tag:theconversation.com,2011:/africa/topics/immigration-ban-35415/articlesimmigration ban – The Conversation2024-03-08T04:01:43Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2251582024-03-08T04:01:43Z2024-03-08T04:01:43ZBiden defends immigration policy during State of the Union, blaming Republicans in Congress for refusing to act<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580628/original/file-20240308-24-r50pvr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">President Joe Biden delivers his State of the Union address on March 7, 2024. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/president-joe-biden-delivers-the-annual-state-of-the-union-news-photo/2059263399?adppopup=true">Alex Brandon-Pool/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>President Joe Biden delivered the annual <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2024/03/07/remarks-of-president-joe-biden-state-of-the-union-address-as-prepared-for-delivery-2/">State of the Union address</a> on March 7, 2024, casting a wide net on a range of major themes – the economy, abortion rights, threats to democracy, the wars in Gaza and Ukraine – that are preoccupying many Americans heading into the November presidential election.</em></p>
<p><em>The president also addressed massive increases in immigration at the southern border and the political battle in Congress over how to manage it. “We can fight about the border, or we can fix it. I’m ready to fix it,” Biden said.</em></p>
<p><em>But while Biden stressed that he wants to overcome political division and take action on immigration and the border, he cautioned that he will not “demonize immigrants,” as he said his predecessor, former President Donald Trump, does.</em> </p>
<p><em>“I will not separate families. I will not ban people from America because of their faith,” Biden said.</em></p>
<p><em>Biden’s speech comes as a <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4422273-immigration-overtakes-inflation-top-voter-concern-poll/">rising number of American voters</a> say that <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/611135/immigration-surges-top-important-problem-list.aspx">immigration is the country’s biggest problem</a>.</em></p>
<p><em><a href="https://gould.usc.edu/faculty/profile/jean-lantz-reisz/">Immigration law scholar Jean Lantz Reisz</a> answers four questions about why immigration has become a top issue for Americans, and the limits of presidential power when it comes to immigration and border security.</em> </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580622/original/file-20240308-21-t103cg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="President Joe Biden stands surrounded by people in formal clothing and smiles. One man holds a cell phone camera close up to his face." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580622/original/file-20240308-21-t103cg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580622/original/file-20240308-21-t103cg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580622/original/file-20240308-21-t103cg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580622/original/file-20240308-21-t103cg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580622/original/file-20240308-21-t103cg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580622/original/file-20240308-21-t103cg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580622/original/file-20240308-21-t103cg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">President Joe Biden arrives to deliver the State of the Union address at the US Capitol on March 7, 2024.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/president-joe-biden-arrives-to-deliver-the-state-of-the-news-photo/2067104727?adppopup=true">Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images</a></span>
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<h2>1. What is driving all of the attention and concern immigration is receiving?</h2>
<p>The unprecedented number of undocumented migrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border right now has drawn national concern to the U.S. immigration system and the president’s enforcement <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/12/22/1221006083/immigration-border-election-presidential">policies at the border</a>. </p>
<p>Border security has always been part of the immigration debate about how to stop unlawful immigration.</p>
<p>But in this election, the immigration debate is also fueled by images of large groups of migrants crossing a river and crawling through <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/record-number-migrant-border-crossings-december-2023/">barbed wire fences</a>. There is also news of standoffs between Texas law enforcement and U.S. <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2024/01/24/texas-border-wire-supreme-court/">Border Patrol agents</a> and cities like New York and Chicago struggling to handle the influx of arriving migrants. </p>
<p>Republicans blame Biden for not taking action on what they say is an <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-doubles-warnings-migrant-crime-border-speech/story?id=107691336">“invasion”</a> at the U.S. border. Democrats blame Republicans for refusing to pass laws that would give the president the power to stop the <a href="https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/biden-and-trump-s-dueling-border-visits-will-encapsulate-a-building-election-clash/ar-BB1j5jKy">flow of migration at the border</a>. </p>
<h2>2. Are Biden’s immigration policies effective?</h2>
<p>Confusion about immigration laws may be the reason people believe that Biden is not implementing effective policies at the border. </p>
<p>The U.S. passed a law in 1952 that gives any person arriving at the border or inside the U.S. the right to apply for asylum and the right to legally stay in the country, even if that person crossed the <a href="https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title8-section1158&num=0&edition=prelim">border illegally</a>. That law has not changed. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/politics/trump-overruled/#immigration">Courts struck down</a> many of former President Donald Trump’s policies that tried to limit immigration. Trump was able to lawfully deport migrants at the border without processing their asylum claims during the COVID-19 pandemic under a public health law <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/what-is-title-42-and-what-does-it-mean-for-immigration-at-the-southern-border">called Title 42</a>. Biden continued that policy <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/what-is-title-42-policy-immigration-what-happens-ending-expiration/">until the legal justification for Title 42</a> – meaning the public health emergency – ended in 2023. </p>
<p>Republicans falsely attribute the <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2024/02/15/migrant-encounters-at-the-us-mexico-border-hit-a-record-high-at-the-end-of-2023/">surge in undocumented migration</a> to the U.S. over the past three years to something they call Biden’s <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/house/4414432-house-approves-resolution-denouncing-bidens-open-border-policies/">“open border” policy</a>. There is no such policy. </p>
<p>Multiple factors are driving increased migration to the U.S. </p>
<p>More people are leaving dangerous or difficult situations in <a href="https://www.rand.org/pubs/commentary/2024/02/the-crisis-at-the-border-a-primer-for-confused-americans.html">their countries</a>, and some people have waited to migrate until <a href="https://www.migrationpolicy.org/news/border-numbers-fy2023">after the COVID-19 pandemic</a> ended. People who smuggle migrants are also <a href="https://thehill.com/campaign-issues/immigration/3576180-human-smugglers-often-target-migrants-with-misinformation-on-social-media-watchdog/">spreading misinformation</a> to migrants about the ability to enter and stay in the U.S. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580236/original/file-20240306-24-y12r2h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Joe Biden wears a black blazer and a black hat as he stands next to a bald white man wearing a green uniform and a white truck that says 'Border Patrol' in green" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580236/original/file-20240306-24-y12r2h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580236/original/file-20240306-24-y12r2h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580236/original/file-20240306-24-y12r2h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580236/original/file-20240306-24-y12r2h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580236/original/file-20240306-24-y12r2h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580236/original/file-20240306-24-y12r2h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580236/original/file-20240306-24-y12r2h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">President Joe Biden walks with Jason Owens, the chief of the U.S. Border Patrol, as he visits the U.S.-Mexico border in Brownsville, Texas, on Feb. 29, 2024.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/president-joe-biden-walks-with-jason-owens-chief-of-us-news-photo/2041441026?adppopup=true">Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
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<h2>3. How much power does the president have over immigration?</h2>
<p>The president’s power regarding immigration is limited to enforcing existing immigration laws. But the president has broad authority over how to enforce those laws. </p>
<p>For example, the president can place every single immigrant unlawfully <a href="https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title8-section1103&num=0&edition=prelim">present in the U.S.</a> in deportation proceedings. Because there is not enough money or employees at federal agencies and courts to accomplish that, the president will usually choose to prioritize the deportation of certain immigrants, like those who have committed serious and violent crimes in the U.S. </p>
<p>The federal agency Immigration and Customs Enforcement <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/2023/12/29/immigrants-ice-border-deportations-2023/#">deported more than 142,000 immigrants</a> from October 2022 through September 2023, double the number of people it deported the previous fiscal year. </p>
<p>But under current law, the president does not have the power to summarily expel migrants who say they are afraid of returning to their country. The law requires the president to process their claims for asylum. </p>
<p>Biden’s ability to enforce immigration law also depends on a budget approved by Congress. <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2024/02/29/fact-sheet-impact-of-bipartisan-border-agreement-funding-on-border-operations/">Without congressional approval</a>, the president cannot spend money to build a wall, increase immigration detention facilities’ capacity or send more Border Patrol agents to process undocumented migrants entering the country.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580242/original/file-20240306-18-k0ch8n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A large group of people are seen sitting and standing along a tall brown fence in an empty area of brown dirt." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580242/original/file-20240306-18-k0ch8n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580242/original/file-20240306-18-k0ch8n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580242/original/file-20240306-18-k0ch8n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580242/original/file-20240306-18-k0ch8n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580242/original/file-20240306-18-k0ch8n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580242/original/file-20240306-18-k0ch8n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580242/original/file-20240306-18-k0ch8n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Migrants arrive at the border between El Paso, Texas, and Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, to surrender to American Border Patrol agents on March 5, 2024.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/groups-of-migrants-of-different-nationalities-arrive-at-the-news-photo/2054049040?adppopup=true">Lokman Vural Elibol/Anadolu via Getty Images</a></span>
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<h2>4. How could Biden address the current immigration problems in this country?</h2>
<p>In early 2024, Republicans in the Senate refused to pass a bill – developed by a bipartisan team of legislators – that would have made it harder to get asylum and given Biden the power to stop <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/immigration-biden-border-authority/">taking asylum applications</a> when migrant crossings reached a <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/politics/live-news/senate-vote-border-bill-aid-02-07-24/h_3263c78238d0d2de96a203fad7fd9e94">certain number</a>. </p>
<p>During his speech, Biden called this bill the “toughest set of border security reforms we’ve ever seen in this country.”</p>
<p>That bill would have also provided <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/politics/live-news/senate-vote-border-bill-aid-02-07-24/h_3263c78238d0d2de96a203fad7fd9e94">more federal money</a> to help immigration agencies and courts quickly review more asylum claims and expedite the asylum process, which remains backlogged with millions of cases, Biden said. Biden said the bipartisan deal would also hire 1,500 more border security agents and officers, as well as 4,300 more asylum officers. </p>
<p>Removing this backlog in immigration courts could mean that some undocumented migrants, who now might wait six to eight years for an asylum hearing, would instead only wait six weeks, Biden said. That means it would be “highly unlikely” migrants would pay a large amount to be smuggled into the country, only to be “kicked out quickly,” Biden said. </p>
<p>“My Republican friends, you owe it to the American people to get this bill done. We need to act,” Biden said. </p>
