Immigration is a political hot potato. On the day the OECD published its latest annual survey of global migration, Swiss voters rejected a referendum to reduce annual migration numbers. A few days earlier…
Cameron should tend his own garden before criticising the EU.
Joe Giddens/PA Wire
Before the 2010 General Election, David Cameron promised to reduce net migration to “tens of thousands” and not hundreds of thousands. This pledge is in ruins now that net migration has hit levels even…
The office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has announced a major campaign, #ibelong, to eliminate statelessness within a decade. A noble aim indeed – but before statelessness can be ended…
Migrant boats continue to arrive in Lampedusa.
EPA/Ettore Ferrari
Compared to the number of Mexican immigrants entering the US through its southwestern border, migration of Cubans may seem insignificant. Yet the numbers of Cubans coming to the US has soared since Raul…
Coral reef ecosystem off Palmyra Atoll part of newly expanded Marine National Monument.
Jim Maragos/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
This fall, President Obama signed a proclamation that created the biggest marine reserve in the world. By extending the protective boundaries around Wake Island, Jarvis Island and Johnston Atoll from 50…
Federal government plans to axe several types of family visas could mean that for some, being able to reunite their families in Australia could become a thing of the past.
Clark Fred/Wikimedia Commons
This afternoon, the Australian Senate will be asked to vote on a Greens disallowance motion, which seeks to stop the Abbott government repealing several types of family visas. These include: the Parent…
Two studies about the impact of migration on the UK economy have been published which – if media reports are to believed – appear to contradict one another. A closer reading of these reports, however…
Five-year-old Dahlia Zabrano-Tercero at a July vigil for young Central American migrants in California.
David Maung/EPA
Between 2003 and 2011, 8,000 to 40,000 unaccompanied migrant children from Central America were stopped every year on the southern border of the US. When this number boomed to more than 57,000 during the…
The government focus on economic migration has meant increased private sector power over who becomes Australian.
Kit/Flickr
Australia’s migration policy has shifted significantly in the past 20 years, leaving a system subject to widespread rorting and controversy. If there is a single lesson to be learnt from the revelations…
Access denied, for some higher education colleges.
UK passport via xdrew/Shutterstock
The British government’s recent decision to suspend the licences of one university and 57 private further education colleges to sponsor international students has generated shockwaves across the sector…
The response to SBS documentary series Once Upon a Time in Punchbowl is indicative of the series’ backstory and the ongoing debate it has entered.
SBS/Author
The final week of SBS’ four-part documentary series Once Upon a Time in Punchbowl brings us to the last decade’s crises for Lebanese Muslim communities in Sydney’s west, and the path to redemption they…
Thirty lifeless bodies found in the bow of a fishing boat carrying 600 migrants off the coast of Sicily have reignited the debate on illegal crossings in the Mediterranean and how the EU should respond…
Migrants were necessary for Australia’s national survival – a purpose that was readily understood.
Harrison Webster
Most social scientists in Australian universities are left-leaning in their politics and so they highlight the inequalities and oppressions of Australian society. When they came to study migrants in modern…
Level playing field? Raheem Sterling attacks.
Rhona Wise/EPA
Like football, globalisation creates winners and losers. For now, the England football team is one of the back markers. By globalisation we mean free movement: it is the increase in mobility across national…
Muslim and Christian Lebanese join with other communities to rally against racism. The Lebanese in Australia story is the subject of a new SBS documentary series, Once Upon a Time in Punchbowl.
Andrew Jakubowicz
Mediterranean societies have been described as communities of honour and shame. The fundamental currency of their social order is respect. When the Lebanese civil war drove thousands of its citizens to…
Monarch butterfly: not scared of wearing bold colours.
Dean Morley
Monarch butterflies are known for their striking flame-orange and black appearance, and especially for their mass migration in their millions to spend winters in the mountain forests of Mexico. But despite…
How will Australia respond to so-called ‘climate refugees’?
AAP Image/Scott Fisher
The most recent IPCC report included a chapter on security – the first time this has happened. The report pointed to a range of security threats associated with climate change, including ill-health, food…
Harsh immigration policy makes it hard to stop abuse of migrant children.
Richard Scott/PA
Over the past few years, policy-makers, academics and practitioners have paid more and more attention to children who are trafficked into and within the UK. But while children are trafficked for various…
Professor of International Migration and Forced Displacement and Director of the Institute for Research into International Migration and Superdiversity, University of Birmingham
Leader of Research Group “The Production of Knowledge on Migration” at the Institute for Migration Research and Intercultural Studies, Osnabrück University, Osnabrück University