New America Media - European tag:newamericamedia.org,2009-04-06://19 2013-05-21T19:42:28Z New America Media is a nationwide association of over 3000 ethnic media organizations representing the development of a more inclusive journalism. Founded in 1996 by Pacific News Service, New America Media promotes ethnic media by strengthening the editorial and economic viability of this increasingly influential segment of America's communications industry. Better Language Interpretation Crucial for New Social Security Commissioner tag:newamericamedia.org,2013://19.11466 2013-05-22T07:25:00Z 2013-05-21T19:42:28Z Paul Nathanson ]]> http://publisher.namx.org/mt-cp.cgi?__mode=view&blog_id=19&id=103 WASHINGTON, D.C.—As advocates for elders and people with disabilities anticipate President Obama’s choice of a new Social Security Commissioner, a group of us from the Strengthening Social Security Coalition presented our recommendations at a briefing on Capitol Hill last week calling for changes to improve the Social Security Administration’s (SSA) ability to serve large numbers of the program’s most vulnerable beneficiaries. That includes lower-income individuals, especially immigrants and those from ethnic groups.

The Social Security Coalition includes over 320 national and state organizations representing more than 50 million Americans. Our “Transition Report for a New Social Security Commissioner” covers a range of concerns from the agency’s overloaded staff to SSA’s need for enhanced research on retirement and disability.

Almost 2 Million Elders

One factor underlying all of these issues in our increasingly diverse population is the need for greater access to assistance for individuals with limited English proficiency. The organization I direct, the National Senior Citizens Law Center (NSCLC), whose staff helped coauthor the new report, has shown, that those struggling to understand English face serious obstacles in learning about and gaining access to government programs, such as Social Security.

The 2010 U.S. Census contains some startling statistics related to the number of older adults who are not proficient in English. More than one in seven (14.2 percent) of our nation’s 43 million adults 65-plus speak a language other than English at home. Among them, almost 2 million elders are considered Limited English Proficient (LEP), a term the federal government has standardized to refer to those who speak English less than “very well.”

The new report, developed with a range of organizations, such as the National Women’s Law Center, the Diverse Elders Coalition and Latinos for Secure Retirement, states, “It is essential that SSA communicate with individuals in a language in which they are proficient and that up-to-date informational material on benefits be provided in a variety of different languages.”

Among those applying for Supplemental Security Income (SSI)—people requesting a small boost in their benefits because they have extremely low-incomes, a third seek this additional income support based on old age. Previous analysis by SSA showed that almost four in 10 of those older adults asked the agency to receive assistance in a language other than English.

Early Language-Access Leader

Previously, SSA was an early leader in language access among federal government agencies. For example, after SSA installed point-of-entry kiosks in its local field offices some years ago, advocates pointed out that they were generally working in English only. SSA instructed local offices to make them available in several of the most commonly spoken languages.

In fact, SSA has a very good policy of providing interpreters. It requires its offices to provide an interpreter at no charge on request and prohibits the use of children as interpreters. And the agency requires the same policy for state agencies performing disability determinations (DDSs).

However, as our report states, “At present, implementation is spotty, with advocates reporting that in many SSA offices LEP individuals are still asked to bring their own interpreters.”

Simply put, it is crucial that SSA communicate with individuals in a language they understand. And it needs to do more to ensure that its offices apply these regulations uniformly.

That means the administration needs to require more resources for training SSA personnel on the interpreter policy—including the additional time necessary to interview an individual with an interpreter.

The report also calls on the new commissioner, when appointed, to implement a systems change to fully implement SSA’s interpreter policy. Currently, SSA asks people for their language preference when they apply for benefits. But if the person doesn’t answer or the reply isn’t clear, the program defaults to English. SSA needs to eliminate the English default option.

In addition, SSA has increasingly come to rely on the use of telephone interpreter services as a primary means of serving LEP individuals. Although these are useful for simpler requests, telephone interpreter services should not be permitted for handling more complex matters and certainly not for administrative hearings or conferences.

The report recommends, “The best and most economical means of serving LEP individuals is through the use of bilingual SSA employees.” We believe that before picking up the telephone to call a general interpreters’ service, agency offices should look for an interpretation-trained SSA employee, someone who knows the program, is more apt to be more sensitive to the person’s needs and understands the confidentiality requirements.

Serving Immigrant Communities

As we concluded in the report, “The new commissioner needs to make a concerted effort, as hiring opportunities arise, to hire more bilingual staff for assignment to field offices,” particularly where there is a high level of language access needs, such as newer immigrant communities.

Currently, SSA provides its notices in English. And it offers only some, but not all, in Spanish. The agency provides none of its notices in any other language. To address this, SSA needs to provide all notices in Spanish and in other major languages spoken by recipients of its programs. It also needs to do a better job of identifying the language spoken by each of the people it serves.

Even though SSA has a number of publications on its program benefits in 16 different languages, these are only available online and are no longer stocked in local Social Security offices. A majority of people over age 65, especially those with low-incomes and those with limited English proficient, still do not have consistent Internet access—in any language—including African-American households.

Clearly, SSA policy needs to be rethought and informational publications should be made available to those who visit local Social Security offices.

The ability for all those who receive Social Security or Supplemental Security Income benefits to understand their benefits and their rights is essential. With the appointment of a new Social Security commissioner, NSCLC and other advocates believe these and other fixes can and should happen.

Paul Nathanson directs the National Senior Citizens Law Center. He co-chairs the Strengthening Social Security Coalition’s Adequacy of Benefits Committee and NSCLC staff contributed to new report.



]]> NY Irish Center Fights Older Immigrants’ Isolation tag:newamericamedia.org,2013://19.11439 2013-05-16T07:55:00Z 2013-05-15T23:01:23Z Peter McDermott ]]> http://publisher.namx.org/mt-cp.cgi?__mode=view&blog_id=19&id=103 Photo: Seniors and volunteers at the New York Irish Center in Long Island City. (Peter McDermott/Irish Echo)

Part 2. Read Part 1 here.

LONG ISLAND CITY, N.Y—In most conversations he has with casual acquaintances or strangers, Paul Finnegan asks the same question: “Do you know someone who might benefit from going to the New York Irish Center?”

It’s part of his personal outreach for the organization he heads up in Long Island City in Queens.

The center comes alive seven days a week with people from all age groups. But Finnegan has been so effective at recruiting those over 65 the center now involves 200-250 seniors in various activities. The center is so important to the lives of Irish elders that it was created in 2005 with partial funding from the Irish government, which continues providing financial support.

The Biggest Threat

“Isolation is the biggest threat facing seniors. They’re very, very vulnerable to going off the grid,” Finnegan said.

He explained, “Maybe your relationship wasn’t so good with your children, or they’ve moved away and you continue to live in the old neighborhood.” In some cases, he added, being widowed can cut a person off from a wider circle of friends and acquaintances.

The New York Irish Center itself is not off the grid: On a westbound No. 7 train it is just three minutes from Grand Central Station in the heart of Manhattan. “That’s our biggest selling point,” said Finnegan, a native of Galway City in Ireland.

Mary Wicelinski was among those who traveled over the Pulaski Bridge from Greenpoint, Brooklyn’s famously Polish community, for the weekly seniors’ lunch on a recent Wednesday.

“It’s a situation where you look forward to it,” she said. “It’s not easy for me to get out. I have a walker,” added Wicelinski, who was born a Fitzgerald to Irish immigrant parents.

“My son called me up. He said, ‘Where are you going?” I said, ‘Bridie is bringing me to the Irish Center.’ He loves to hear that I’m coming here.”

Sitting near her at that mid-morning hour -- 11 a.m. -- were Bridie Mitchell, Peggy Cooney and Carmel McCarthy, respectively from Counties Leitrim, Meath and Cavan. They’d come from Greenpoint, too.

All three have been visiting the center since it opened in 2005. Like many of the other seniors they help with the serving and the washing-up.

“Eight years? It doesn’t seem possible,” Cooney said.

“Our shoes are worn down now,” McCarthy said.

“It’s not just Irish,” said County Offaly native Julia Anastasio, who is married to an Italian American. “We have Italians, Spanish and a couple of black gentlemen are regulars on Wednesdays.”

The New York Irish Center was the brainchild of the Rev. Colm Campbell, who was sent by Irish church officials to act as a chaplain to young emigrants in the mid-1990s.

The three-story structure was acquired by a group of sympathetic Irish businessmen with Campbell’s project in mind. At the time, the neighborhood was beginning to take off after being talked up for years in the media. Eight years on, the high-rise apartment buildings that line the waterfront are just one visible sign of a rapid gentrification.

“He’s a remarkable man,” Finnegan said of Campbell, who now lives in an assisted living facility in England, close to his sister. “He had a vision.”

The priest amended that vision somewhat as he learned more of contributions to Irish American culture of his own older generation and began to understand more about their needs.

Irish Government Support

At the same time, the Irish government was becoming increasingly concerned about Ireland’s aging émigré population. “From the perspective of Dublin there’s a genuine appreciation of what immigrants have done, such as sending remittances home,” which helped their families and communities, Finnegan said.

The center’s board members typically want to give back to the World War II generation of immigrants, Finnegan said. One told him that he knew families in his community in rural Ireland who were greatly dependent on “the parcel” that arrived from England or America.

The Irish government, however, realized that quite a few of them were living abroad in less than comfortable conditions. In the mid-20th century, a large number of Irish males particularly sought work in England. Many became used to a transitory lifestyle, which put them at a much higher risk of isolation later in life.

The Irish community in the United States also found that it wasn’t immune to some of the same problems.

Irish officials in New York supported Campbell’s efforts. Now, half of the funding for the center’s operational costs comes from the Irish government, the City of New York and the American Ireland Fund.