<p>Biden’s remarks calling for Congress to pass the bill drew jeers from some in the audience. Biden quickly responded, saying that it was a bipartisan effort: “What are you against?” he asked. </p>
<p>Biden <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/biden-weighs-invoking-executive-authority-stage-border-crackdown-212f/">is now considering</a> using section 212(f) of the <a href="https://www.uscis.gov/laws-and-policy/legislation/immigration-and-nationality-act">Immigration and Nationality Act</a> to get more control over immigration. This sweeping law allows the president to temporarily suspend or restrict the entry of all foreigners if their arrival is detrimental to the U.S.</p>
<p>This obscure law gained attention when Trump used it in January 2017 to implement a <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/trump-s-immigration-ban-raises-more-questions-answers-here-s-n1188946">travel ban</a> on foreigners from mainly Muslim countries. The Supreme Court upheld the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/01/world/americas/travel-ban-trump-how-it-works.html">travel ban in 2018</a>. </p>
<p>Trump again also signed an executive order in April 2020 that <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/trump-s-immigration-ban-raises-more-questions-answers-here-s-n1188946">blocked foreigners who were seeking lawful permanent residency from entering the country</a> for 60 days, citing this same section of the Immigration and Nationality Act. </p>
<p>Biden did not mention any possible use of section 212(f) during his State of the Union speech. If the president uses this, it would likely be challenged in court. It is not clear that 212(f) would apply to people already in the U.S., and it conflicts with existing asylum law that gives people within the U.S. the right to seek asylum.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/225158/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jean Lantz Reisz does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A rising number of Americans say that immigration is the country’s biggest problem. Biden called for Congress to pass a bipartisan border and immigration bill during his State of the Union.Jean Lantz Reisz, Clinical Associate Professor of Law, Co-Director, USC Immigration Clinic, University of Southern CaliforniaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2028962023-04-01T11:14:25Z2023-04-01T11:14:25ZMigrant deaths in Mexico put spotlight on US policy that shifted immigration enforcement south<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518815/original/file-20230331-135-vcnrl7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C40%2C6659%2C4426&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Mourners gather outside a detention center in Ciudad Juarez.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/march-2023-mexico-ciudad-juarez-people-mourn-and-demand-news-photo/1249814159?adppopup=true">David Peinado/picture alliance via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The fire-related <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/mexico-president-assigns-blame-migrant-tragedy-98273746">deaths of at least 39 migrants</a> in a detention facility in Ciudad Juarez, just across the U.S. border with Mexico, will likely be found to have had several contributing factors.</p>
<p>There was the immediate cause of the blaze, the mattresses apparently <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11912087/Fire-killed-39-people-migrant-center-caused-protesters-lighting-mattresses.html">set alight by desperate men</a> in the center to protest their imminent deportation. And then there is the apparent role of guards, <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2023/03/29/video-shows-guards-walking-away-during-fire-that-killed-38-migrants-00089415">seen on video walking away</a> from the blaze.</p>
<p>But as an <a href="https://law.ucdavis.edu/people/raquel-aldana">expert on immigration policy</a>, I believe there is another part of the tragedy that can’t be overlooked: the decadeslong immigration enforcement policies of the U.S. and Mexican governments that have seen the number of <a href="https://www.globaldetentionproject.org/countries/americas/mexico">people kept in such facilities skyrocket</a>. </p>
<p>In the aftermath of the fire, Felipe González Morales, the United Nations special rapporteur for human rights of migrants, <a href="https://twitter.com/UNSR_Migration/status/1640721437282426880">commented on Twitter</a> that the “extensive use of immigration detention leads to tragedies like this one.”</p>
<p>And the United States is a big part of that “extensive use” on both sides of the border.</p>
<h2>Lengthy stays and fear of deportation</h2>
<p>Today Mexico maintains a very large detention system. It <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/deadly-fire-spurs-scrutiny-of-mexican-immigration-detention-centers-382ebcae">comprises several dozen short- and long-term detention centers</a>, housing <a href="https://sjmmexico.org/estadistica-migratoria/">more than 300,000 people</a> in 2021.</p>
<p>By comparison, the U.S. immigration detention system is the world’s largest. It <a href="https://immigrationforum.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Immigration-Detention-Factsheet_FINAL.pdf">maintains 131 facilities</a> comprised of government-owned Service Processing Centers, privately run Contract Detention Facilities, and a variety of other detention facilities, including prisons.</p>
<p>Mexico <a href="https://www.globaldetentionproject.org/immigration-detention-in-mexico-between-the-united-states-and-central-america">has laws in place that are supposed to guarantee</a> that migrants in detention only endure brief stays and are afforded due process, such as access to lawyers and interpreters. The law also states that they should have adequate conditions, including access to education and health care.</p>
<p>But in reality, what migrants often face at these detention centers is <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/overcrowding-abuse-seen-mexico-migrant-detention-center-n1018231">poor sanitary conditions, overcrowding</a>, <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/03/30/1166947456/ciudad-juarez-detention-fire-conditions-migrants-treatment">lengthy stays and despair</a> over the near certainty of deportation. </p>
<p>The fire in Ciudad Juárez was started after the migrants – men from Guatemala, Honduras, Venezuela, El Salvador, Colombia and Ecuador – learned that they were to be <a href="https://apnews.com/article/mexico-fire-migrant-facility-dead-eea0b6efafd77f9868ef27ed1cf572b3">sent back to those nations</a>, <a href="https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2023-03-28/mexico-border-dozens-dead-migrant-center-fire">according to</a> Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. Deportation would have ended their hopes of asylum in the U.S.</p>
<h2>US immigration enforcement shifts south</h2>
<p>Why Mexico was doing the deporting, not the U.S., has a great deal to do with how the two nations have collaborated to control illegal migration headed to the U.S., especially since the turn of the century. In the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks of 2001, U.S. authorities increasingly viewed <a href="https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/two-decades-after-sept-11-immigration-national-security">immigration as a security issue</a> – a pivot that affected not only U.S. domestic legislation on immigration but its bilateral relations with Mexico. </p>
<p>In 2006, Mexican President Felipe Calderón joined efforts with President George W. Bush <a href="https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/IF/IF10578/19">on the Merida Initiative</a> to wage a war on drugs in Mexico, build a “21st Century U.S.-Mexican border” and shift immigration enforcement into Mexican territory.</p>
<p>These efforts, supported by <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/03/15/us-has-spent-billions-trying-fix-mexicos-drug-war-its-not-working/">massive U.S. funding</a>, continue today.</p>
<p>With this money, Mexico established <a href="https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/IF/IF10578/19">naval bases on its rivers, security cordons and drone surveillance</a>. It also set up mobile highway checkpoints and biometric screening at migrant detention centers, all with the goal of detecting, detaining and deporting largely <a href="https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/IF/IF10578/19">Central American migrants attempting to reach the United States</a>.</p>
<p>The intent was to shift U.S. immigration enforcement south of the border. In that respect, the policy has been successful. Figures from the Guatemalan Institute of Migration show that of the 171,882 U.S.-bound migrants <a href="https://www.bloomberglinea.com/english/number-of-central-american-migrants-deported-from-us-rose-by-over-300-in-2022/">deported to the Northern Triangle region of Central America – El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala –</a> in 2022, Mexico sent back 92,718, compared to the U.S.’s 78,433.</p>
<h2>Prevention through deterrence is not working</h2>
<p>Mexico’s detentions and deportations have done little to stop the flow of migrants entering the country en route to the U.S.</p>
<p>Researchers at the University of Texas at Austin estimate that from 2018 to 2021, an <a href="https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/IF/IF11151">annual average of 377,000 migrants</a> entered Mexico from the Northern Triangle region. The vast majority were headed to the U.S. to escape violence, drought, natural disasters, corruption and extreme poverty.</p>
<p>Migrants are passing through Mexico in the thousands from multiple other countries as well, fleeing conditions in countries such as <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/15/politics/migrants-yuma-arizona-mexico-border/index.html">Haiti and Venezuela</a>, as <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/record-number-of-african-migrants-coming-to-mexican-border">well as African nations</a>. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, recent years have seen a toughening of border enforcement policies targeting asylum seekers at the U.S.-Mexico border. This started under the Trump administration but has been continued by President Joe Biden <a href="https://joebiden.com/immigration/">despite the Democrat’s campaign promises</a> of a more “humane” immigration system. </p>
<p>Since 2019, Washington has adopted a <a href="https://theconversation.com/bidens-border-crackdown-explained-a-refugee-law-expert-looks-at-the-legality-and-impact-of-new-asylum-rule-200501">series of policies</a> that have either forced migrants presenting themselves at the U.S. southern border to apply for asylum while remaining in Mexico or expelled them back to their countries of origin.</p>
<p>This has created a bottleneck of hundreds of thousands of migrants at Mexico’s border towns and swelled the numbers entering detention facilities in Mexico.</p>
<p>By 2021, the number of immigration detainees in such centers had reached 307,679, <a href="https://sjmmexico.org/estadistica-migratoria/">nearly double what it had been</a> in 2019.</p>
<p>As a result, many centers, including the one implicated in the fire, have <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/overcrowding-and-abuse-witnessed-at-mexico-migrant-detention-center">suffered from overcrowding and deterioration conditions</a>. <a href="https://www.globaldetentionproject.org/immigration-detention-in-mexico-between-the-united-states-and-central-america">A 2021 report by the immigration research center Global Detention Project</a> extensively documented how the conditions and practices of Mexico’s immigration centers had led to widespread protest by detained migrants. Rioting and protests have become more common, with incidents taking place at facilities in <a href="https://apnews.com/article/mexico-fire-migrant-facility-dead-eea0b6efafd77f9868ef27ed1cf572b3">Tijuana and the southern city of Tapachula</a> in recent months.</p>
<h2>No end in sight</h2>
<p>The tragedy in Ciudad Juárez is unlikely to affect the steady flow of migrants entering Mexico in the hope of making it north of the border. For many, the options to take a different path to safety in the U.S. are simply not there. </p>
<p>Only a few can apply for refugee status in the U.S. from abroad, and the waits are long. Biden’s “<a href="https://www.uscis.gov/forms/explore-my-options/humanitarian-parole">humanitarian parole</a>” program – which allows entry to the U.S. for up to 30,000 people a month – is only an option for those living in a handful of nations. It is also being challenged in court. And for the lucky few who manage to file for U.S. asylum, denial rates remain high – <a href="https://trac.syr.edu/immigration/reports/667/">63% in 2021</a> – while immigration court backlogs mean that fewer cases are being decided. <a href="https://trac.syr.edu/immigration/reports/667/">Only 8,349 asylum seekers</a> were actually granted asylum by U.S. immigration judges in 2021.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the Biden administration’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/bidens-border-crackdown-explained-a-refugee-law-expert-looks-at-the-legality-and-impact-of-new-asylum-rule-200501">incoming “transit ban</a>” will mean anyone seeking asylum at the U.S. southern border from May 11, 2023 without having first applied for asylum en route, will be rapidly deported, many to Mexico.</p>
