In the first phase of our migration in Europe debate, Theo Veenkamp and his Demos colleagues launched the People Flow prototype offering a new way of thinking about how Europe could use people’s movement for the benefit both of migrants and of the societies that receive them. This provoked a wide range of responses from many of the key contestants in the migration debate today: restrictionists, such as Anthony Browne and Peter Brimelow; open border advocates like Nigel Harris and Franck Duvell, multiculturalists such as Cem Ozdemir or Ali Rattansi; those looking for a national solution, like Martin Kovats, a European solution, like Ash Amin, or a global solution, like Arthur Helton; those like Tony Curzon Price who say that asylum is in crisis and those, like Gil Loescher, who say it is not. Veenkamp wraps up part 1 with an invitation to take the arguments even further.
Phase two – the Challenge to People Flow – tackles one of the thorniest obstacles for any Europe-wide advance – the debates within the nation states, where politicians often face head on a growing desire for national boundary control. We start with Britain. Our roundtable – an edited extract from an event sponsored by the Institute for Public Policy Research (ippr) at this year’s Labour Party conference – features Home Secretary David Blunkett – the architect of the UK’s controversial migration polices, in dialogue with economist Bob Rowthorn and the chair of the Commission for Racial Equality, Trevor Phillips. Ben Page from Mori provides a snapshot of British public opinion on this hot button political issue.
Dirk Jacobs, analysing the rise of the Arab European League, detects a similar policy quagmire in the Belgian response, while Liza Schuster, in an overview of European approaches to asylum, urges the People Flow authors to hold European governments to proper account.
Also: Ulf Hedetoft’s superb overview of the Danish debate.
Open borders, global future
At least 200 million of the world's people - between 3% and 5% of its total population - are currently on the move outside their country of origin. Many of these would have preferred to stay where they were if they could. Another untold number would move if they could, but can't. Many simply are looking for better opportunities, as human beings have done for millennia. The realities of globalisation - economic, environmental, familial - mean that these numbers are bound to increase.
Chinese migrant workers: lives in shadow
"When you see the Iceland store, you will be able to find Brook Road. Walk to the end of that road, the garment factory is on the second floor. You can't miss it. The building looks very run-down." Chun's voice at the other end of the mobile phone is anxious. To "argue reason" with an employer on a wage-claiming mission is always a tense occasion, but this particular boss has the kind of reputation that leads two Chinese workers to volunteer to accompany me.
Sudanese adrift in Israel
Akoon is 25, a tall, very thin young Sudanese with several missing front teeth. He was orphaned in 2002 when militias attacked his village in southern Sudan and murdered his parents (as well as raping his 10-year-old sister), then held captive before being rescued by a non-governmental organisation and eventually helped to leave Sudan for Egypt.
By 2005, after repeated detention and mistreatment by the Egyptian police, who have little sympathy for refugees, Akoon could take no more. He heard that Bedouins were trafficking people across the Sinai into Israel, and managed to raise the $300 required to become part of a group of other young Sudanese on the long desert crossing.
Identity and immigration
Whatever their backgrounds, newcomers to Britain have more in common than they might think. Linda Grant reflects on family history and real-life experiences.
The Euro-African migration conference: Africa sells out to Europe
The Rabat gathering’s "plan of action" to control migration flows from south to north is based on a faulty diagnosis and will not succeed even in its own terms, says Gregor Noll.
Migration policy: from control to governance
In the United States and Europe alike, immigration policy isn't working – and the failure is most evident at the crossing-points of the rich and poor worlds, from the Mexican border to the Canary Islands, says Saskia Sassen.
Looking north: Mexicans in migration
Whatever methods the United States uses to control or manage the flow of people from Mexico, immigrants will find a way to enter and make their lives anew, says Hank Heifetz.
Migrant labour - the unheard story
Two years after the deaths of twenty-three migrant workers who drowned while cockling on England's Lancashire coast, Hsiao-Hung Pai reports on the economic roots of the disaster, which remain unchanged despite public attention, debate, and new legislation.
Harriet's story: Ugandan survivor, British prisoner
Asylum-seekers from Uganda, after horrific experiences in their own country, endure detention, ill-treatment and deportation once they reach Britain, reports Jason Parkinson. He tells the story of Harriet, a Ugandan woman incarcerated at Yarl’s Wood detention centre north of London.
The road to riches
Occasionally, one encounters real-life Alice in Wonderland stories, where the narrator describes a well-known situation with such crazy inversions of commonsense and reality that incredulity sets in for the knowledgeable reader. One such situation occurred for me whilst reading Gregory Maniatis’s openDemocracy article, “The road to nowhere”. Was he describing the same report that I had read a day earlier?
This week's guest editors
Our guest editors James Ron, Leslie Vinjamuri, Sophie Arie and Archana Pandya introduce this week's theme of:
Our guest editors James Ron, Leslie Vinjamuri, Sophie Arie and Archana Pandya introduce this week's theme of:
A Turkish Spring?
Woolwich - terror or conflict?
Palestinian borders
Nobel Women's Initiative
Europe from the bottom up
The media in Europe
Mali: the plot thickens
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Remote control war
oDRussia at journalismfestival .com
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Lis Howell On broadcasting
Dan Hancox Revel, Riot and Rebellion
Martin Rose Bliss Was It in that Dawn to Be Next Door
Vron Ware Up in Arms
Jim Gabour Sunday Comics
James Warner Standing Perpendicular, as books do
Markha Valenta Inter Alia: religion, politics, culture
Paul Rogers on Global security
Mary Kaldor on Human security