Because of Ireland’s austerity budget, Finnegan said, Dublin is targeting its funding more to frontline services and less on capital building projects.

The center’s board raises the other half of its funding with events, such as “Night of Comedy and Music” scheduled for June 6, with former “Saturday Night Live” comedian Colin Quinn and other entertainers.

The center seeks to help maintain friendships through original social networks, such those that had built up around jobs -- men who worked together as baggage handlers at JFK airport, for example, and women who worked in school cafeterias – or in church parishes or those associated with individual county associations and their umbrella group, the United Irish Counties.

“Others know each other from the dancehall days,” added Finnegan, a married father of two children.

“You hear about people on the grapevine,” he said. “Someone might ask, ‘Where’s Joe?’ Someone else will say: ‘He’s not well but he’ll be in next week.’”

“When people don’t show, you miss them. And, yes, some pass away,” said Julia Anastasio. “Fr. Campbell always made sure there was a memorial Mass.”

From Lunches to Computer Classes

At that moment, Anastasio was readying herself to go to Mass at St. Mary’s Church across the street ahead of the lunch.

She spends much of her time caring for her husband and so nowadays goes to the center for the seniors’ lunch only.

But the center aims other kinds of activities at seniors, as well, notably the Saturday morning computer class. The staff also tends to involve other age groups as teachers, volunteers and participants.

“We mix the generations as much as possible, and we do it pretty successfully,” Finnegan said. It’s good, too, he suggested, for twentysomethings who miss the company of grandparents back home.

Generally, many of the oldest regulars are less inclined to venture out for such evening events as movie or trivia-quiz nights. “Seniors are routine orientated,” Finnegan said, adding, “They’re not looking for much excitement or intrusion in their lives.

“We’re welcoming to all, even those who have substance abuse problems,” Finnegan said. “After getting over the feelings of defensiveness about life, they feel accepted.

“We find a place for them. It never got so bad that we were out of our depth,” he said. “We would like next to hire a social worker, but it wouldn’t be someone upstairs that you made an appointment to see. It would be someone that everyone would know.”

The center’s only other full-time employee is Jane McCarter, the culture and heritage officer. It’s important for Finnegan that the volunteer-staff ratio be weighted considerably towards the former, something that helps it to be truly a community center.

“You don’t want the staff to be a self-perpetuating situation,” he said.

It’s important, too, that the seniors help keep the center ticking.
“This is my little space on a Wednesday. My therapy,” Anastasio said, adding with a laugh, “And I’m still cleaning.”

Peter McDermott this article for the Irish Echo through a MetLife Foundation Journalists in Aging Fellowship, a project of New America Media and the Gerontological Society of America. It is the second part of a series.


]]> Q&A: Why Tamerlan Chose U.S. -- Not Russia -- As Target tag:newamericamedia.org,2013://19.11346 2013-04-30T08:00:00Z 2013-04-30T14:30:42Z Image: The Akhmad Kadyrov Mosque in the city of Grozny, the capital of Chechnya.Ed. Note: Chechnya landed on the front pages of American newspapers not long after the bombings in Boston. A remote region of Russia unknown to most Americans,... Peter Schurmann ]]> http://publisher.namx.org/mt-cp.cgi?__mode=view&blog_id=19&id=64 Image: The Akhmad Kadyrov Mosque in the city of Grozny, the capital of Chechnya.

Ed. Note: Chechnya landed on the front pages of American newspapers not long after the bombings in Boston. A remote region of Russia unknown to most Americans, it is the ethnic homeland of the alleged attackers, Tamerlan and Djokhar Tsarnaev. A visit there in 2012 by Tamerlan has led American intelligence officials to question what if any links exist between the area and the attacks. Jean-Francois Ratelle spent a year in the North Caucasus, including Dagestan and Chechnya, researching pathways toward insurgent participation there. He spoke with NAM’s Peter Schurmann about the region and its connection to the bombings.

New America Media: What was your initial reaction when you learned the suspects behind the Boston bombings were Chechen?

Jean-Francois Ratelle: I thought it was most likely home grown terrorism. I wouldn’t be surprised if [Tamerlan Tsarnaev] went to some kind of training camp during his trip to the North Caucasus region, but I don’t see any direct link [in the attack] to Chechnya or Dagestan.

His trip might have pushed him further in his views -- maybe because of the repression of radical Islam, or maybe because of what he heard or saw there. But Tamerlan still chose to come back to the United States to engage in jihad. He did not stay in Dagestan to join an insurgent group there.

So it is important at this point to understand that there does not seem to be a link to Chechnya or Dagestan, but much more to American society.

NAM: What does his decision to come back to the United States say about his ideological views?

Ratelle: At this point we don’t know why he came back. He may have come back to include his brother in his jihad. He might have come back because he perceived the enemy of Islam as being the United States, and not just Russia. We don’t know why he came back, but it seems an important aspect that he chose to come back and engage against the United States and not against Russia.

NAM: How does that distinguish him from insurgent groups within the North Caucasus?

Ratelle: What we have seen in Chechnya and other parts of the region since 2007 and perhaps earlier is that the more global Salafi jihadist ideology [as promoted by Al Qaeda and its affiliates] has been adopted by insurgent groups across the North Caucuses. However, they do not really support Al Qaeda’s anti-American and anti-Jewish agenda. Although the ideology is somewhat similar, it is almost entirely turned toward Russia and the Caucuses. This is why I think insurgent groups in the region were so quick to distance themselves from any identification with the bombings.

NAM: Reports show a split in the Tsarnaev family between the father, who was more influenced by Soviet culture, and a more religiously pious mother. Is this common in Chechen society?

Ratelle: First I would underline that the mother is not Chechen but is from Dagestan. That might make a little difference. But what we actually witnessed in all of North Caucasian society was a clash between the Soviet generation -- which rarely turns to radical Islam but rather practices a more moderate brand of Sufi Islam, and the younger generation born during perestroika or at the end of the Soviet Union. Many of them have tended to turn toward a more radical Salafist form of Islam as a way, in part, to challenge the older generation’s hold over society.

NAM: Chechnya in the immediate post-Soviet era has been described as a sort of gangland. Is that accurate?

Ratelle: It is an accurate description. But it has changed since then. One can now say that the criminals who once terrorized the streets are now in the government. They have recycled themselves.

NAM: How is Moscow likely to interpret the bombings?

Ratelle: Russians already have a very negative view of people from the Caucuses region. They are often described as being at best criminals, and at worst terrorists. Moscow will likely try to use the bombings to justify its own policy in the region going back more than ten years. Russia has been saying that it is fighting terrorists and extremists linked to Al Qaeda. I think this will also make it easier for the United States to support Moscow’s actions, especially with the Sochi Olympics approaching in 2014.

NAM: What has been U.S. policy in Chechnya in recent years?

Ratelle: The Caucusus Emirate and smaller insurgent groups all across the region have traditionally targeted the Russian government or local government. In their speeches we’ve rarely seen or heard an expressed desire to attack the United States.

But since 9/11 there has been tacit support in Washington of Moscow’s actions in Chechnya, seen as part of the “global war on terror.” Two years ago, Washington put Dokka Umarov [nicknamed Russia’s Osama bin Laden], the leader of the Caucusus Emirate, on the list of most wanted terrorists.

So I think it’s important to understand that a lot of people in Chechnya feel they have lost the support of the West in general, whether of the United States or Germany or France. After 9/11, the case of Chechnya was very rapidly associated with Al Qaeda, which is far from being proven.

NAM: What would Tamerlan have seen in Chechnya during his visit there in 2012?

Ratelle: We’re not talking about a war zone. The cities are fairly developed. They have not been destroyed by fighting. If you go deeper into the mountains, then you will see a few villages that do bear some signs of war. But in the cities of Dagestan and the other republics you don’t see this. For Chechnya, the major cities are fairly impressive – Grozny is one of the nicest cities I’ve seen in Russia, in terms of the smaller cities.

NAM: Where do you see Chechnya in 10 years?

Ratelle: What we are seeing there now is an internal civil war between Chechens, one side supported by Moscow and the other made up of various separatist entities. If this situation remains, leading to a worsening of the [local] economy and further [political and religious] repression, the violence will continue and young people without opportunities in society will likely look to join insurgent groups. Vendettas and vengeance for the death of relatives is an integral part of society there. What that means is that the violence will not likely stop in coming years.

Jean-Francois Ratelle is a Postdoctoral fellow at George Washington University. He completed his Ph.D at the University of Ottawa in 2012. His main research interests include the micro-dynamics of violence, civil wars, terrorism, Islamic radicalization, the North Caucasus, and the Balkans.
]]> Scotland Moves Toward Diversity tag:newamericamedia.org,2013://19.11260 2013-04-14T16:09:58Z 2013-04-14T16:19:14Z Shayla Martin ]]> http://publisher.namx.org/mt-cp.cgi?__mode=view&blog_id=19&id=103 Eunice Olumide, or sweeTs, as she is known as the front woman of the popular hip-hop duo NorthernXposure, was born and raised in Edinburgh and uses her socially conscious lyrics to express the challenges she has experienced firsthand.

"Growing up in Scotland was quite a unique experience," sweeTs said. "The most difficult aspect concerning what I coin as the ‘Afro-Scot' is the rarity. Most of the time you can be completely misjudged and misunderstood, trapped in a dichotomy that is extremely unfamiliar to not only Scots but also to Africans."

The statistics underscore sweeTs' claim. Despite a presence of African heritage that predates the 15th century, Scottish residents of African or Caribbean descent represented less than 1/2 percent (around 5,000 citizens) of the country's population according to the 2001 census. The results of the 2011 census have yet to be released, but the percentage is believed to be much higher - an estimated 18,000 to 24,000 African and Caribbean residents, with about 17 percent of those born in Scotland.