<p>The likelihood is the policy will only worsen the migrant processing bottleneck in Mexico, and add pressure on the country’s already volatile detention facility system.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/202896/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Raquel Aldana does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>‘Extensive use’ of detention led to tragic fire, according to the UN special rapporteur for migrant rights. US-Mexico policy has fueled the growth.Raquel Aldana, Associate Vice Chancellor for Academic Diversity and Professor of Law, University of California, DavisLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2021182023-03-21T20:57:52Z2023-03-21T20:57:52ZDoes public safety trump free speech? History suggests there is a case for banning anti-trans activist Posie Parker from NZ<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516543/original/file-20230321-16-ol5gge.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=88%2C8%2C5830%2C3928&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The impending arrival of <a href="https://www.thenational.scot/news/23299549.posie-parker-anti-trans-founder-standing-women/">Kelly-Jean Keen-Minshull</a> – aka Posie Parker – has put the spotlight on the tension between free speech and protecting vulnerable communities. In particular, it raises questions about Immigration New Zealand’s role in <a href="https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2023/03/immigration-nz-reviewing-anti-transgender-activist-kelly-jay-keen-minshull-s-travel-to-nz-after-chaos-in-melbourne.html">limiting who can visit and speak</a> in Aotearoa New Zealand. </p>
<p>Keen-Minshull is an anti-transgender rights activist and founder of a group called Standing for Women. On the back of a controversial Australian tour, she is planning to speak at a series of events across Aotearoa at the end of March. </p>
<p>But Immigration New Zealand is now reviewing her status after about 30 members of the far-right Nationalist Socialist Movement <a href="https://www.stuff.co.nz/world/australia/300834638/australian-state-to-ban-nazi-salutes-after-farright-rally">supported her rally</a> in Melbourne, clashing with LGBTQI supporters. </p>
<p>The Melbourne police were also <a href="https://mals.au/2023/03/20/statement-of-concern-policing-of-opposing-anti-trans-rally-trans-rights-rallies">criticised by legal observers</a>, accused of protecting and supporting the neo-Nazis while focusing “excessive violence” on the LGBTQI supporters. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, National Party leader <a href="https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/anti-trans-activist-posie-parkers-nz-visit-national-leader-luxon-says-not-a-good-enough-reason-to-ban-her-cites-free-speech/25G32W25Q5GWLL4CFNGWVRH7EQ/">Chris Luxon has said</a> Keen-Minshull should be allowed into New Zealand on the grounds of free speech. He argued there should be a “high bar” to stop someone entering the country because of what they say.</p>
<p>At the same time, Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has said he condemned people who used their right to free speech in a way that deliberately sought to create division. Therein lies the core of the debate.</p>
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<h2>Threat to public order</h2>
<p>Keen-Minshull has allegedly had ties to white supremacist organisations, featuring in <a href="https://www.thenational.scot/news/23299549.posie-parker-anti-trans-founder-standing-women/">videos with Jean-François Gariépy</a>, a prominent far-right YouTuber, and posting a selfie with Hans Jørgen Lysglimt Johansen, a Norwegian neo-Nazi known for Holocaust denial. Keen-Minshull has also tweeted <a href="https://womansplaceuk.org/2018/05/30/changes-to-cornwall-meeting/">racist diatribes against Muslims</a>. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/being-transgender-is-not-a-mental-illness-and-the-who-should-acknowledge-this-63182">Being transgender is not a mental illness, and the WHO should acknowledge this</a>
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<p>The key question is whether the threat of unrest seen at Keen-Minshull’s events poses sufficient risk to public order to justify revoking her visa. It turns out there is a precedent for blocking entry to controversial figures. </p>
<p>In 2014, hip hop collective Odd Future was prevented from entering New Zealand on the grounds they and their audience had been implicated in violence against police and directing harassment towards opponents. </p>
<p>In one instance, members of Odd Future reportedly urged fans to <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/odd-future-banned-from-new-zealand-73529/">attack police</a>, leaving one officer hospitalised. Odd Future member Tyler the Creator also unleashed a tirade against an activist who tried to have his <a href="https://www.nme.com/news/music/tyler-the-creator-3-48-1251877">Australian concert cancelled</a>. Both instances were offered as reasons to prevent the collective from entering New Zealand.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516791/original/file-20230321-28-cnpffm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516791/original/file-20230321-28-cnpffm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516791/original/file-20230321-28-cnpffm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516791/original/file-20230321-28-cnpffm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516791/original/file-20230321-28-cnpffm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516791/original/file-20230321-28-cnpffm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516791/original/file-20230321-28-cnpffm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Rapper Tyler the Creator of the Odd Future collective was banned from entering New Zealand. Immigration New Zealand said the group posed a risk to public order.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Scott Dudelson/FilmMagic</span></span>
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<h2>Character judgements</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/2009/0051/latest/whole.html#DLM1440303">Immigration Act stipulates</a> that individuals who are likely to be “a threat or risk” to security, public order or the public interest should not be eligible for a visa or entry permission. </p>
<p>In the past, <a href="https://www.immigration.govt.nz/new-zealand-visas/preparing-a-visa-application/character-and-identity/good-character/good-character-temporary">good character requirements</a> outlined by the act, including criminal background or deportation from other countries, have been used as a reason to <a href="https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/106644202/chelsea-manning-what-immigration-rules-stop-her-from-entering-new-zealand">block controversial speakers</a> from entering New Zealand. </p>
<p>For example, Steven Anderson of the Faithful Word Baptist Church was denied entry to New Zealand after being <a href="https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2019/10/us-preacher-says-new-zealand-is-under-the-wrath-of-god-for-refusing-his-visa-application.html">deported from other countries</a>. Anderson has been known to promote Holocaust denial and has confirmed he believes in “hating homosexuals”. </p>
<p>On the flip side, alt-right speakers Stefan Molyneux and Lauren Southern were <a href="https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/alt-right-speakers-lauren-southern-and-stefan-molyneux-granted-entry-to-nz/JHZHTSFXTBHMUI7Y4TRYDDIGU4/">granted entry visas</a> in 2018 after meeting character requirements, despite calls for the pair to be banned from entering New Zealand. </p>
<h2>Potential harm</h2>
<p>Arguably, Keen-Minshull should not be granted entry under the banner of free speech. Rallies like those recently held in Australia do appear to cause concrete harm. </p>
<p>Research after the <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-christchurch-call-is-just-a-start-now-we-need-to-push-for-systemic-change-117259">Christchurch Call</a>, a political summit initiated by former prime minister Jacinda Ardern in 2019 after the Christchurch massacre, found expanding extremist communities increased the risk of physical <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s43545-020-00008-2">attacks in the future</a>.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/polarising-sensational-media-coverage-of-transgender-athletes-should-end-our-research-shows-a-way-forward-187250">Polarising, sensational media coverage of transgender athletes should end – our research shows a way forward</a>
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<p>According to the 2018 <a href="https://countingourselves.nz/2018-survey-report/">Counting Ourselves</a> survey, some 71% of trans people reported experiencing high or very high rates of mental distress, and 44% experienced harassment during the 2018 survey period. </p>
<p>Research shows that trans people experience “<a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5685272/">minority stress</a>” – high levels of chronic stress faced by socially marginalised groups, caused by poor social support, low socioeconomic status and prejudice. A key part of “minority stress” is linked to anticipating and <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5734137/">attempting to avoid discrimination</a>. </p>
<h2>Being consistent</h2>
<p>Beyond the question of free speech, Immigration New Zealand needs to be consistent in its application of the law. In the case of Odd Future, an Immigration official admitted it was unusual to ban musical acts:</p>
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<p>Generally it’s aimed at organisations like white supremacists and neo-Nazis, people who have come in here to be public speakers, holocaust deniers – those kinds of people.</p>
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<p>However, Immigration stood by its decision based on the lead singer’s incitement of violence against police and harassment of an activist. Considering the <a href="https://www.stuff.co.nz/editors-picks/9997356/The-story-behind-the-Odd-Future-ban">ruling on Odd Future</a> as a risk to public order, it would surely be inconsistent to allow Keen-Minshull entry.</p>
<p>In 2018, she was spoken to by UK police for <a href="https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/8686165/misgendering-second-woman-police-transgender-social-media/">making videos</a> criticising the chief executive of transgender charity Mermaids. And, in 2019, Keen-Minshull recorded herself in Washington DC confronting <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/prominent-transgender-activist-harassed-anti-trans-feminists-video-shows-n966061">trans advocate Sarah McBride after breaking into a private meeting</a>. </p>
<h2>Encouraging the far-right?</h2>
<p>In the post-COVID era, New Zealand has already seen a more visible <a href="https://www.newsroom.co.nz/a-new-wave-of-anti-lgbt-hate">far-right anti-LGBTQI movement</a>. There has been a rise in harassment and attacks against LGBTQI communities across the country, including the arson of the <a href="https://www.nzherald.co.nz/bay-of-plenty-times/news/arsonists-who-torched-tauranga-rainbow-youth-and-gender-dynamix-building-sentenced/O6WBUFV5CZFDRFVPKYJOHTFRME/">Tauranga Rainbow Youth and Gender Dynamix building</a>. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/trans-rights-and-political-backlash-five-key-moments-in-history-187476">Trans rights and political backlash: five key moments in history</a>
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<p>We need to listen to those <a href="https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/opinion/124558007/listen-to-those-targeted-by-the-hate-groups">targeted by hate groups</a> – it is their safety that is at risk from speakers who deny their existence and humanity.</p>
<p>The line between free speech and causing harm is complicated to draw. But this case seems clear cut. Whether you agree or disagree with the 2014 decision to bar Odd Future entry to New Zealand, the precedent has been set for visitors who pose a threat to public order.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/202118/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kevin Veale does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Immigration NZ banned hip hop collective Odd Future on the basis of public safety in 2014. Will it do the same for anti-transgender rights activist Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull?Kevin Veale, Lecturer in Media Studies, part of the Digital Cultures Laboratory in the School of Humanities, Media, and Creative Communication, Massey UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1000302018-07-22T20:08:27Z2018-07-22T20:08:27ZMigration helps balance our ageing population – we don’t need a moratorium<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/228547/original/file-20180720-142423-176v70o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Cutting immigration to Australia will impact the country's demographic composition, with consequences for the working age population and income tax base.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/4Fi_4Q6_eFM">Andrew Seaman/Unsplash</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Australia’s population is set to <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/australian-resident-number-25-million-due-next-month-20180709-p4zqb5.html">reach 25 million</a> in the coming weeks. This is much <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-07-16/population-growth-dean-smith-call-for-parliamentary-committee/9997602">earlier than expected</a>. Eighteen years ago, <a href="http://www.ausstats.abs.gov.au/Ausstats/subscriber.nsf/0/77DDF6AF34285E7ACA25693E00033443/%24File/32220_1999%20to%202101.pdf">projections estimated</a> Australia’s population wouldn’t get to 25 million until 2041.</p>
<p>Western Australian Liberal Senator Dean Smith last week proposed a moratorium on immigration to give Australia some time to <a href="https://theconversation.com/government-senator-dean-smith-urges-national-debate-about-population-100002">“breathe” and take stock</a>. Claiming concerns over planning and infrastructure failing to meet population needs, Smith signalled Australia was unprepared, having relied on inaccurate population projections.</p>
<p>Immigration is often targeted when population levels seem out of control. But will a moratorium give Australia the supposed breathing space it needs?</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/factcheck-is-australias-population-the-highest-growing-in-the-world-96523">FactCheck: is Australia's population the 'highest-growing in the world'?</a>
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<h2>Migration impacts</h2>
