one may wonder why can't humans move freely to the place of their choice? It probably is bad enough that almost everywhere human beings can own, thus control land, but that’s a fact that will be very hard to change. So what’s wrong about having some “have-not” moving around?
The next general idea is that we need to have these itinerants abide by local rules and laws, and financially participate to pay for their own impact in these areas that are not theirs; in so doing, they will contribute to the services they might use (administrative help, health care, education, other use of public infrastructure.) If that were to be the case, it seems that they should have the right to work, if work is in fact available.

The Bush Presidency in four pages

Here is a scary account to the Bush Presidency and some of the challenges that the next President is going to face. We’ll be hearing about these issues for decades so we should get used to them. Regardless of what you may think of that particular magazine and the author’s political orientation is, this piece draws a fair account of the state of disarray our nation is in. I personally have stopped blaming Bush and his team for that, but instead, I can’t forgive the majority of American who has voted him back in office in 2004, knowing full well what the current administration was all about.