Most members of the multi-ethnic community are from Jamaica, Barbados, and countries in South, Central, Western and Eastern Africa; and live in urban areas like Glasgow, Edinburgh, and Aberdeen. Although the African and Caribbean communities in Scotland are diverse and residents are determined to highlight their individual cultures and heritage, a majority of the problems they face are the same.

According to the Black and Ethnic Minority Infrastructure in Scotland (BEMIS), an organization formed to empower minority communities, they face misrepresentation, institutional racism and a lack of resources, all of which play a major part in undermining their development.

Established in 1997 by a network of black and ethnic minority organizations, BEMIS says it promotes inclusion, democratic active citizenship, recognition of diversity, human rights education, and wider representation, as well as works to "influence government policy at local, Scottish, UK and EU levels." The group hosts a variety of events to help achieve its goals including conferences, a film series, and even has a partnership with the Scottish Football Association.

However, though the number of black and ethnic minority non-profit organizations has grown over the past decade to include BEMIS, the African & Caribbean Network (A&CN), and others, many lack the resources to ensure their survival. Those who are supported, like BEMIS, which has been funded by the Commission for Racial Equality, have been acknowledged for helping to improve race relations in the country.

Commission Deputy Chair, Dr. Moussa Jogee, said, under BEMIS "Progress has been considerable...this progress clearly demonstrates the current absence of and the absolute need for an effective national voice for black and ethnic minority voluntary and community organizations in Scotland."

Private minority support groups have also recently received a major boost from the Scottish government through the One Scotland campaign, aimed to "raise awareness of racist attitudes, highlight its negative impact and recognize the valuable contributions that other cultures have made to [our] society - and make Scotland no place for racism."

An initiative of the One Scotland campaign is the Equality Fund that will fund projects that directly tackle inequality and promote equality. Applications for the Scottish Government Equality Fund 2012-15 are currently being considered and successful projects will be announced this year.

Meanwhile, despite the presence of few Scots of African descent, sweeTs feels that Scottish culture is moving towards celebrating diversity in everyday life. In 2009, for example, NorthernXposure was featured on the cover of the Edinburgh Evening News, one of Scotland's most widely read newspapers. "The article said ‘if the future really is multiculturalism...then NorthernXposure should be its ambassador'...This is rewarding and inspirational," she explained.]]> As Europe Flails, Mexico and Brazil Look to Aid One Time Colonizers tag:newamericamedia.org,2013://19.11252 2013-04-12T18:10:06Z 2013-04-23T19:08:53Z Louis Nevaer ]]> http://publisher.namx.org/mt-cp.cgi?__mode=view&blog_id=19&id=20281 Traducción al español

MEXICO CITY – With no end in site to Europe’s financial strains, countries in Latin America are looking on as their one-time colonizers struggle to keep popular unrest over unemployment and austerity measures at bay. Many see signs of a historical shift in the trans-Atlantic power dynamic.

Some, notably Mexico and Brazil, see opportunity.

In early March, hundreds of thousands of Portuguese marched from Lisbon to the city of Oporto in protest over slashed budgets. Those protests came on the heels of a series of major rallies in Spain, where thousands across the country demonstrated against government austerity measures from Madrid to Barcelona and scores of smaller cities and towns.

Meanwhile, young Portuguese and Spanish job seekers are leaving their home countries in droves, in search of economic opportunity elsewhere. Add to that the recent "junk" rating given Portuguese and Spanish government bonds, and the resurgence of the Mexican and Brazilian economies, and you have nothing short of a paradigm shift in the making.

Carlos Slim, the Mexican billionaire who was named the world's richest man by FORBES magazine, recently warned that the crisis enveloping the European Union -- Spain and Portugal in particular -- was an unprecedented development with major implications for Latin America.

“It is unimaginable to think that young people [in Spain] can have an unemployment rate of 50 percent, or [even] 30 percent or 25 percent," Slim told the Spanish news organization La Entrevista late last year, suggesting that Mexico and other growing Latin American economies take a lead role in coming to their aid.

Slim’s words carry as much weight in Latin America as Warren Buffett's do on Wall Street – that is to say, a lot.

Mexican and Brazilian officials now find themselves in the unfamiliar, if ironic position of contemplating possible economic lifelines to the countries that once ruled over them.

For its part, Mexico has allowed for the unimpeded influx of young, unemployed European professionals. To date, thousands of Spanish youth have arrived in Mexico, either on tourist or work visas. Brazil, since last year, has considered purchasing Portuguese bonds as a way of infusing cash into Lisbon's treasury.

The moves are not without controversy. In January, Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto unveiled an ambitious anti-poverty campaign designed to address the needs of Mexico's poorest citizens. Called Cruzada Nacional Contra el Hambre, or National Crusade Against Hunger, the campaign was launched in Chiapas, Mexico's poorest state.

With an estimated 52 million Mexicans living below the poverty line, there is tremendous pressure on the Peña Nieto administration to take care of Mexico first.

In Brazil, too, which is set to host the World Cup later this summer and the Summer Olympics in 2016, ordinary Brazilians question the idea of spending billions to purchase “junk” Portuguese sovereign debt as the country struggles with growing economic inequality and rampant crime.

Colonial memories are also at the fore.

When Brazil’s former president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, urged Brazilian companies "to invest" in Portugal, critics mocked the idea as "capitalist exploitation,” citing the very public clashes, for example, between rival Brazilian companies over the acquisition of Cimentos de Portugal. The company was eventually taken over by Brazil’s Camargo Corréa.

For Slim, the lessons of history are clear. "I have argued,” he said, “that the [Latin American] external debt crisis of 1982 … offers a model in which Mexico can invest in the outside world, encouraging exports [and] opening up trade.”

Jerry Haar is a professor at the business school of Florida International University in Miami, where he tracks foreign investment. In an interview with Bloomberg Businessweek he noted, “Bottom fishing during and after financial crises is nothing new.” What is new, he continued, “is the increasing participation of emerging markets in the game. Where language and cross-cultural affinity are involved, all the more so.”

Still, the impulse to come to the aid of Europe’s flailing economies is not entirely motivated by the promise of monetary gain. Concerns over the potential of a “Lost Decade” similar to the experience of Latin America during the 1980s weighs heavily on debates in Mexico and Brazil.

Officials openly ask what might happen to today's unemployed 25-year-old architects, engineers and doctors in Spain and Portugal. Moreover, do Latin American offers of meaningful employment for these young professionals represent a potentially life-threatening “brain drain” in their home countries?

Such questions point to the thin line now being navigated in Mexico City and Brasilia between opportunism, on the one hand, and altruism on the other. They also point to the historic shift in cross-Atlantic ties.

"We are living through a period of significant change,” noted Slim, “and have to make the structural changes that are required.”]]> Thatcher 'helped push ties with China' tag:newamericamedia.org,2013://19.11235 2013-04-08T21:13:03Z 2013-04-08T21:17:09Z Margaret Thatcher, the Iron Lady of British politics who died on Monday at 87, played a key role in China's relationship with the United Kingdom, especially in the peaceful handover of Hong Kong, experts said.Britain's first and only female prime... China Daily ]]> http://publisher.namx.org/mt-cp.cgi?__mode=view&blog_id=19&id=103 Margaret Thatcher, the Iron Lady of British politics who died on Monday at 87, played a key role in China's relationship with the United Kingdom, especially in the peaceful handover of Hong Kong, experts said.

Britain's first and only female prime minister, Thatcher died peacefully at the age of 87 after suffering a stroke, her family announced. She governed Britain from 1979 to 1990.

"Margaret Thatcher played an important role in the development of UK-China relations. During the discussions over the handover of Hong Kong in the early 1980s, she came to recognize that it was important that the transition from British to Chinese rule should be smooth, and the diplomatic process was positive and productive as a result," said Rana Mitter, professor of Modern China at Oxford University.

Read the rest at China Daily

]]> International Students Risk Losing Visa If City College Closes tag:newamericamedia.org,2013://19.11126 2013-03-14T14:35:20Z 2013-03-22T18:54:29Z Chinese Translation Korean Translation SAN FRANCISCO - Antonino Musco never planned on settling in San Francisco. The Sicily native, who studies digital media at City College of San Francisco, says he just “stumbled into the city.” Now, with the... Peter Schurmann ]]> http://publisher.namx.org/mt-cp.cgi?__mode=view&blog_id=19&id=64 Chinese Translation

Korean Translation

SAN FRANCISCO - Antonino Musco never planned on settling in San Francisco. The Sicily native, who studies digital media at City College of San Francisco, says he just “stumbled into the city.”

Now, with the college facing possible closure, he and the other 1,100 or so international students there may have to find an alternative school. Or leave the country.

“Rumors among the students range from the apocalyptic and above,” says Musco, who is now in his third year at CCSF. “‘The school is gonna close, we’re gonna lose accreditation, all those years of study’ … those are the rumors you hear.”

Students Weigh In
International and immigrant students at CCSF's Mission Campus speak to the importance of the school in their lives and community.