<p>Concerns about immigration and a perceived population crisis have crossed over the spectrum of Australian politics. One Nation’s Pauline Hanson has called for a <a href="https://www.onenation.org.au/pauline-proposes-peoples-vote-on-immigration/?utm_source=Mailing+Subscribers&utm_campaign=032db92c43-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_01_25_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_4f8178d36d-032db92c43-117107263&goal=0_4f8178d36d-032db">plebiscite on immigration</a>, while Labor leader Bill Shorten has raised concerns about the <a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/immigration/migration-program-flexible-michael-sukkar-says/news-story/5498966ab70064120f41c30db50e5f3c">number of temporary migrants</a> in Australia. </p>
<p>Immigration Minister Peter Dutton has said a cut to immigration numbers <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/jul/15/peter-dutton-contradicts-morrison-and-says-migrant-cut-positive-for-the-economy">would have economic benefits</a>, contradicting Treasurer Scott Morrison. And Smith’s idea to halt immigration to allow the nation’s infrastructure time to catch up with population demand is shared by prominent public figures, including <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/mar/13/qa-australias-immigration-rate-should-be-cut-in-half-bob-carr-says">Bob Carr</a> and <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/news/dick-smith-to-launch-1-million-ad-campaign-to-slash-immigration">Dick Smith</a>.</p>
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<p>Australia’s population is ageing, which <a href="https://theconversation.com/australia-doesnt-have-a-population-policy-why-78183">has potential adverse consequences</a> for the future as proportionally more people exit the workforce, increasing reliance on a shrinking income taxpayer base. Immigration has the potential to <a href="https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/ReportsandPublications/Documents/research/labour-supply-gdp-2010-2050.pdf">offset these consequences</a> of population ageing by contributing to the workforce and to government funds for essential services. Migrants also contribute to Australia’s future population by having children.</p>
<p>The latest available research suggests immigration levels at “about <a href="https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/ReportsandPublications/Documents/research/labour-supply-gdp-2010-2050.pdf">160,000 and 210,000</a> seem to have the ‘best’ impact by 2050 on ageing of the population and the rate of growth of GDP per capita”. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/bloom-and-boom-how-babies-and-migrants-have-contributed-to-australias-population-growth-78097">Bloom and boom: how babies and migrants have contributed to Australia's population growth</a>
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<p><a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/DetailsPage/3222.02012%20(base)%20to%202101?OpenDocument">Current ABS projections</a> provide an opportunity to examine what Australia’s demographic composition could look like if <a href="http://stat.data.abs.gov.au/Index.aspx?%20upQueryid=294">net overseas migration</a> was zero, 200,000 (low), 240,000 (middle) or 280,000 (high) per year. </p>
<p>Based on 2011 census data, and medium-range assumptions for fertility and life expectancy, the 2013 (medium range) projections are tracking well with current estimates. These projections provide an indication of the impact of migration, measured as <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/Lookup/3101.0Explanatory%20Notes1Dec%202017?OpenDocument">net overseas migration</a>. Net overseas migration reflects the balance of incoming and outgoing movements and includes both permanent and temporary migration.</p>
<p>The four ABS scenarios show varying population numbers over the medium to long term. The higher the net overseas migration level, the bigger the population over the projected years. Interestingly, though, while zero net overseas migration would result in a reduction in population by the year 2070, the population would still continue to grow in the medium term due to natural increase (births minus deaths).</p>
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<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/bloom-and-boom-how-babies-and-migrants-have-contributed-to-australias-population-growth-78097">Population composition</a> is an important indicator to consider, rather than size alone. Age distribution is essential to understanding the fiscal opportunities and challenges a population faces.</p>
<p>Comparing the four net overseas migration scenarios illustrates the important contribution migration makes to Australia. The so-called <a href="http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/natlinfo/indicators/methodology_sheets/demographics/dependency_ratio.pdf">dependency burden</a> – the ratio of the number of children (0-14
years old) and older people (65 years or over) to the working-age population (15-64 years old) – is higher for zero and low net migration levels. </p>
<p>The current rate of net migration provides the middle ground in balancing population age structure and growth.</p>
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<h2>Population projections</h2>
<p>Planners need to know expected population size and growth to ensure adequate services and provisions. The ABS has produced projections for national and sub-national <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/second+level+view?ReadForm&prodno=3222.0&viewtitle=Population%20Projections,%20Australia%7E2012%20(base)%20to%202101%7ELatest%7E26/11/2013&&tabname=Past%20Future%20Issues&prodno=3222.0&issue=2012%20(base)%20to%202">populations since 1950</a>.</p>
<p>Population inquiries throughout Australia’s history have consistently called on such statistics to enable the country’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/australia-doesnt-have-a-population-policy-why-78183">responsiveness and preparedness</a> to accommodate numbers. Australia hasn’t set any population targets, mainly to avoid coercive population measures (such as mandating birth rates) and to allow flexibility in government policy, particularly around immigration intake.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australia-doesnt-have-a-population-policy-why-78183">Australia doesn't have a population policy – why?</a>
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</p>
<hr>
<p>Estimating population size and growth into the future is about what might be (projection) and not what will be (forecast). So <a href="https://theconversation.com/factcheck-is-australias-population-the-highest-growing-in-the-world-96523">population projections</a> are not predictions; they’re calculations of potential future populations based on assumptions about possible births, deaths and migration. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.cdu.edu.au/sites/default/files/research-brief-2018-03_0.pdf">“best-before-date”</a> for population projections is considered to be around 5-10 years from the initial base year of calculation. This is why projections should be regularly updated based on best available population data (the census and vital statistics) to ensure assumptions reflect births, deaths and migration trends.</p>
<p>Australia is one part of the global community. Cutting immigration to Australia will impact the demographic composition of the country, with consequences for the working-age population and income tax base. </p>
<p>Any changes to the migration program should be considered alongside evidence. <a href="https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/ReportsandPublications/Documents/research/labour-supply-gdp-2010-2050.pdf">Available evidence</a> shows Australia’s current <a href="https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/about/corporate/information/fact-sheets/20planning">migration program intake</a> (190,000) is about right for Australia.</p>
<p>Australia doesn’t need a moratorium. What we need is a respectful, open and evidence-based population discussion.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/100030/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dr Allen is a national council member of the Australia Population Association. </span></em></p>Politicians across the spectrum have at some point targeted immigration as a contributor to out-of-control population growth. But would reducing, or banning, immigration take pressure off cities?Liz Allen, Demographer, ANU Centre for Social Research and Methods, Australian National UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/732482017-02-27T21:25:44Z2017-02-27T21:25:44ZAs US closes borders, thousands of Haitian refugees trapped in Mexico lose hope<p>A United States federal court has <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/04/us/politics/visa-ban-trump-judge-james-robart.html">blocked</a> President Donald Trump’s January 27 <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/27/us/politics/refugee-muslim-executive-order-trump.html">executive order</a> barring citizens from seven majority Muslim countries from entering the US, but the impacts of the travel ban are already being felt at the nation’s borders.</p>
<p>The suspended order halts general refugee admissions for 120 days and Syrian admissions until further notice and puts a limit of 50,000 admissions per year, <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-38781302">down from 150,000</a>. It also imposes major legal hurdles for those <a href="http://www.npr.org/2017/01/29/512311973/5-questions-about-the-law-and-trumps-immigration-order">processing asylum applications</a>. </p>
<p>Along with the Trump administration’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-wall-and-the-beast-trumps-triumph-from-the-mexican-side-of-the-border-68559">proposed wall along the US-Mexico border</a>, this situation has dealt a historic blow not just to Muslim immigrants but to the American asylum and refugee system in general – including to the more than 30,000 asylum seekers and migrants now trapped in Tijuana, Mexico, just a few miles from San Diego, California.</p>
<h2>A human tragedy in the making</h2>
<p>While public attention is distracted with the travel ban’s current legal struggles and the US president’s bombastic anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant rhetoric, refugees have been building up at border crossing points between the US and Mexico, trapped in a legal limbo.</p>
<p>I travelled to migrant shelters in early February to document this developing human rights crisis. I met the kinds of people one would expect: Mexican women escaping <a href="http://jmhs.cmsny.org/index.php/jmhs/article/view/40">cartels</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/sexual-and-domestic-violence-the-hidden-reasons-why-mexican-women-flee-their-homes-65352">gender-based violence</a>, as well as Guatemalans, Hondurans and Salvadorians fleeing Central America’s <a href="https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/research/understanding-central-american-refugee-crisis">unceasing gang violence</a>. </p>
<p>There are also less likely suspects: Haitians who sought refuge in Brazil after the 2010 earthquake in their home country, but who have been forced to move on again due to Brazil’s profound <a href="https://theconversation.com/facing-unemployment-austerity-and-scandal-brazil-struggles-to-keep-it-together-71663">economic and political crisis</a>, which <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-immigration-mexico-haitians-idUSKCN12J2CE?il=0">has dramatically reduced job availability</a>. These Haitians aren’t necessarily the typical “economic migrant”; many are engineers, physicians, architects between 20 and 30-years-old. </p>
<p>Indeed, this little-known group makes up the bulk of migrants stuck in Tijuana. According to Tijuana migrant activist Soraya Vázquez from the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/702704259881756/"><em>Comité Estratégico de Ayuda Humanitaria</em> Tijuana</a>, six Haitians arrived in Tijuana on May 23 2016. The next day there were 100. Two months later: 15,000. </p>
<p>By the end of December 2016, nearly two months after <a href="https://theconversation.com/donald-trump-wins-us-election-scholars-from-around-the-world-react-68282">Donald Trump’s surprise election</a>, some 30,000 Haitians had gathered there, most by way of Brazil, apparently through a trafficking network that Vázquez says is not yet documented.</p>
<p>For comparison, 10,000 Syrians have <a href="http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/10/05/u-s-admits-record-number-of-muslim-refugees-in-2016/">applied for asylum</a> in the US in the same period.</p>
<p>Asylum seekers cannot legally work, have no permanent residence, and, if they’re Haitian, often don’t speak Spanish. Yet they must support themselves and their families while they wait for US immigration officials to figure out whether or when their asylum applications can be granted.</p>
<p>They live in Tijuana’s open-air dumps, sewer-system holes and the surroundings of improvised migrant shelters. Many seek <a href="https://linderonorte.wordpress.com/tag/nongos/">all manner of menial jobs</a> on the black market, cleaning houses and offices, working in sweatshops, or delivering pizzas for as little as US$1.30 a day. </p>
<p>Women are frequently offered generic “jobs” in Canada, no description included, along with airfare. All they have to do is give up their passports. The web pages associated with these alleged companies show a permanent error message. These are, not surprisingly, typical trafficking strategies. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/158193/original/image-20170223-32714-1jejuxs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/158193/original/image-20170223-32714-1jejuxs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/158193/original/image-20170223-32714-1jejuxs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/158193/original/image-20170223-32714-1jejuxs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/158193/original/image-20170223-32714-1jejuxs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/158193/original/image-20170223-32714-1jejuxs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/158193/original/image-20170223-32714-1jejuxs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An ad from Tijuana traffickers seeking to lure Haitians, saying ‘If you speak French, we’re an option for you’.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Disposibility pockets</h2>
<p>When I was there, the whole sad situation on the border recalled what scholar Henry A. Giroux calls the “<a href="http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/22958-neoliberalism-and-the-machinery-of-disposability">machinery of disposability</a>”: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>What has emerged in this new historical conjuncture is an intensification of the practice of disposability in which more and more individuals and groups are now considered excess, consigned to zones of abandonment, surveillance and incarceration. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>And so people forced to flee natural disaster and unimaginable violence in their home countries become disposable; human clutter in Mexico’s dumps and gutters, at the gateway to one of the world’s richest nations.</p>
<p>These are what I’ve coined “disposability pockets” areas where vulnerable populations, especially migrants, are forced into inhumane living conditions and illegal labour markets, with tacit approval of the government that should, in theory and under international human rights law, be their stewards.</p>
<p>It’s a radicalisation of what sociologists call “<a href="http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/document.php?id=cqresrre1956060600">poverty pockets</a>”, that is, neighbourhoods where the extremely poor tend to be corralled into ghettos, even as prosperity grows all around them. And they’re cropping up not just in Tijuana but <a href="http://dreamactivist.org/mexico/haitians/">all along Mexico’s northern border</a> thanks to the US clampdown. </p>
<h2>Lingering, waiting and working</h2>
<p>By late 2016, Tijuana’s five existing migrant shelters were bursting, so many more had to be built, and quickly. Today, there are 33 overcrowded shelters adapted to house the ever-increasing numbers of Hatian arrivés. </p>
<p>I visited two: Father Chava’s Desayunador Salesiano and the Scalabrini Sisters’ women’s shelter. Father Chava’s is one of the biggest, and it used to be a soup kitchen for 1,300 to 1,500 homeless Mexican migrants. Now, it is a refuge for an equal number of asylum-seekers. They sleep in sleeping bags, small children and babies alongside their mothers, many under improvised tents erected in the garden at night. </p>
<p>The Scalabrini shelter is smaller; it’s clean, even cosy. Built for 44, it now houses 90 women and children, and sometimes as many as 150. Overcrowded doesn’t describe it. The husbands and partners, who stay in the Scalabrini shelter for men, must wait outside to visit their wives and kids. They linger there, wandering around, filling the disposability pockets.</p>
<p>Because there were so many Haitians at the border, the US government established that they could process only 50 interviews a day, which has delayed their interviews for up to three months. This made the situation worse for Mexicans, Hondurans, Guatemalans, and Salvadorians who were already in line.</p>
<p>Even before Trump’s January executive order was issued, Haitians were already being deported after their interviews (Barack Obama deported more immigrants than <a href="http://www.snopes.com/obama-deported-more-people/">any US president before him</a>). Under such circumstances, many Haitian asylum seekers decided not to attend their meeting with US officials. As of today, 300 asylum applications <a href="https://www.elsoldetijuana.com.mx/local/solo-8-de-300-solicitudes-de-asilo-ha-aprobado-inm">are in limbo</a>. </p>
<p>After up to eight months of waiting, many of the Haitians now say they want to <a href="http://www.sandiegored.com/noticias/83484/250-haitianos-inician-tramites-para-quedarse-en-Baja-California/">stay in Mexico</a>. That won’t be easy. Not only is the US border situation forcing Mexico to handle a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/12/world/americas/mexico-migration-asylum.html?_r=0">record number of asylum applications</a>, but racism, poverty, crime, corruption and unemployment <a href="https://www.oecd.org/statistics/Better%20Life%20Initiative%20country%20note%20Mexico.pdf">in the country</a> leave migrants vulnerable to <a href="http://expansion.mx/nacional/2016/10/10/la-tragedia-que-persigue-a-los-haitianos-hasta-mexico">exploitation</a>.</p>
<p>Besides, these disposability pockets are turning out to be convenient for employers and the local political economy in general. </p>
<p>Why roll out the welcome mat for immigrants, legalise them, and pay them a living wage – in either Mexico or the United States – when you’ve got a ready-made workforce willing to work for poverty wages in the border-area factories and population centres that NAFTA helped build?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/73248/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ariadna Estévez does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>President Trump’s executive orders are already causing chaos at the US-Mexico border, where 30,000 Haitian asylum-seekers are now trapped in legal limbo. It’s the refugee crisis no one talks about.Ariadna Estévez, Professor, Center for Research on North America, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM)Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/732642017-02-23T02:01:54Z2017-02-23T02:01:54ZWant a stronger economy? Give immigrants a warm welcome<p>Immigrants have long been a scapegoat when economies are sputtering, jobs are being lost or security is a concern. </p>
<p>President Donald Trump’s planned wall along the Mexican border, for example, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/08/31/heres-what-donald-trump-said-in-his-big-immigration-speech-annotated/">is premised on the notion</a> that immigrants are pouring across the border (<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2017/01/27/even-before-trump-more-mexicans-were-leaving-the-us-than-arriving/">they’re not</a>), taking Americans’ jobs (<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/22/us/immigrants-arent-taking-americans-jobs-new-study-finds.html">they haven’t</a>) and committing a disproportionate share of crimes (<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2015/07/14/immigration-and-crime/">they don’t</a>). </p>
<p>The presumed threats of immigration were also front and center in <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/18/politics/kelly-guidance-on-immigration-and-border-security/">Trump administration discussions</a> on deporting millions of people who are in the U.S. illegally. </p>
<p>We saw something similar when U.K. voters opted for a “Brexit” from the European Union last year, when many British politicians <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/nigel-farage-predicts-violence-the-next-step-if-immigration-is-not-controlled_uk_573b8f77e4b0328a838b8c9c">cast immigrants as a threat</a> to the physical, social and economic welfare of natives. </p>
<p>While it has become a popular notion in the West that immigrants jeopardize the job prospects of natives, over 30 years of economic research (<a href="http://kevinyshih.weebly.com/research.html">including my own</a>) give strong reason to believe otherwise. </p>
<p>And in fact, the opposite may be more likely: There’s evidence immigrants actually promote economic growth.</p>
<h2>Why we blame immigrants for our troubles</h2>
<p>Extensive reviews of research on the topic (<a href="http://davidroodman.com/blog/2014/09/03/the-domestic-economic-impacts-of-immigration/">like this one</a>) show that most studies of how immigration affects native wages and employment found very little effect. </p>
<p>Although economists have yet to arrive at a complete consensus, decades of studies generally do not support the notion that immigration harms the economy, market wages or native employment. So why do so many believe it when research suggests otherwise? </p>
<p>A central issue is that it is easy to think that the labor market is a zero-sum game and the number of jobs available is fixed. If everyone were competing over a finite number of jobs, more immigrants would mean fewer opportunities for natives, and vice versa, right? The reality, however, is much more complex, as I will show. Further, it is simply false to think of the number of jobs as fixed in the first place. Employment has been <a href="https://data.bls.gov/timeseries/CES0000000001">generally rising since 2010</a>, which means more jobs for everyone.</p>
<p>A new migrant interested in the same job as you may diminish your odds a little, but a single immigrant with a good idea might end up creating hundreds or thousands of jobs that wouldn’t have existed had he or she not crossed an ocean or border (the <a href="http://seattlebusinessmag.com/blog/under-todays-immigration-policies-steve-jobs-might-never-have-been-born">impact of son-of-a-migrant Steve Jobs</a> or <a href="http://www.inc.com/melissa-burns/elon-musk-isnt-the-only-immigrant-to-build-a-billion-dollar-startup-in-the-us.html">South African tech entrepreneur Elon Musk</a> comes to mind). </p>
<p>The labor market is dynamic, and both individual workers and employers constantly readjust to changing conditions. In fact, many economists have found evidence that natives quickly adjust to the labor market forces of immigration and in a way that often yields positive benefits. </p>
<h2>Adjusting to immigration</h2>
<p>Immigration flows into the U.S. do not <a href="http://clas.berkeley.edu/research/immigration-economic-benefits-immigration">affect all sectors equally</a>. Immigrants are highly overrepresented in either very low-skilled manual and labor-intensive jobs or very high-skilled science and engineering occupations. </p>
<p>The types of immigrants who arrive and the areas in which they work are crucial for understanding the impact, and this concentration makes it possible to adjust to it. </p>
<p>In a 2010 study, Dartmouth economist Ethan Lewis <a href="http://www.dartmouth.edu/%7Eethang/Lewis2010-web.pdf">found that companies</a> in regions that saw inflows of less-skilled immigrants in recent decades adopted capital machinery at a lower rate. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.dartmouth.edu/%7Eethang/w23125.pdf">Another study</a> by Lewis and researchers Michael Clemens and Hannah Postel focused on an effort by the U.S. government in the 1960s to improve labor market conditions for native workers and boost their wages by excluding about a half-million seasonal workers from Mexico (braceros). It had precisely the opposite effect: Instead of raising wages or hiring more locals, farm owners reacted by adopting technologies that required less labor. The owners even switched their crops from ones that were less labor-intensive to ones whose production could be more easily mechanized. </p>
<p>In other words, the ability of businesses to substitute between technology and less-skilled immigrant workers means wages won’t necessarily fall when immigration rises. And conversely, this means excluding or limiting immigration won’t necessarily lift wages or benefit natives in other ways. </p>
<p>Economists Giovanni Peri and Chad Sparber found that inflows of immigrants – whether low- or high-skilled – <a href="https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/app.1.3.135">induced native workers</a> to shift to jobs that are more complementary in nature and where they have a comparative advantage. This type of shifting also limits the impact on native wages and employment. </p>
<p>For example, natives working in fields receiving large inflows of low-skilled immigrants – who had a comparative advantage in manual and physical labor – moved toward occupations requiring more communication-intensive tasks. They observed a similar phenomenon when high-skilled immigrants with comparative advantages in fields like science and mathematics enter the U.S. labor force. Rather than being laid off, native skilled workers moved to occupations that required more managerial and communication skills.</p>
<p>Just as natives move toward occupations in which they possess a comparative advantage relative to immigrants, they can also move across skill groups by acquiring education. Several economic papers, like ones by <a href="http://www.nber.org/papers/w18047">Jennifer Hunt</a> and <a href="http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.464.9198&rep=rep1&type=pdf">Will Olney and Dan Hickman</a>, found that natives tend to acquire more education following the arrival of less-skilled immigrants. Increases in education benefit the long-term prospects of natives, and means they are no longer competing in the less-skilled labor market.</p>
<h2>Growing the economic pie</h2>
<p>But beyond simply doing no or little harm to natives, there’s evidence immigrants actually benefit the overall economy – which helps everyone.</p>
<p>Recall that immigrants in the U.S. are highly represented in high-skill science and engineering occupations. Economists have long understood that economic growth is generated by innovation, which in turn comes from research and development. <a href="https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/000282802760015685">A study by Stanford economist Charles Jones found</a> that nearly half of U.S. economic growth since the 1950s is attributable to the increase in the number of scientists and engineers engaged in research and development. </p>
<p>Combine this with the fact that about half of the growth in the number of scientists and engineers in the U.S. since the 1980s was due to immigrants and it is not difficult to understand the connection between skilled immigration and economic prosperity.</p>
<p>In a <a href="http://kevinyshih.weebly.com/uploads/5/5/8/7/5587146/kevin_y_shih_2013_foreign_stem_workers_h1b_visas_and_productivity_in_us_cities_oct_3_2013.pdf">recent paper</a>, coauthored with Giovanni Peri and Chad Sparber, I formally tested this idea. We examined whether increases in skilled foreign-born scientists and engineers in the U.S. from 1980 to 2010 improved productivity. We found modest gains in real wages for native skilled workers. And no negative impacts on native employment. </p>