It’s good to study in a country different than your own ... you meet a lot of people that are not of your own background; they come from different countries and different cultures. This school has a little bit of everything. Let’s hope they don’t close it.
--Sergio, 28, Mexico

The immigrant community from the Mission district needs this school to stay open. We all need it. Us mothers, we work, we study and this is a safe place to have our children. I’m 38 years old but I think we are never too old to learn and to come to school. To me, a school is like a sanctuary; like a church, a very sacred place. It needs to be respected and needs to continue to remain open and accessible for everyone.
--Bianca Diaz, 38, San Francisco

A big majority of the students at City College are immigrants. Our income doesn’t allow us to pay for higher education but this place gives us all the help we need. I want to support this place, I don’t want them to close it or for them to cut the services they offer us. For me it would be disastrous because I can't pay for all of this. I’ve learned a lot here and they’re giving me the opportunities I didn’t have in my own country.
--Carmen Chavez, 53, El Salvador
Reporting by Edith Romo

Friday marks the “show cause” deadline for the school to demonstrate to the California Accreditation Commission for Community and Junior Colleges (ACCJC) that it has addressed some 14 outstanding deficiencies first raised in a commission report in July. Failing that, the college could lose its accreditation, forcing it to close its doors.

Still, despite the potential calamity, faculty and administrators remain confident the school - one of the largest community colleges in the country with an enrollment of some 90,000 students - will avoid the worst.

“Everyone at the college is working very, very hard to maintain our accreditation,” says Dr. Minh Hoa Ta, dean of CCSF’s Chinatown/North Beach campus and a faculty member with the school’s International Education and ESL departments.

She stresses that CCSF has already taken many steps, including reduced staff and course offerings, as well as campus closures and other measures meant to bring it into compliance with the ACCJC recommendations.

For the students, though, the future appears less certain. A recent article in the school’s paper, The Guardsman, declared that students were “largely in the dark about the facts surrounding the school’s precarious accreditation status.” Meanwhile, a stream of headlines in recent months seems to all but guarantee a bad ending for CCSF.

For international students, whose status in the country is contingent upon their enrollment in the school, these mixed messages can be vexing.

“This could be my first and last semester at City College,” says Carla Prates, who came to the Bay Area from Brazil three months ago. Like Mosca, she is enrolled in the school’s digital media program and says she doesn’t have a plan B should CCSF be forced to shut its doors.

“I planned to be here for a year and a half,” she explains, noting that would give her the flexibility to complete her program while exploring other course options. “I need to figure out what to do” if the school loses its accreditation, she says.

International students in the United States typically apply for what’s known as an F-1 Visa, which allows them to enter and remain in the country as long as they are enrolled full time in an accredited institution. To receive an F-1, students must first apply to and be accepted by a school, which then issues an I-20 form valid for as long as the student is enrolled.

Anoop Prasad is an immigration attorney with the Bay Area's Asian Law Caucus. Students can, he says, switch their I-20 to another school if need be. Though he notes that if they fail to enroll prior to leaving City College, they lose their immigration status. "If they're around for a semester and they fail to enroll, once they decide to leave [the country] they could find themselves with a lengthy bar" on returning.

According to CCSF’s closure plan, which spells out contingency measures in the case its accreditation is revoked, students at the school should be able to transfer to other community colleges in the area.

Ta says that switching schools for F-1 students is fairly easy, adding that even if City College does receive the order to close, it "wouldn't happen overnight."

Still, both Prates and Musco say they've gotten little in the way of help from counselors as far as preparing for the worst and are unclear about what their options are. “I had a meeting with my counselor,” says Prates, “and told him I wanted to take all my requisites as soon as possible” in order to complete her program before the school might have to close. She says he urged her instead to enroll in Latin dance. “It’s crazy.”

As for re-enrolling in another school, Prates predicts "a lot of students will probably take the first school they see, just to keep their visa." Musco is even less certain. "I have no idea," he admits.

Ta notes the school is working to inform students of the accreditation issue via emails, the school’s website and through the student union. But, she says, given the busy nature of most students’ daily schedules, many often either ignore administrative emails or simply don’t visit the site. “They have to study, they have to work … they don’t have the time to pay attention to this.”

As for international students, she says the “number one concern is that we don’t jeopardize their status” by overlooking basic issues like credit and attendance requirements.

And with a reduced number of counselors, Ta says there’s little time to go into issues beyond students’ immediate needs, such as lining up coursework, ensuring academic requirements are being met and that students are on track. “Every day so many students come in for information … we don’t have the time to even think about the school closing.”

Lindy McKnight, dean of Student Support Services at CCSF and head of the Continuing Student Counseling Department, admits that it will be more complicated for international students if the school closes. But, she adds, “We’re not at that step yet.”

“As an administrator, we really haven’t encouraged our counselors, whether they’re dealing with international or domestic students, to spend a lot of time formulating what-if plans.” Confident the school will remain open, she adds that planning for closure at this point would be “wasted energy.”

Still, if the school does receive the order to close - a process that could take anywhere up to a year or more - McKnight says her office will set up sessions to help students on an individual basis plan for their next moves.

For Musco, that’s an unsettling prospect.

Like many of his peers, he sees CCSF as both an entry point and an anchor to life in the city. “I am loving my time at City College,” he says. Pointing to the economic instability in Italy, and particularly the country’s volatile media industry, he adds that going home at this point “isn’t a very attractive option.”
]]> Mexican Drug Cartels Eye Spain As Their New Home tag:newamericamedia.org,2013://19.11031 2013-02-21T09:40:00Z 2013-02-27T01:42:05Z Louis Nevaer ]]> http://publisher.namx.org/mt-cp.cgi?__mode=view&blog_id=19&id=103 Traducción al español

MADRID – The economic crisis in Spain, with a crippling jobless rate at 26 percent and labor strikes growing violent, has unleashed a brutal turf war between rival Latin American drug cartels. Spain’s rapid economic and social collapse in the second half of 2012 created compelling opportunities for drug cartels from Mexico to “relocate” their operations.

The challenge, however, is that since the 1980s the Colombian drug cartels dominated the multi-billion dollar drug industry in Spain, which is the entry point to the rest of Europe. This conflict between rival Colombian and Mexican drug cartels for domination of Spain is producing an unprecedented “turf” war – precisely at time when Spanish law enforcement agencies on a national and regional level are experiencing crippling budget cutbacks.

Exodus of cartels from Mexico

Mexican drug cartels, whose leadership and organizational structures were decimated by former Mexican president Felipe Calderon’s six year campaign, are now confronting the reality that the “war” against them has escalated under Calderon’s successor Enrique Peña Nieto, who took office in last December.

Although Peña Nieto campaigned on the promise to “change course” in Mexico’s six-year war on the drug cartels that has claimed more than 60,000 lives, his own strategy promises an escalation, but in a different manner. Peña Nieto has promised that the army will “return to the barracks” and the role of local police forces – easily corrupted and not trained to engage in high-level armed combat—will be limited. Instead, he has announced the creation of a Gendarmerie, an armed force that will operate on a nationwide level.

Last month, France promised to dispatch advisors to assist Mexico in creating and training this elite force.

Mexico’s political class is now debating whether the Gendarmerie will incorporate U.S. drones for strategic attacks on drug cartel leaders along the U.S.-Mexico border region. Mexico has allowed U.S. drones to operate in its territory since the spring of 2011.

That Nieto appointed General Óscar Naranjo, former national chief of Colombia’s police, as his advisor on national security matters – and that he traveled to Colombia last September – sent powerful signals to Mexican cartels that there would be continuity in Mexico’s drug war.

The “Battle for Spain”

That fact makes Spain an appealing place for drug cartels. The “Battle for Spain” began in 2007, when the Sinaloa drug cartel first began to move into Madrid, setting up operations. The most audacious interception occurred late last summer, when Spanish National Police seized hundreds of kilos of cocaine.


The Spanish National Police issued a statement that read in part: "Thanks to the exchange of information with the FBI, one knew that the suspects planned to initiate important shipments of cocaine by ship, hidden in containers with legal, declared cargo. They adopted great measures of security to ensure the success of the operations, and sent various containers without any type of drug. Finally, they sent their first shipment in a boat from Brazil. The container, which was intercepted in late July in the Port of Algeciras, concealed 373 kilos of cocaine." 

This spoke as much about Spain’s reliance on the FBI for intelligence, as to the already-established network among Mexico’s drug cartels to use Brazil as their base for operations to Africa and Europe.

Spain’s leading newspaper, El País, estimated that the net profit per shipment -- $1.5 million USD– was to be used to establish headquarters in Madrid. Law enforcement officials believe the Sinaloa cartel had budgeted almost $20 million to buy real estate, vehicles and safe houses to establish their operations.

That was not to be: during the drug bust four top officials of the Sinaloa cartel were arrested August 2012. As the BBC reported, “Jesus Gutierrez Guzman and the three others - named as Rafael Humberto Celaya Valenzuela, Samuel Zazueta Valenzuela and Jesus Gonzalo Palazuelos Soto - are all wanted in America over allegations of drug-trafficking and money-laundering.”

It is the relentless war on drugs against the Mexican drug cartels that cause them to act out of desperation. Spain’s anti-drug czar, Eloy Quirós, who runs the Drugs and Organized Crime Unit (known as Udyco), believes the Mexican drug cartels have set out to “conquer” Spain – and not forge an alliance with Colombian drug organizations already present in the Iberian Peninsula. He points out that, since 2007, Mexican drug cartels have set up operations in the Portuguese ports of Leixoes and Lisbon.

“It is evident that they want to pursue the same strategy that they have implemented in Latin America,” he told El Pais, referring to the vast network that Mexican drug cartels have built in Central America and Brazil in recent years.

With the promise of an intensified – if perhaps less violent – approach to the war on drugs in the coming months in Mexico, Mexican drug organizations are setting their sights on Spain with a renewed sense of urgency. “There is no doubt that the incoming Mexican administration wants to move decisively against the cartels in the first year of Enrique Peña Nieto’s term,” an intelligence officer working for the U.S. in the Mexican capital said in confidence. “Mexico has no choice.”