<p>Complementing our finding is research by economists William Kerr and William Lincoln, who found that skilled immigrants <a href="http://www.nber.org/papers/w14312">increase innovation</a>, thereby generating productivity gains for native workers most ready to take advantage of such technological advances. </p>
<p>As long as immigrants continue to innovate and invent, they can continue to boost economic growth. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/134868/original/image-20160821-30396-u1s1oj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/134868/original/image-20160821-30396-u1s1oj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134868/original/image-20160821-30396-u1s1oj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134868/original/image-20160821-30396-u1s1oj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134868/original/image-20160821-30396-u1s1oj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134868/original/image-20160821-30396-u1s1oj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134868/original/image-20160821-30396-u1s1oj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A man expresses himself back when immigration reform was possible. Those were the days.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Who is actually most hurt by immigration</h2>
<p>Although most studies don’t find adverse impacts on natives, that does not mean they have not found adverse impacts at all. In fact, the group that most commonly appears to be negatively affected by new immigrants are other recent immigrants. </p>
<p>Recent immigrants are the most easily substituted with new immigrants, tend to live and work in the same labor markets that new immigrants enter, often do not have the skills to move toward communication-intensive jobs and face restrictive policies that limit access to higher education. As such, their <a href="http://wol.iza.org/articles/do-immigrant-workers-depress-the-wages-of-native-workers-1.pdf">labor market prospects</a> appear to deteriorate when new immigrants arrive. </p>
<p>Other studies that take a general focus on the labor market and find negative effects have been debated from time to time among academics, however, with little consensus. </p>
<p>A <a href="http://eml.berkeley.edu/%7Ecard/papers/card-peri-jel-april-6-2016.pdf">recent paper</a>, however, calls into question many of these negative findings, showing researchers have been using measures of immigration that carry an inherent negative bias. Using correct measures eliminates the negative impact.</p>
<h2>Facts are facts</h2>
<p>All in all, most of the research suggests that the fear that immigration will drastically harm native wages and job prospects is by and large unsubstantiated. In fact, much work has shown the labor market is dynamic, and that native workers and employers take measures to evade any competitive forces from immigration. </p>
<p>While some pundits and presidential candidates will likely continue to claim immigration is harming our economy, that won’t alter the evidence economists have uncovered in study after study. By the same token, <a href="http://www.ontheissues.org/2016/Donald_Trump_Immigration.htm">claims that immigrants are flooding across our southern border</a> (so we need a giant wall to keep them out) doesn’t change the fact that illegal immigration to the U.S. has actually been <a href="http://time.com/4167626/donald-trump-ted-cruz-ads-immigration/">falling for the past nine years</a>. </p>
<p>Though it is easy to believe that foreigners will overcrowd a frail, zero-sum labor market, decades of research has shown the only thing that sums to zero are the estimated effects of immigration.</p>
<p><em>This is an updated version of an <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-were-wrong-to-blame-immigrants-for-our-sputtering-economies-56324">article originally published</a> on Aug. 21, 2016.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/73264/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kevin Shih has received funding from the National Bureau of Economics Research and the National Science Foundation. He has also worked on projects supported by Partnership for a New American Economy but has not directly received funds from this group.
</span></em></p>Trump’s plans to build a wall with Mexico and deport millions of people in the US illegally cast immigrants as an economic threat to Americans. The evidence suggests otherwise.Kevin Shih, Assistant Professor of Economics, Rensselaer Polytechnic InstituteLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/724612017-02-09T03:47:15Z2017-02-09T03:47:15ZWhat is the true meaning of mercy?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/156096/original/image-20170208-17345-i0qauy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Mercy matters</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wolfsoul/2076655915/in/photolist-4avpsk-bJaZHF-bJb1f4-3n6RBN-t1K7c-dVy7PS-9i4vFj-esLjSX-6H5UmZ-9or6Mp-d3zcbY-eqW6ar-6c6KrU-8ukgsq-6DLMyo-4fEWQX-6sGyir-4fEZkM-4xHKDE-2tNemo-zTKS1-5EW9MF-2HyjW6-8cGEws-qxtcma-agbocw-dJu49c-8Um8wF-kGvtF5-71T1u3-o54gg6-7oAg1t-cNPbqu-dYqzeW-83z66m-cyKQjb-dJu9p4-c2FgcL-61nxE2-9oqG18-qSRTSJ-4iD2e-CD5cP-nvdrEV-4xwTNF-nroJw7-8u457R-5GGcFe-dEQpbD-9BUznK">Romel</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The world seems to be witnessing increasing levels of violence, fear and hatred that challenge us each day. There are <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-the-bible-says-about-welcoming-refugees-72050">ongoing debates</a> about how or whether to welcome immigrants and refugees to the United States; news headlines remind us about the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/dec/21/aleppo-syria-war-destruction-then-and-now-in-pictures">plight of Syria</a> and about the <a href="http://www.nationalgeographic.com/photography/proof/2016/10/moises-saman-isis-qa/">horrors of the Islamic State</a>. </p>
<p>In such times, talk about mercy may seem more like wishful thinking. But mercy matters – now more than ever.</p>
<p>The extraordinary <a href="https://www.osv.com/OSVNewsweekly/Story/TabId/2672/ArtMID/13567/ArticleID/17147/Pope-Francis-declares-extraordinary-Holy-Year-of-Mercy.aspx">Holy Year of Mercy</a> called by Pope Francis ended in November 2016. Pope Francis <a href="http://www.newsweek.com/pope-francis-urges-trump-be-ethical-inauguration-2017-545477">has encouraged President Donald Trump</a> to draw upon “the rich spiritual and ethical values that have shaped the history of the American people.” </p>
<p>I recently wrote about mercy in a book, <a href="https://www.osv.com/Shop/Product?ProductCode=T1746">“Mercy Matters: Opening Yourself to the Life Changing Gift</a>.” Mercy has touched my life <a href="https://www.ncronline.org/blogs/distinctly-catholic/review-mathew-schmalzs-book-mercy-matters">in many ways</a> – such as in my recovery from alcoholism and through my experiences as an adopted child. So, to me, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HjpDju_SXJw">mercy is</a> a “<a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=WD_-CwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_atb#v=onepage&q&f=false">love that responds to human need in an unexpected or unmerited way</a>.” </p>
<p>At its core, mercy is forgiveness. The Bible speaks of God’s love for sinners – that is, for all of us. But the Bible also relates mercy to other qualities beyond love and forgiveness.</p>
<p>So, how can we begin to understand the true meaning of mercy?</p>
<h2>Mercy in the Hebrew Bible</h2>
<p>Christians usually understand the “Hebrew Bible” as the “Old Testament,” which is replaced by the “New Testament” of Jesus Christ as found in the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. </p>
<p>How Christianity has interpreted the Hebrew Bible, often not fully appreciating its Jewish context, continues to be a matter of scholarly debate. But many Christians see connections between themes expressed in the “Old Testament” and Christ’s later teachings about the importance of mercy.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/156094/original/image-20170208-17333-1vlhin7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/156094/original/image-20170208-17333-1vlhin7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/156094/original/image-20170208-17333-1vlhin7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/156094/original/image-20170208-17333-1vlhin7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/156094/original/image-20170208-17333-1vlhin7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/156094/original/image-20170208-17333-1vlhin7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/156094/original/image-20170208-17333-1vlhin7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Hebrew Bible.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/firewalljc/3933345855/in/photolist-6ZzqFR-eQUozm-4VfejV-8LRQzj-62d97v-75zgtG-ffH4gf-5Y9GoZ-9dpHgJ-FHGBXV-aegj87-6zUbUc-9DCTzz-9rTHhf-6ctLJ-kiPm9T-GyAS1M-9uxRAo-5YdW5b-eTrJcy-dBgCy1-dmdf72-8KrPJp-bzSUdW-7pt7zK-5Suu7a-bGpH8B-8zkkAp-kAgEEK-EFHKv7-FL7E5Q-iFbj9P-5LREDU-e35fMD-aAEZsG-EZPq7C-EC1ZGM-9DCU8v-EGokcy-FDgdTM-bGpGTv-bWUKGn-bK53s2-FHvvBF-HKXqJ-e8pftz-GonQQ6-8RW6XU-EszH2s-FtGF4H">FirewallJC</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the Hebrew Bible, there is a cluster of related words that are often translated as “mercy,” depending upon where they appear in the text. There is <a href="http://www.jewishmag.com/20mag/hebrew/hebrew.htm">“ahavah,”</a> which refers to God’s enduring love for Israel, much like the love between husband and wife. Then there is <a href="http://biblehub.com/hebrew/7356.htm">“Rachamim,”</a> which comes from the root word “rechem,” or womb, and therefore might be more literally understood as suggesting a “maternal connection” between God and human beings. </p>
<p>In a famous passage from <a href="http://biblehub.com/commentaries/ellicott/psalms/85.htm">Psalm 85</a> that speaks of the <a href="http://www.religion.ucsb.edu/faculty/thomas/classes/rgst116b/JewishHistory.html">Israelites’ return from exile</a>, it is said that when “mercy and truth have met together, righteousness and peace have kissed.” </p>
<p>“<a href="http://www.bible-researcher.com/chesed.html">Chesed</a>,” the word translated as “mercy” in this verse, additionally suggests God’s quality of “steadfast loyalty.” The psalm thus relates steadfastness and mercy with “truth” – in Hebrew “<a href="http://biblehub.com/hebrew/571.htm">emet</a>”– which means behaving ethically and being faithful to God’s will.</p>
<h2>Mercy in the Christian gospels</h2>
<p>A point of connection between the Jewish and Christian traditions is what is called the “Great Hallel.” <a href="http://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/hallel/">Hallel</a> means “praise” and refers to a group of psalms regularly recited at the time of the new moon as well as during important Jewish feasts like <a href="http://www.jewfaq.org/holiday5.htm">Tabernacles or Sukkot</a>, which commemorates the period the Jewish people spent in the desert on their journey to the <a href="http://www.jewfaq.org/israel.htm">Promised Land</a>. </p>
<p>The great Hallel is the refrain of Psalm 136 that celebrates how God’s “<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm+136&version=NKJV">mercy endures forever</a>.” Some scholars believe Jesus <a href="https://www.christiancentury.org/article/2011-03/and-jesus-sang">sang the Great Hallel</a> with his disciples when they went out to the <a href="http://biblehub.com/niv/matthew/26.htm">Mount of Olives</a> after the <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+26:17-30">Last Supper</a>, the final meal that he shared with his Apostles before his crucifixion.</p>
<p>Mercy sets the context for many of Jesus’ teachings. In the <a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/religion/story/matthew.html">Gospel of Matthew</a>, Jesus tells the story of the “<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+18:21-35">unmerciful servant</a>” who has his own debt wiped away but refuses to forgive another servant who only owed him a few cents.</p>
<p>The story teaches us that we need to forgive others, because we have been forgiven ourselves.</p>
<h2>Jesus as the face of mercy</h2>
<p>Also in Matthew’s gospel, Jesus <a href="http://biblehub.com/matthew/9-13.htm">tells his disciples</a> to understand the meaning of the phrase: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“I desire mercy, not sacrifice. For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Perhaps most significantly for Christians, Jesus shows us what it means to be merciful: He healed the sick, welcomed the stranger and pardoned those who persecuted and killed him. </p>
<p>As Pope Francis tells us in <a href="https://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/apost_letters/documents/papa-francesco_bolla_20150411_misericordiae-vultus.html">Misericordiae Vultus</a>, his letter introducing the Holy Year of Mercy, Jesus’ mercy is not abstract but “visceral” – it’s something that quite literally changes us from the inside out. </p>
<p>And Christians believe that this visceral aspect of mercy comes in the personal relationship Jesus promises to all of us: a relationship based on forgiveness and love, reconciliation and truth. As Pope Francis writes in the very first sentence of <a href="https://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/apost_letters/documents/papa-francesco_bolla_20150411_misericordiae-vultus.html">Misericordiae Vultus</a>, </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Jesus Christ is the face of God’s mercy.”</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Practicing mercy</h2>