Spain vulnerable in economic crisis

Mexico’s confidence – and success – bodes ill for Spain. At a time when this nation is in the throes of an existential crisis – several regions have scheduled elections to decide if they want to withdraw from Spain and become independent countries – efforts by Mexican drug cartels to “take over” Spain intensify.

Late last summer, in addressing the National Audience, Spain’s equivalent of Congress, José Ramón Noreña, chief prosecutor of Spain’s Special Anti-Drug Prosecutor’s office warned that, “Obviously, the panorama is disturbing, but I know that the Security Forces are working to prevent this [Mexican drug cartel invasion.” 

Some observers see this as wishful thinking. Mexican drug cartels have already used their base in Madrid to shuttle to Rome to establish a working relationship with Italy’s ‘Ndrangheta mafia organization for the joint takeover of the Australian cocaine market.

“Spain is the gateway to Europe for the Mexican drug cartels,” said one official in Rome on condition of anonymity. “But once they are in Europe, they can reach the entire world.”



NAM contributor Louis Nevaer is a New York-based author and economist. His books include New Business Opportunities in Mexico (Quorum Books, 1995), New Business Opportunities in Latin America (Quorum Books, 1996), NAFTA'S Second Decade: Assessing Opportunities in the Mexican and Canadian Markets (South-Western Publishing, 2004).  ]]> As Spain's Economy Worsens, Young Adults Flock to Mexico for Jobs tag:newamericamedia.org,2013://19.10948 2013-02-02T09:20:00Z 2013-02-02T06:43:04Z Louis E.V. Nevaer ]]> http://publisher.namx.org/mt-cp.cgi?__mode=view&blog_id=19&id=103 PHOTO: Young Spaniards on Avenida Insurgentes in Mexico City. (From left to right, and top row to bottom row): Lorenzo Baladrón, Rafael Avalos, Toni Marí, Alejandro Santos, Almudena Barragán, Claudia Munaiz, Guadalupe Díaz, Cristina Cabrero y Sandra Durán. / photo by Pradip J. Phanse

MEXICO CITY -- The most fashionable accessory in Mexico City this winter is ... a Spaniard.

As the euro crisis shakes Spain to its core, thousands of young Spanish professionals are leaving their homeland in search of employment. The result is a mass exodus of young, educated Spaniards -- a massive brain drain, the likes of which have not been seen since the end of the Spanish Civil War in 1939.

Mexico, with its historic, cultural and linguistic ties to Spain, has become a leading destination for Spaniards in the Western Hemisphere. Although firm figures are difficult to come by, Mexico's immigration office, the Instituto Nacional de Migracion, reports the number of Spaniards granted work permits in the last quarter of 2012 alone was 7,630 -- which does not include the unknown number of Spanish "tourists" who arrived in Mexico during the same period, and who are granted 90 days to apply for work permits.

In upscale neighborhoods in Mexico, like the Condesa district, the familiar lisp of Iberian Spanish is heard with greater frequency at the cafes, bistros and trendy bars. Guadalupe Díaz works for GDS, a company that specializes in expediting immigration services to foreigners in Mexico. She told the Madrid-based newspaper El Pais that the company has seen an uptick in the number of Spanish clients: 

"Before [the euro crisis], I had to look for clients. Now, they search me out."

The departure of young, educated Spaniards reflects the deepening economic crisis in Europe, where many expect to see a "lost decade," which presents few career opportunities for those in their 20’s and 30’s. A recent report by Spain’s Dept. of Labor (Encuesta de Población Activa, or EPA) estimated that last year, 166,000 Spaniards between the ages of 16 to 24 left the country looking for work abroad.

Rodrigo Gil, a Spanish sound engineer, was recently quoted by the Spanish news site Heraldo.es:

"There are few people who have studied sound [engineering] in Mexico, and there are many in Spain," he said. Gil researched opportunities in Mexico, and within a few weeks of arriving in the Mexican capital, he found employment. "I have friends who stayed in Europe, [went] to London, but they're working as waiters."

Although many Spaniards would prefer to remain in Europe, where they would be close to family and friends, language is proving an obstacle. Maria Bahamonde, an architect from Galicia, arrived in Mexico City as a tourist, but is now looking for work there.

"My parents were afraid that there was violence because of the drug war, but that's not the case,” she said. "They would have preferred that I go to Germany or Switzerland, but unless you are fluent in German or English it's impossible to find comparable employment in those countries. After two months here, I feel confident enough that I can pursue my career professionally here."

She has interviewed successfully and is in the process of changing her immigration status from "tourist" to "resident foreigner."

"My parents raised their eyebrows when I told them -- it's an 11-hour nonstop flight between Madrid and Mexico City -- but I studied to be an architect, and that's what I want to do with my life," Bahamonde said.

Her experience is not unlike many of her countrymen.

"Mexico is a land of opportunities for young, qualified Spaniards," Paula Escalada Medrano, a reporter, wrote in Heraldo. Escalada noted that the job sectors with the greatest opportunities include advertising, communications, engineering, and business administration.

However reluctant, Spanish officials acknowledge the appeal of Mexico.

"Being an emerging and growing economy, and boasting an enormous market [in Mexico], there are motivations for becoming self-employed if you are creative and industrious. Now, in Spain, however willing you may be, it is very complicated," Cristina Cabrero, who works for the Press Office at the Chancellory at the Spanish Embassy in Mexico City told El Pais.

While the unemployment rate for young professionals in Spain reaches 25 percent, in Mexico it is 4.8 percent.

When Spain announced that the arts would be subject to a punishing sales tax, thousands of writers, artists, musicians, filmmakers and high-tech designers mounted protests, and vowed to leave Spain altogether.

“The tax increase is a major setback for the development of the Spanish arts, and seriously wounds a sector with great economic and employment potential,” the Sociedad General de Autores/General Society of Authors, or SGAE, said in a statement.

As these news reports of the comparative ease with which Spaniards are landing professional jobs, along with anecdotes among ex-pats, are fueling an exodus to Mexico, the influx of Spanish immigrants is also having an impact on Mexico’s cultural scene.

Last fall, Magazine Mexico, in its "Lifestyle" section, provided a primer on Jamón Iberico, Spanish ham that is the hallmark of Spanish tapas, since so many cafes and restaurants are expanding their menus to reflect the number of Spanish customers who long for a taste of home.

Similarly, one of Mexico's largest gourmet retailers, La Europea, is expanding the number of Spanish products it stocks.

In addition, gourmet options are fast expanding when it comes to the available selection of Spanish wines, cheeses and olives. Indeed, Jamón J. Jamón, a temple to Spanish ham, has become a thriving eatery in Mexico City.

Among Mexicans, the sudden influx of Spaniards -- who are joining yoga classes and gyms, signing up their toddlers at bilingual kindergartens, and frequenting the same cafes, bars and restaurants -- is amusing.

"Until a few years ago, it wasn't common to hear Spanish accents, other than tourists," Gabriel Barajas, a young professional in the engineering sector in Mexico City, said. "Now there are more of them, and it's such fun to take them to parties and introduce them to your friends. It makes you seem so sophisticated."

Apart from the economic windfall for Mexico -- thousands of young professionals are entering the labor force -- the crisis is strengthening the cultural ties between the two nations.

Spanish singer Miguel Bose and Mexican songstress Ximena Sariñana collaborated on a song, "Aire Soy," or "I Am Air," which has become a You Tube sensation, emphasizing the generational bonds that link Spain and Mexico, with the captivating lines: “Without you, I am nothing.”

Hipsters are now carrying pocket-size "dictionaries" of Spanish-Mexican slang and idioms, just to make sure that intentions are clear, especially in the realm of dating.

Gabriel Barajas, who is a civil engineer, is delighted he has befriended a few Spaniards.

"They're great guys, [and] root for all the right [soccer] teams, and when you show up at a party with one, we're swarmed by all the girls."


]]> First Woman of African Descent Elected to UK Parliament tag:newamericamedia.org,2012://19.10527 2012-11-14T19:34:30Z 2012-11-14T19:37:39Z David Cameron's Conservative Party has quietly made history by electing the first woman of African descent to British Parliament. Helen Grant, whose father is Nigerian, practiced family law in private practice before winning her seat to represent one of the... The Afro ]]> http://publisher.namx.org/mt-cp.cgi?__mode=view&blog_id=19&id=103 David Cameron's Conservative Party has quietly made history by electing the first woman of African descent to British Parliament. Helen Grant, whose father is Nigerian, practiced family law in private practice before winning her seat to represent one of the 17 constituencies in London's Kent County. Not known for a history of inclusiveness, the Conservative Party holds the majority in the UK's House of Commons and Grant was one of just 143 women elected in 2010, 49 of which represented the Conservative Party. On Sept. 4, 2012, Cameron appointed Grant to dual positions as Under-Secretary of State for Justice and Women and Equalities.

Click here to learn more about Helen Grant.
]]> London's Olympic Promise to Ethnic Communities Falling Short tag:newamericamedia.org,2012://19.9812 2012-07-20T08:25:00Z 2012-07-19T23:15:54Z Hannah Palmer ]]> http://publisher.namx.org/mt-cp.cgi?__mode=view&blog_id=19&id=103 Three days of grassroots activism, petitions and popular pressure have resulted in a reversal of the British Olympic Association’s decision to deny press accreditation to The Voice, the UK’s only national, weekly newspaper for the black community.

The Voice had been denied official media access to the Olympic games, with organizers citing a lack of space, despite the presence of many black athletes on the British Olympic team, and despite the fact that roughly 700 press passes were set aside for UK media. However, following a community uproar and criticisms from such high profile figures as London Mayor Boris Johnson, Tessa Jowell, an MP on the Olympic Committee, and several other high profile black MPs, the association was persuaded to reverse its decision.

Sadly, the episode is yet another sign that the London Olympic Committee has failed to deliver on its fantastic promise of leveraging investment in the games to uplift ethnic minority communities in Britain.

London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (LOCOG), which has hailed the global event as an opportunity for societal changes in London, is the first ever Olympic organizing committee to boast a Diversity and Inclusion Division, and London’s successful bid in 2005 to host the 2012 Olympics was due in part to the city’s commitment to diversity and the rejuvenation of neighborhoods heavily populated by ethnic minorities.

During a speech at the Canadian Suppliers Diversity Conference in Toronto, Stephen Frost, the Head of Diversity and Inclusion for the organizing committee, said: “The London vision will definitely empower change, enhancing the hiring of disabled people, including gays and lesbians and dealing with homophobia in sport, bringing cultural communities together.”

LOCOG also made specific promises to the five London boroughs playing host to Olympic Park: Tower Hamlets, Newham, Waltham Forest, Hackney and Greenwich. All the boroughs are in need of government support and investment; three of them are among the top-ten most deprived areas in Britain, and their average unemployment rate is 9 percent, over 2 percent higher than the rest of London.

They also represent some of London’s most diverse areas; over half of London’s 300 languages are spoken there and 42 percent of the inhabitants are non-white, compared with a 31 percent London-wide average.

The Olympic organizing committee’s strategy included job creation for residents of the five boroughs, asking big businesses to divide their work into smaller contracts that local businesses could also compete for, and producing pamphlets in a number of languages to reach out to ethnic communities for volunteers.

As long ago as 2009, the Olympic boroughs put together a Strategic Regeneration Framework that outlined their goals for the area over the next 20 years. The three main themes were creating wealth and reducing poverty, supporting healthier lifestyles and developing “successful neighborhoods.”

Director of the Olympic Host Boroughs Unit, Roger Taylor, is realistic about how far London has come to achieving its goals for the boroughs. He stated that only modest progress has been made in measurement areas such as exam results and life expectancy; and although poverty and unemployment remain static, he said, they should be taken in context of the economic downturn.

However, he added, “At a physical level, the Olympics have brought into use a large area of semi-derelict land that has always worked as a barrier between the East End of London and the rest of the city; this has enabled new connections for travel to be made, which are enhancing access to work and leisure (for borough residents).”

Mike Brooke, a reporter for the East London Advertiser, had this to say: “Promises are made on jobs, but only a handful go to people who are genuinely from the five Olympic boroughs. We estimate 3 to 5 percent during construction. Top jobs with specific managerial expertise go to those most qualified who do not necessarily come form the local community, although they may now live in the area as part of the influx of middle class into East London in recent years.”

He characterized any community involvement organized by LOCOG as “window-dressing and public relations image creation... the Olympics Park is fenced off from the community and heavily guarded, like Fort Knox.”

Roger Taylor’s response was to say that: “Much of the criticism and negativity is because these things are not that easy to see… unless you have direct experience, or, like me, have access to the bigger picture and the data. But it is happening, and this part of London will remain the Mayor's priority for many years to come.” He cited as an example the job training that some locals received as part of their short term Olympic employment.

Although the new Olympic Park may feel guarded and impregnable now, it is meant to leave a lasting legacy in the area. In terms of development, the Olympic accommodations will be converted into residential flats, the first of which will go on sale next year. Some of the flats, by law, will be designated for “affordable housing.” However, the affordability of a property is defined by the value of surrounding property. Critics have argued that a new, up-market housing development will push up the price of affordable housing in that area, pricing out those at the bottom of the economic spectrum.

The dismantling of barriers between the East End and the City of London also makes the area tempting for high earning city workers looking for housing. Londoners are already being pushed out of the central London housing market by wealthy foreign buyers and are looking toward new developments in previously undesirable areas. However, if they do not also spend their money in those areas, then the influx of new wealth will not create wealth for the community.

The Olympic site itself will be christened Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, and local councils are promising to turn it into an international attraction.

Sir Robin Wales, Mayor of Newham, one of the Olympic boroughs, said: “Our vision for the 2012 Games has always been to create significant community benefits including job creation, increased sports participation and the establishment of a world class visitor attraction. We are determined to help deliver the promises set out in the original Olympic bid book to transform the lives of those living in London’s East End.”

Only time will tell whether these attempts at regeneration will have a beneficial effect on the majority of inhabitants of the five boroughs. The influx of wealthier residents and tourists does not always equal greater benefits for locals who ultimately can be priced out of their own market.

The issues surrounding official sponsors have also caused contention. Organizations have complained about BP being a Sustainability Sponsor, and “unhealthy” food giants such as Coca-Cola sponsoring a sporting event. In return for their money, sponsors demand a high level of control over their rights, and breaking parliamentary rules on Olympic advertising is a criminal offense.

One example of the fallout is the half-mile, 35-day Brand Exclusion Zone that surrounds Olympic Park, which has forced small businesses such as the ‘Olympic Cafe’ to temporarily re-brand. The owner simply painted out the ‘O’ on the shop front.

Rules against using any Olympic related words, such as “London 2012,” “Team GB” or “Olympian” for advertising mean that local businesses will find it hard to benefit from the event. Big companies such as Marks & Spencers have the money to spend on clever marketing strategies that circumvent the rules, but smaller businesses lack the expertise, time and money to do the same.

There are also long term implications for local firms. The International Committee Ruling, implemented in all host countries, states that companies who have worked on, but are not sponsoring, Olympic projects are only allowed to mention their involvement 12 years after the games. Businesses that benefit from Olympic work, which according to LOCOG should be many local, small, and therefore ethnically diverse, businesses, will therefore not be able maximize on their Olympic work in the future.

Road closures and heavy use of transport links will negatively affect the majority of Londoners, but people in the host boroughs will be hit the hardest, with the heaviest footfall and highest number of road closures. A BBC news report stated that local businesses were planning to sue LOCOG, claiming that travel restrictions would decimate small businesses. Michael Spinks, managing director of the food company Essex Flour & Grain, based in Hackney, said "It's an unacceptable risk to a business established in 1853 and responsible for up to 100 jobs." LOCOG are sure to be facing more complaints as the reality of Olympic disruption hits London.

The Olympic Committee made huge promises to secure the bid for London in 2005 and continued to assure Britons that the huge cost of the Olympics would bring not only increased prosperity but improvements for a diverse range of groups. However, these promises now seem to be far out of reach. Stephen Frost’s comment that, “There aren’t enough PR agencies in the world to cover this up if we don’t get it right,” seems rather too close to the bone.


]]> Multicultural Boomer Power Flexes Creative Business Muscle in Silicon Valley tag:newamericamedia.org,2012://19.9745 2012-07-11T04:39:36Z 2012-07-10T23:39:33Z Richard Springer ]]> http://publisher.namx.org/mt-cp.cgi?__mode=view&blog_id=19&id=103 Photo: Rajiv Mehta has created an iPhone app, Tonic, that keeps track of all of a patient’s medications and wellness activities. (Richard Springer/India West)

SANTA CLARA, Calif.—HyloMimetics, a start-up developing technology to impede cartilage degradation, thus obviating the need for surgery or total knee replacements in the treatment of arthritis, won the $10,000 cash prize at the ninth annual Silicon Valley Boomer Venture Summit at Santa Clara University in June.

The summit drew entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and experts in aging ranging from South Asian to Latino cultures all focused on developing new products and services for the aging population.

HyloMimetics, a start-up company, was co-founded by Kathmandu, Nepal-born Shaili Sharma, who refined the company’s technology while doing her Ph.D. dissertation at Purdue University.

Sharma was unable to attend the one-day conference, which was targeted to highlight opportunities for caregivers and service providers in the growing baby boomer and senior generation markets.

HyloMimetics team member John Paderi, who accepted the award, gave a well-delivered, rapid-fire elevator pitch detailing the company’s innovative approach, a presentation that surely helped persuade the contest judges to elevate the company ahead of four other finalists at the summit.

Winner Prevents Arthritis from Worsening

In a phone interview, Sharma said she studied cartilage repair and regeneration after entering graduate school. “I became a part of HyloMimetics when I joined Dr. Alyssa Panitch’s laboratory at Purdue,” she said.

Sharma added that current treatments for cartilage degradation “only attempt to treat the symptoms and not the disease.” HyloMimetics’ technology improves the “mechanical properties of cartilage in the knee and can also prevent the degradation cascade often seen during the onset of arthritis,” she said.

“This treatment option will prevent arthritis from worsening in patients, and they will no
longer have to undergo invasive procedures, such as surgery or a total knee replacement to treat arthritis.”

A “Purdue Realization and Entrepreneurship Doctoral Fellow” for 2010-2011, Sharma attended boarding school for 10 years in India —in Nainital and New Delhi.

She received her undergraduate degree from the University of Minnesota at Duluth.
The Nepal-born entrepreneur said she learned at Purdue “what it takes to take a medical device from bench-top to bedside. The realization that my dissertation research can be directly applied to help solve a dire clinical need is a great motivation to get up and go to work every morning.”

HyloMimetics plans to raise funds to do “a preclinical trial on a large animal and a small-scale clinical trial in Europe,” Sharma said. “After demonstrating safety and efficacy we hope to bring this technology to (doctors’ offices) and into people’s lives.”

Buying Power of Boomers

A key point of contention at the summit was the considerable and growing buying power of boomers and seniors, as opposed to whether or not the power justifies venture capitalists directing their investment decision based on those markets.

Some venture capitalists at the conference were reluctant to buy into the senior-buying-power mantra. Marc S. Yi, managing director at Intel Capital, said he doesn’t invest in “any age group” and doesn’t want “to be limited by targeting a demographic.”