<p>According to the Bible, mercy does matter: It matters because we all need forgiveness. But mercy also matters because it is what can join us all together in spite of our differences.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/156093/original/image-20170208-17328-t92dcm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/156093/original/image-20170208-17328-t92dcm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/156093/original/image-20170208-17328-t92dcm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/156093/original/image-20170208-17328-t92dcm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/156093/original/image-20170208-17328-t92dcm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/156093/original/image-20170208-17328-t92dcm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/156093/original/image-20170208-17328-t92dcm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Protest against the immigrant ban in Minneapolis, Minnesota.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/fibonacciblue/32600494826/in/photolist-REN4k1-884UPZ-62tQrZ-fsR5Cq-986eJa-65tjWZ-pFneZm-62yNbs-62rrpp-65tyxM-cPJ565-64sgvS-9WRaHV-jCcszN-aeABBS-BVz62k-65xSyE-fv9DwR-62ytSy-65yfsq-62rwET-9XMkdC-4wtUS-62zNM9-rYGNHS-4vrgoH-edZZQF-9NrA4t-QqP5mX-65rpVf-rYQUhn-sgfhrT-65tA6X-65oMpP-ds95HJ-65u9CK-dWYiEE-62rAPM-pXGGBi-65rxiP-ftd5rP-62vLUL-65wNdd-64AFR9-ftsuPd-65yqHs-62yMQm-65yYQd-65vyV9-65uUmc">Fibonacci Blue</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But what does it mean – in concrete terms – to be <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/2015/09/26/8e1faa4c-6488-11e5-b38e-06883aacba64_story.html?utm_term=.261dea06c9b5">merciful to the refugee, the immigrant</a>, not to mention to those nations, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/18/nyregion/immigration-child-migrant-surge-in-New-York-City.html">institutions</a> and communities that face the challenge of welcoming them? What does mercy mean in Syria? What is a merciful response to the atrocities of the Islamic State, or ISIL/ISIS – a group that has been merciless in persecuting <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2014/07/19/iraq-isis-abducting-killing-expelling-minorities">Christians, Yazidi and the Shia</a>? How might mercy shape the Trump administration’s response to Iran <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/02/slaps-sanctions-iran-missile-test-170203154253182.html">following its missile tests</a>, or to the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/15/world/asia/china-spratly-islands.html?_r=0">Chinese expansion in the Spratly Islands</a> and the South China Sea?</p>
<p>I certainly can’t say how mercy can be specifically applied to these challenges: The possibilities, and pitfalls, are as numerous as the various meanings associated with mercy in the Bible itself.</p>
<p>But I would like to suggest a starting point for thinking about how mercy matters. In a recent discussion about my book <a href="https://www.facebook.com/mercymatters/">“Mercy Matters</a>,” a participant related how she’s been watching both Fox News and MSNBC in a effort to expose herself to different views about crucial issues facing the United States. I never learned whether she was a Democrat or a Republican; a liberal, conservative or libertarian. </p>
<p>But what I did learn is that mercy begins by opening oneself to those with whom one might strongly disagree. Mercy doesn’t end there, of course, but it begins with such small acts of understanding, which can lead to life-changing experiences of love.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/72461/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mathew Schmalz does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A scholar explains how mercy could be a simple act of opening oneself to those with opposing views.Mathew Schmalz, Associate Professor of Religion, College of the Holy CrossLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/722522017-02-06T04:56:10Z2017-02-06T04:56:10ZStaying politically neutral is more dangerous for companies than you think<p>President Donald Trump’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-best-legal-arguments-against-trumps-immigration-ban-72196">executive order temporarily banning</a> immigration from seven Muslim countries has put corporate executives in a bind. Almost from the moment he announced the ban, questions poured in about <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/business/trump-immigration-ban-company-reaction.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=b-lede-package-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0">where those executives stood</a> on the issue. </p>
<p>The media have highlighted a cluster of companies that have made public statements against the executive order. For example, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/reed1960/posts/10154654737174584?pnref=story">Netflix</a> called it “un-American,” while <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-ford-trump-idUSKBN15E1ZB?il=0">Ford Motor Company</a> said: “We do not support this policy or any other that goes against our values as a company.” </p>
<p>But overlooked are the many more companies that tried to distance themselves from the debate. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/business/trump-immigration-ban-company-reaction.html">Chevron, Disney, Verizon, GM,</a> <a href="http://fortune.com/2017/01/30/donald-trump-immigration-ban-wall-street/">Wells Fargo</a> and others have all taken a wait-and-see approach. An illustrative example is <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/2017/01/30/morgan-stanley-on-immigration-ban-talent-from-across-the-globe-is-key.html">Morgan Stanley</a>, which expressed concern and said it is “closely monitoring developments.” </p>
<p>Such responses are no doubt based on the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/on-leadership/wp/2016/06/03/why-we-dont-see-more-ceos-endorse-presidential-candidates/?utm_term=.19b09181f052">prevailing wisdom</a> that companies need to stay out of politics. Most large corporations have diverse constituencies that draw from both sides of the political spectrum. As a result, executives fear that attracting the political spotlight by taking a stand on the executive order will alienate either the millions of customers who voted for Trump or the millions who voted against him. </p>
<p>My research suggests their fears are misplaced. And in fact, the opposite may be true: It may be more dangerous to remain silent than to take a political stand. </p>
<h2>Violating expectations</h2>
<p>Consumers today form relationships with a company based not only on the quality of the products and services it sells but also on a <a href="http://s3.amazonaws.com/academia.edu.documents/46997572/When_Is_Honesty_The_Best_Policy_The_Effe20160704-21737-b1m5eq.pdf?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAIWOWYYGZ2Y53UL3A&Expires=1486076685&Signature=vPKJgIuCM1AyY%2BSbY2HqOybH5qc%3D&response-content-disposition=inline%3B%20filename%3DWhen_Is_Honesty_the_Best_Policy_The_Effe.pdf">set of expectations</a> of how it should comport itself (<a href="https://academic.oup.com/jcr/article-abstract/31/1/87/1812070/The-Effects-of-Brand-Relationship-Norms-on">see also here</a>). </p>
<p>When companies violate these expectations by behaving inconsistently, consumers reconsider that relationship. Obviously, this can have a major impact on company performance if many customers experience a violation. </p>
<p>My colleagues and I at Clemson University and Drexel University have been testing this notion in a <a href="http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2806476">series of controlled experiments</a>. </p>
<p>In one field experiment, for example, we exposed study participants to statements about a pharmacy chain moments before they entered one of its stores. Some read a statement in which the company described itself as guided by a set of values (what we call a “values orientation”), while others read that it tries to adapt to whatever market conditions warrant (a “results orientation”). </p>
<p>These statements established participants’ political expectations of the company. We predicted that for a values-oriented company, taking a stand would align with expectations but that abstaining would violate expectations. </p>
<p>Participants then read a short article reporting that the company had either just taken a stand on proposed gun control legislation (we randomized what side of the issue the company took) or had abstained from making a comment. After shopping, participants reported their in-store experience and whether or not they had bought anything that they hadn’t planned to purchase before entering the store. We used the unplanned purchase to indicate the impact of the political stand on the customer-company relationship. </p>
<p>In general, unplanned purchases remained consistent no matter how the company reacted to the political issue. That is, about 18 percent of participants made an unplanned purchase whether they read that the company had taken a position or not. </p>
<p>But when we accounted for expectations set by the company, the effects were stunning. For a values-oriented company, 24 percent of participants made an unplanned purchases when it took a stand, but that dropped to just 9 percent when it abstained – violating expectations. For a results-oriented company, the effect was reversed: Unplanned purchasing was 26 percent when it abstained and dropped to 13 percent when it took a stand (again, violating expectations). </p>
<p>Even after accounting for the personal view of the participant and whether his or her state voted Republican or Democratic in the 2016 election, purchasing behavior was significantly affected if the company went against prior expectations.</p>
<h2>Costs of staying silent</h2>
<p>Additional experiments reveal that consumers behave this way because they find it hypocritical for a company that claims to be “guided by core values” to then withhold its position on a political issue. The implication appears to be that the company is hiding something and therefore trying to deceive its customer base. Conversely, reinforcing expectations may forge trust and enhance relationships with customers. </p>
<p>For a real-world quasi experiment on the potential costs of staying silent, we need look no further than Lyft’s and Uber’s respective responses to President Trump’s executive order. <a href="http://fortune.com/2017/01/29/lyft-aclu-trump-travel-ban/">Lyft</a> reacted by publicly opposing the order and pledging US$1 million to the American Civil Liberties Union. Uber was more equivocal. In a <a href="https://m.facebook.com/traviskal/posts/1331814113506421">Facebook post</a>, CEO Travis Kalanick acknowledged concerns and said he would raise the issue “this coming Friday when I go to Washington for President Trump’s first business advisory group meeting.” </p>
<p>As part of a <a href="http://bit.ly/2kLphAP">poll</a> I administer periodically to gauge reactions to companies that take political stands, a group of leading scholars were asked to grade Lyft and Uber on their respective approaches. The panel was generally favorable toward Lyft, although conservative panelists questioned whether its actions would have a lasting impact on the political issue at hand. </p>
<p>However, Uber was criticized by scholars of all political persuasions for not confronting the issue. Panelists thought Uber was taking some leadership by reacting quickly, but its lackluster response was not consistent with its <a href="https://www.uber.com/our-story/">purported beliefs</a> as a bold game-changer. It is little surprising, then, that the move motivated many customers to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/31/business/delete-uber.html">uninstall the Uber app</a> from their phones. Uber received so many requests, in fact, that it had to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/31/business/delete-uber.html">implement a new automated process</a> to handle all the deletions. The company later announced in <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/2017/02/01/delete-uber-email-response-trump-immigration-order-unjust-wrong.html">an email</a> to defecting customers that the executive order was “wrong” and “unjust.” Kalanick also <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2017/02/02/technology/uber-travis-kalanick-trump-advisory-council/">resigned</a> from President Trump’s business advisory council. </p>
<h2>Feet to the fire</h2>
<p>The danger of inaction – as Uber’s experience shows – is real. In remaining silent on important societal issues, executives may be harming performance more than they think. </p>
<p>It is no longer enough to engage government solely through private channels, although that will certainly be necessary as well. Consumers are willing to hold executives’ feet to the fire if they believe the executives are betraying corporate values. </p>
<p>This may be especially true for companies that forcefully advocated for <a href="https://www.ibm.com/ibm/ibmgra/data-ibm-future-trade-09162016.html">free trade</a>, access to a <a href="http://www.recode.net/2016/7/18/12209842/mark-zuckerberg-fwd-immigration-trump-rnc-convention">global talent pool</a>, <a href="http://www.dupont.com/corporate-functions/our-company/insights/articles/position-statements/articles/climate-change.html">action on climate change</a> and <a href="http://www.coca-colacompany.com/our-company/diversity">inclusivity for all orientations and religious backgrounds</a> during Barack Obama’s tenure. My research suggests that both liberals and conservatives could view it as a breach of trust to abandon those beliefs by acquiescing to a swing of the political pendulum. </p>
<p>Though our current political environment is polarized and contentious, most people still find failures of sincerity more troubling than differences of opinion. As long as a company is not being deceptive by obfuscating its beliefs, consumers can be surprisingly tolerant of a company that holds an opposing view. </p>
<p>So to corporate executives: Your constituents are watching. They acknowledge that your company has a distinct set of values. They are asking for you to be forthright. And they want to know that you have the gumption to stand up for your stated values.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/72252/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Daniel Korschun occasionally consults for companies on their corporate responsibility practices.