Nevertheless, John Cochrane, president and CEO of be.group, a provider of lifestyle options for seniors, said “a senior tsunami” is coming. “The 75-plus population owns 75 percent of what’s out there,” he exclaimed.

Andy Cohen, chief executive officer of Caring.com, which provides information and services to help adult children care for aging parents, said, “43 million people are now struggling with caregiving.”

Recent figures of life expectancy peg the average life expectancy of men in the United States at 83 years and women at 85, he added.

Cohen said surveys show that 86 percent of those polled who care for adult parents said it “impedes their jobs” and 48 percent said it “hurts their marriages.”

The Boomer Venture Summit featured a plethora of companies innovating in senior and boomer care.

Innovations Serve Many Cultures

One entrepreneur who is working to ease the burden for caregivers taking care of relatives is Rajiv Mehta, president of Bhageera Consulting. He has created an iPhone app called Tonic, which keeps track of medications and wellness activities.

“The vast majority of (wellness activities) are day-to-day and hour-to-hour,” the Indian American entrepreneur said.

“These mundane tasks need to be (handled), and that’s where it breaks down. It is the challenge of the mundane,” he observed. “We provide a tool to make it easier.”

“On average, caregivers spend 20 hours per week; a third average 47 hours a week,” Mehta wrote in a Web post. “And it can go on for many years — on average 4.6 years, while 15 percent have been providing care for over 10 years.”

“Unsurprisingly, Mehta noted, “the noneconomic impact — physical and mental health deterioration of caregivers and the fraying of family relationships— is significant.”

Marketing services with multicultural sensibility is another trend. Iranian American entrepreneur Sherwin Sheik, founder of San Francisco-based CareLinx, said his company operates under a fee-for-service model, providing a service that links caregivers to those in need of home healthcare services.

Caregivers list what they want to pay. CareLinx provides consumers background checks of the caregivers, a shared calendar for appointments, feedback ratings of caregivers and a “payment-processing tool, he said.

“Our services are completely free, except when we handle the payment process,” he said. Those looking for caregivers “can describe the services they need and find a match. It takes just 10 minutes to register. The “national average to pay for stay-at-home care is $45,000” annually, he added.

Sheik pointed out that many in the Filipino and Latino communities are in the provider community and they can improve their margins by linking up directly with the clients instead of working through agencies.

The company asks questions about caregivers and clients to highlight multicultural sensitivities and concerns, he said.

“My family is from Iran, so we are looking for people who are willing to recognize cultural differences.” “We also ask questions about [receptivity] to pets and sexual orientation.”

Keeping Seniors Connected

Seniors sometimes just need something to keep them connected to loved ones.

Family Ribbon, founded by Russian American immigrant Ivan Osadchiy, provides an easy-to-use application for the iPad that has a user-friendly interface helping seniors stay connected.

“In minutes,” the company said, “even those who consider themselves technology shy can join family and friends on easy Family Facebook, view Picasa and Flickr albums, make Skype video calls, send video emails and text messages, as well as browse popular Web sites, all through one simple application.”

Richard Springer, a veteran India-West staff reporter, wrote this article as part of a Silicon Valley Boomer Venture Journalism Fellowship, a collaboration of New America Media and Mary Furlong & Associates.

]]> Is Immigration Fueling the Rise of Nativism in Europe? tag:newamericamedia.org,2012://19.9304 2012-05-11T07:30:00Z 2012-05-11T01:18:13Z Cas Mudde ]]> http://publisher.namx.org/mt-cp.cgi?__mode=view&blog_id=19&id=103 Far-right parties across Europe are gaining momentum, as witnessed by their recent successes at the ballot box in Greece and France. While immigration is thought to be a major factor fueling the parties’ rise, a recent report by the Migration Policy Institute finds that although there is clearly a relationship, the connection is not as straightforward as is often assumed.

During times of economic crisis immigrants are often scapegoated as the cause of all problems, from crime to unemployment. Far-right parties, in particular, make attacking immigrants the core of their program. None more so than the Greek Golden Dawn, an unabashed neo-Nazi party, which even goes so far as to enforce its election slogan “Let’s rid this country from the filth” by attacking immigrants in the streets. Yet, while this is an extreme case, and most far-right parties do not use violence, anti-immigrant sentiments are rampant throughout Europe and they are not only reserved for the far right.

In the recent French presidential elections, Marine Le Pen of the far-right National Front gained a record 17.9 percent of the vote. She had called for the reinstatement of border controls within the European Union and had promised to cut back immigration by 90 percent. Mainstream right-wing French president Nicolas Sarkozy tried to gain re-election by winning over her voters, saying that there were too many foreigners in France and that he would decrease immigration by 50 percent.

What explains this outburst of anti-immigrant politics? Is Europe hit by a new wave of mass immigration? No! In many European countries the number of immigrants has actually fallen since the economic crisis started in 2008. In general, levels of immigration do not really explain the electoral success of far-right parties. But in time of economic crisis and record levels of unemployment – youth unemployment is around 50 percent in Greece – arguments that immigrants take away the jobs of natives do find more support.

Still, despite the more favorable breeding ground, with majorities of the European public concerned about immigration, far-right parties have gained very different levels of success across the continent. Against success stories in Austria and Italy, where far-right parties have been part of the national government, stand as many examples of relatively or complete failure, such as in Germany and the United Kingdom. To be successful, far-right parties need a charismatic leader and well-organized party. But they also need to be able to exploit the immigration issue, which means that they should not have serious competition from other parties on the issue. In 2007 Sarkozy won the French presidency by promising to be tough on crime and immigration and was faced with a far-right party led by an old extremist leader (Jean-Marie Le Pen). This year people judged him on what he had – and had not -- done in the past years, and preferred a rejuvenated far-right with an attractive new leader (Marine Le Pen).

Many commentators have warned that the current economic crisis will lead to a rise of the radical right; just as it brought Hitler to power in the 1930s. They point to the recent successes in France and Greece and predict that these are only the beginning. But while far-right parties have done overall slightly better in elections since the crisis started in 2008, many remain irrelevant, and currently only one country, Switzerland, has a far-right party in government. The reason is that during an economic crisis the political focus shifts to socio-economic issues like the economy and unemployment, and far-right parties have few ideas or legitimacy on these issues. Hence, it is unlikely that the radical right will make huge gains in the near future.

That said, as soon as the crisis is considered over, a return to socio-cultural issues is likely, and immigration and Islam will undoubtedly become popular again. Whether this will lead to a massive gain of political influence of the radical right is largely dependent upon the question of whether the mainstream left-wing and right-wing parties are finally able to develop their own vision on these topics. Unfortunately, so far this doesn’t look to be the case.

Cas Mudde is Hampton and Esther Boswell Distinguished University Professor of Political Science at DePauw University in Indiana and is the author of The Relationship Between Immigration and Nativism in Europe and North America, which can be downloaded for free at: www.migrationpolicy.org/pubs/Immigration-Nativism.pdf.

]]> UFW, Jewish Community Bound by Social Justice Causes tag:newamericamedia.org,2012://19.9071 2012-04-14T07:05:00Z 2012-04-14T01:19:53Z Rebecca Plevin ]]> http://publisher.namx.org/mt-cp.cgi?__mode=view&blog_id=19&id=103 FRESNO, Calif. -- If farmworker leader César E. Chávez were still alive, he might have joined Jewish families across the county in observing the start of Passover last weekend.

Chávez, a devout Catholic, used to hold the ceremonial Passover dinner, known in Hebrew as a seder, in the Pan y Vino hall at the United Farm Workers' headquarters, La Paz, in the Tehachapi Mountains community of Keene.

He would often invite rabbis from Los Angeles to La Paz to say the traditional prayers, and to lead about 250 union staff and their families in retelling the Passover story -- the story of the Exodus, in which the Israelites were freed from slavery in Egypt.

"He took a real interest and comfort from Passover," said Marc Grossman, Chávez's longtime speech writer and personal aide. The story of the Exodus, "meant a lot to him."

Today, seders are no longer held at La Paz. But the bonds between the United Farm Workers and the Jewish community remain strong.

The Jewish community -- long champions of social justice causes -- has financially supported Chávez from the early days of the movimiento. Judaism was the first religious institution to back the union.

And Jews have played pivotal roles in the UFW's 50-year history, including:

Irv Hershenbaum, who is the United Farm Workers' first vice president, and heads the union's Contract Campaigns Department; Grossman, Chávez's longtime speechwriter, press secretary, and personal aide; Nan Freeman, an 18-year-old college student who became the first person to die in service to the UFW.

The Jewish community's support for farmworkers -- most of whom are Latino and Catholic -- might at first be confusing. But Jews' support for social justice causes , ranging from abolition, to the civil rights movement, to the Occupy movement, is rooted in ancient teachings, experts said.

A commandment in the Jewish bible -- to 'love the stranger, because you were strangers in the land of Egypt' -- has become Jews' social justice ethos, said Lee Winkelman, a board member with JOIN for Justice, which trains and supports Jewish organizers.

"In the U.S., the strangers in our land are immigrants," Winkelman said. "Our tradition says to treat them as if they are not strangers, but as if they are our brothers."

That includes ensuring people have decent working conditions, get paid decently for their work, and are not subjected to pesticides, he said.

Jews' support for farmworkers also stems from a shared experience of being immigrants, said Susan Lubeck, Bay Area director of Bend the ARC, a Jewish social justice organization.

"The experience of Jews as being historically a small minority, has given us an acute awareness of the dynamics of power, and the challenge that a minority faces at the hand of a majority," she said.