</span></em></p>Companies historically have avoided taking stands on contentious issues, but new research suggests consumers punish businesses that don’t stand up for their core values.Daniel Korschun, Associate Professor of Marketing, Drexel UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/721582017-01-31T02:24:15Z2017-01-31T02:24:15ZI’m a US doctor just back from Sudan, where hospitality from Muslims greeted me everywhere<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/154818/original/image-20170130-7663-fokno5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The author, in blue suit, center, and friends who welcomed him warmly in Sudan.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Many Americans have never visited a predominantly Muslim country and may know relatively little about the faith of Islam. This is relevant in light of the Trump administration’s recent <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/28/politics/text-of-trump-executive-order-nation-ban-refugees/index.html">executive order</a> attempting to reduce terrorist threats to the U.S. by halting the issuance of visas to travelers from seven predominantly Muslim countries. </p>
<p>Having returned this month from Sudan, one of the countries affected by the ban, I wish to share my own firsthand experience of Islam – not Islamic extremists or Islamic terrorists, but Islamic hosts. As I have learned, hospitality and generosity are traits that receive considerable attention in both Islamic culture and the holy book of Islam, the Quran.</p>
<p>My visit to Sudan had several purposes. As a physician and radiologist, I was there to help them improve Sudanese doctors’ use of medical imaging in the care of patients. As a university faculty member, I intended to offer insights into how to improve medical education and higher education. And my visit also aimed to help raise funds for the care of the needy, a purpose to which I will return later.</p>
<h2>Hospitality in Islam</h2>
<p>Many Americans might be surprised to learn that one of the figures mentioned most frequently (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_mentioned_by_name_in_the_Quran">69 times</a>) in the Quran is Abraham, the Old Testament patriarch. Only Jesus and Moses are mentioned more frequently. And one of Islamic culture’s most often repeated stories about Abraham is how <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis+18">graciously</a> he received the strangers who visited him, to whom he offered the very best he had.</p>
<p>Of course, it is after Abraham extends the hand of hospitality to his visitors that he and his wife Sarah learn that they are to have a child, despite the fact that both are far beyond the age of childbearing. This powerful scriptural testimony to the generativity of hospitality is relished by all three of the world’s Abrahamic faiths: Judaism, Christianity and Islam.</p>
<p>Elsewhere, <a href="http://www.sultan.org/books/TheMessageofIslam.pdf">Al-Ghazali</a> says of the prophet Muhammad, “He used to honor his guests; he even spread his garment for a non-relative to sit on it. He used to offer his guest his own cushion. No one came to him as a guest but thought that he was the most generous of people.” Scholar Mona Siddiqui has recently written a whole <a href="http://yalebooks.com/book/9780300211863/hospitality-and-islam">book</a> on the importance of hospitality in the Islamic tradition.</p>
<p>As a visitor from a far-off land and an adherent of another faith, my own experiences in Sudan attested to the importance of hospitality in the Islamic tradition. Even people who were clearly in need went out of their way to make me as their guest feel comfortable, providing their best food and drink and offering their home as a place to stay.</p>
<p>I had the sense that my Muslim hosts saw hospitality not as a duty they were required to comply with but as an opportunity to shine at something that they cared deeply about. Hearing that a guest would soon arrive, a disabled, older woman promptly began sweeping the dirt floors of her dwelling, roused to vigor by the prospect of hosting a guest.</p>
<p>I had many occasions to offer words of encouragement and praise to the Sudanese people I met, but none brought a broader smile to their faces than my words of thanks for their adeptness at making a visitor feeling welcome. When I expressed surprise at their satisfaction in this, one of my hosts said, “There is nothing you can say that would mean more to Muslims than praise for their hospitality.”</p>
<h2>Generosity in Islam</h2>
<p>The faith of Islam is full of stories of generosity. Sadaqa, an Arabic word that could be translated as generosity, also means truthfulness, as in fidelity to the creator. The notion that we should give freely of what we have received from God is central to the Islamic faith. In addition to gifts of money and food, sadaqa can take the form of a simple act of appreciation or encouragement.</p>
<p>It is <a href="https://www.islamicity.com/mosque/sunnah/bukhari/073.sbt.html">said</a> that the wife of the prophet Muhammad was once approached by a poor woman with two daughters, who asked for some alms. The wife of the prophet had nothing but a single date. Instead of telling the woman that she had nothing to give her, she instead gave her the date, which the woman in turn divided between her two daughters.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/154820/original/image-20170130-7663-1kxy5lw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/154820/original/image-20170130-7663-1kxy5lw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/154820/original/image-20170130-7663-1kxy5lw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/154820/original/image-20170130-7663-1kxy5lw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/154820/original/image-20170130-7663-1kxy5lw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=477&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/154820/original/image-20170130-7663-1kxy5lw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=477&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/154820/original/image-20170130-7663-1kxy5lw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=477&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The broken CT scanner that hadn’t worked for 18 months.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>I saw this demonstrated firsthand while I was in Khartoum, the capital of Sudan. One day during a visit to the hospital of the University of Khartoum, I was stunned to discover that the hospital had only one 15-year-old CT scanner, which had been inoperable for the past 18 months. For a U.S. physician, it is nearly impossible to imagine operating a hospital without a CT scanner. When we need to know if a patient has a <a href="http://www.bmj.com/content/332/7534/156">pulmonary embolism</a>, one of the most common preventable causes of in-hospital death, we perform a CT scan. When we need to know if a patient is suffering from <a href="http://www.healthline.com/health/appendicitis">appendicitis</a>, the most common cause of emergency abdominal surgery, we do a CT scan.</p>
<p>It turned out that funds to repair the machine were simply unavailable. In fact, the room that housed the CT scanner was being used to perform ultrasound scans, so that at least the space would not go to waste. Back in the States, if the CT scanner at my hospital in Indianapolis went down for just 18 hours, it would be regarded as a crisis.</p>
<p>So we resolved to take action. On the last night of my visit to Sudan, a fundraising event – the first of its kind, I am told – was held for the radiology department at the university hospital. In attendance were some of the most powerful and wealthy individuals in Sudanese society. The purpose was to raise money to buy a new CT scanner.</p>
<p>As the keynote speaker, I had the opportunity to describe how CT was invented by the British engineer <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1979/">Godfrey Hounsfield</a>, who worked at <a href="https://www.cnet.com/news/how-the-beatles-funded-the-ct-scan/">EMI</a>, the company that held the Beatles’ recording contract, and thus could afford to bankroll Hounsfield’s foray into medical imaging. I shared with them that CT scanning is the most important medical innovation in the past 50 years. Hounsfield shared the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine with Allan Cormack in 1979 for their invention to the CT scan. </p>
<p>To understand what happened next, it is important to know that the per capita GDP of Sudan averages <a href="http://www.tradingeconomics.com/sudan/gdp-per-capita">14 percent</a> of the world average or US$1,800, a figure that for the U.S. stands at $53,000. Yet within 24 hours of the fundraising event, a total of $350,000 had been raised, a huge outpouring of generosity that will make it possible to restore CT scanning to the patients at the university hospital.</p>
<h2>The lessons of Sudan</h2>
<p>My experiences in Sudan led me to think that hospitality and generosity are far more characteristic of the Islamic faith than extremism and terrorism. It also evokes in me a deep longing for traits that many consider the best of America’s – the very same virtues of making a guest feel welcome and giving to those in need that have earned the U.S. respect and affection around the world.</p>
<p>I do not know much about worldwide terrorist threats and I have no access to government intelligence on same. I do know, however, what real hospitality and generosity look like, and I am very grateful to have received a refresher course through the graciousness of my Sudanese hosts.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/72158/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Richard Gunderman does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A physician describes the warm welcome he received from Sudanese Muslims just this month when he visited Sudan. His experience comes in part, he writes, from their faith.Richard Gunderman, Chancellor's Professor of Medicine, Liberal Arts, and Philanthropy, Indiana UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.