Hershenbaum had little connection to farmworkers when he organized his first lettuce boycott in 1972, as a 20-year-old student at the State University of New York, Stony Brook. Still, he identified with the union's struggle for economic justice.

He had seen his own parents -- European refugees who became tailors in New York's garment industry -- benefit from union membership, and believed farmworkers deserved equal benefits.

"I knew firsthand from my own experience how important labor unions were," said Hershenbaum, whose first language was Yiddish, the language of Jews from Central and Eastern Europe, and now speaks some Spanish.

"I felt farmworkers deserved the same rights my parents had."

More than five years before Hershenbaum joined the union, Jews began supporting the farmworker movement.

As he strolled the grounds of La Paz last week, Grossman, Chávez's former speech writer and aide, told a funny story about the Jewish community's early financial backing of Chávez's National Farmworker Association, which became the UFW.

In 1965, the union was boycotting Schenley Industries, a major wine grape grower. As the boycott gained attention and momentum, the union started receiving contributions, Grossman said.

Chávez's wife, Helen, and her sister, Petra, were opening checks at the union's office in Delano when Petra noticed a trend, he said.

"Hey sister, look at this," Petra said to Helen Chávez, according to Grossman. "There's all these people with the same first name -- 'Rabby.'"

"Helen had to explain that is like a Jewish priest -- a rabbi (pronounced ra-bye,)" said Grossman.

Beyond financial support, the Jewish community was also the first religious organization to support the UFW, Grossman said.

Jewish institutional support for the union began in the early 1970s when boards of rabbis in East Coast cities declared boycotted products not kosher -- or, unfit to be eaten based according to Jewish law.

The rabbis determined that, "if a product comes to you through the exploitation of workers, it is not kosher," Grossman explained.

According to Jewish law, other foods that are not kosher include pigs, lobsters, oysters, shrimp, and any meals that mix milk and meat products.

Grossman began supporting the farmworker union in the late 1960s while he was studying history at UC, Irvine. He would picket supermarkets, and drive to Delano on Fridays to deliver food and clothing to strikers.

"Once I met (César) and got to know him and got to understand what he was trying to do, I figured it would be a lot more interesting to be a part of history than just read about it," said Grossman, who is medium height and wears round glasses.

Grossman joined the UFW staff in 1970, and became Chávez's press secretary and aide in 1975. He worked with Chávez on speeches and correspondence until Chávez died in 1993.

Other Jews have also become part of the union's history.

After enduring a five-year grape boycott that ran from 1965 to 1970, Lionel Steinberg -- a Jewish grower from the Coachella Valley, who was the president of David Freedman & Co. -- became the first grower to sign a table grape contract with the UFW.

Steinberg's April 1970 agreement with the union, "opened the flood gates," Grossman said. By July, the Delano growers had signed contracts, too.

When the original contracts expired in 1973, most growers signed deals with the Teamsters, and the grape workers walked out on strike.Except for Steinberg, who became the only grape grower to keep his UFW contract that year, Grossman said.

"When it counted, he stood his ground and did the right thing," Grossman said.

With those actions, Steinberg earned a place in the UFW's history -- and its leader's office. Displayed on a bookshelf in Chávez's office, which is preserved as the day he left it, is the side of a wood grape box from Freedman & Co., signed by both Steinberg and Chávez.

And Freeman, the 18-year-old college student, became the first of five UFW martyrs when she died in service to the union on Jan. 25, 1972.

Freeman, of Wakefield, Mass., was picketing with striking sugarcane workers in Florida at 3:15 a.m. when a double trailer truck carrying 70,000 pounds of sugar cane accidentally struck her, according to the UFW website.

"César was devastated," Grossman recalled.

Chávez cited Jewish tradition in a statement mourning her death.

Nan Freeman, "is a young woman who fulfilled the commandments by loving her neighbors even to the point of sacrificing her own life," Chávez said.

"To us, Nan Freeman is Kadosha in the Hebrew tradition, a holy person to be honored and remembered for as long as farm workers struggle for justice."

Following Jewish tradition, trees were planted in Freeman's honor on the UFW's 40 Acres compound in Delano. Forty years after her death, the trees are full grown, Grossman said.

Today, signs of the Jewish community's support of the UFW are still visible at the union's headquarters.

A book autographed by former Jerusalem mayor Teddy Kollek sits on a shelf in Chávez's office.

A Jewish Star of David, as well as a Christian cross and an Islamic crescent, rise out of a rock formation in the Peace Grove, on the grounds of La Paz. The metal religious symbols represent the faiths of the five martyrs, who died in service to the union.

And if you walk through the Peace Grove with Grossman, he might recite the final lines of a speech Chávez delivered in 1989 at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Wash.

Chávez concluded the speech with a quote from the Book of Micah, from the Old Testament.

"Our cause goes on in hundreds of distant places.

"It multiplies among thousands and then millions of caring people who heed through a multitude of simple deeds the commandment set out in the book of the Prophet Micah, in the Old Testament: 'What does the Lord require of you, but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.'"


]]> A Trend Toward Anti-Immigrant, Anti-Choice Laws tag:newamericamedia.org,2012://19.8968 2012-04-05T10:00:00Z 2012-04-05T14:55:17Z 2011 saw a record number of laws restricting abortion in U.S. states. It also saw a record number of state anti-immigrant laws. Coincidence?Maybe not.In 2011, U.S. states enacted 135 new reproductive health provisions, 92 of them seeking to restrict abortion.In... Elena Shore ]]> http://publisher.namx.org/mt-cp.cgi?__mode=view&blog_id=19&id=103 2011 saw a record number of laws restricting abortion in U.S. states. It also saw a record number of state anti-immigrant laws. Coincidence?

Maybe not.

In 2011, U.S. states enacted 135 new reproductive health provisions, 92 of them seeking to restrict abortion.

In 2000, 13 states were considered “hostile” to reproductive rights; by 2011, that number had doubled to 26 states, according to the Guttmacher Institute. Last year, more than half of women of reproductive age (15-44) were living in states that were hostile to abortion, up from less than one-third in 2000.

This map shows the trend toward restricting reproductive rights, primarily in the Midwest and the South. Of the 13 states in the South, half were considered hostile to reproductive rights in 2000; all had become hostile by 2011.

But 2011 was also a record year for anti-immigrant legislation. Five states (Alabama, Georgia, Indiana, South Carolina, and Utah) passed anti-immigrant bills modeled after Arizona’s 2010 law, SB 1070. An analysis by Mother Jones found that 164 anti-immigration laws were passed by state legislatures in 2010 and 2011. The map can be viewed here.

It turns out these maps look strikingly similar.

Here’s a look at five states where anti-immigrant and anti-choice efforts converge:

1. Alabama – In 2011, Alabama passed HB 56, considered to be the nation’s strictest state immigration law. It also enacted legislation banning abortion at 20 weeks from fertilization.

2. Indiana – In 2011, Indiana enacted an anti-immigrant law modeled after Arizona’s SB 1070. A federal judge blocked part of the law last summer, shortly before it was set to take effect. Indiana enacted legislation banning abortion at 20 weeks from fertilization.

3. Georgia is about to become the sixth state to ban abortion at 20 weeks from fertilization, with no exemptions for rape or incest. The Georgia House and Senate passed the bill, and it’s now on its way to Republican Gov. Nathan Deal, who is expected to sign it into law. Last year, Deal signed into law another controversial bill in Georgia – the state’s Arizona-inspired anti-immigrant law HB 87.

4. Arizona – the first state to pass an anti-immigrant state law, SB 1070, making it illegal to be an undocumented immigrant in the state -- is now cracking down on reproductive rights. The Arizona state Senate passed a 20-week abortion restriction, which is now heading to the House. In 2011, Arizona required doctors to be in the same room as the patient when prescribing medication abortion. It also moved to require that a woman obtain an ultrasound prior to having an abortion. Last month, the Arizona Senate narrowly defeated a bill that would have allowed employers to drop health insurance coverage for birth control.

On April 25, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments over Arizona’s immigration law. Gov. Jan Brewer is challenging a ruling by a federal judge that blocked parts of the state law, and she is taking the case to the Supreme Court in a decision that is expected to have a ripple effect on the other five Arizona-style state laws. (A federal court in Atlanta announced they wouldn’t even rule on challenges to the Alabama and Georgia laws until they heard the Supreme Court ruling on Arizona’s SB 1070.)

5. Mississippi almost passed an anti-immigrant state law, which was derailed in 2011, thanks in part to opposition by African-American legislators. Another Arizona-style anti-immigrant bill died in the state Senate this week. In 2011, Mississippi voters defeated an initiative that would have restricted women’s access to both abortion and contraception by defining the term “person” under the state constitution as “every human being from the moment of fertilization.”

What do these states have in common? They reflect a shift in demographics. Although they don’t have the largest immigrant populations in the country – in fact, far from it -- these states have experienced the biggest percentage increase in new immigrants.

That’s because immigrants are increasingly settling outside of the traditional destinations of California, Texas, Florida, New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Illinois. They are moving instead to the “new destination” states in the South and central United States: North Carolina, Georgia, Arkansas, Tennessee, Nevada, South Carolina, Kentucky, Nebraska, Alabama and Utah.

In the 2000s, the immigrant population in those states grew by about twice the national rate.

And when it comes to growth in the Latino population, it’s worth noting that the two states that saw the biggest increase in Latinos enacted two of the strictest immigration laws in the country. Alabama saw a 145-percent increase in its Latino population between 2000 and 2010, the second-highest Latino growth rate in the nation, after South Carolina.

Now, as the election approaches, voters could get a chance to vote out legislators who passed these laws. Except that these are also the same states that passed new rules at the voting booths that will make it harder for minority voters to cast their ballots in November.










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