Family pressures are familiar to us all, they are so much more acute here on the border. Jason is 17 years old, a Hispanic, born on the US side of the river, a spina bifida kid who lives in a wheel chair. His mum left him at birth. Magda his grandmother, adopted him as her Read more
Three generations of Kiwis ‘down the road’, it dawned on me that not only am I from a migrant family but I too am also a migrant. 27 years in Peru; 5 years in Venezuela; a stint in Australia: 5 years here in the Rio Grande Valley on the border the USA with Mexico. Now Read more
From the very first moments of his pontificate, Jorge Bergoglio signalled a departure in style from that of his immediate predecessors. His taking of the name Francis, his eschewing the full papal vestments, and his appeal to the masses gathered in Saint Peter’s Square below to pray for him, before imparting his own blessing, all Read more
Take a tape measure. Unroll the tape to about two meters (six feet) and place one end against a wall. The distance between you and the wall corresponds to the world population of about 7.3 billion people. The number of people worldwide who left their native countries in the last five years — in other Read more
Europeans are resisting having children due to a culture of comfort, with declining birth rates leading to increased migration, Pope Francis said in an interview. In a wide-ranging interview with a journalist from Portuguese radio station Renascença, the Pontiff said he wasn’t pointing his finger “at anyone in particular”. “When there is an empty space, people Read more
One of the most distressing elements of the worldwide migrant crisis is that people who have risked all for a better life should be held to ransom by smugglers. The lines between migration and human trafficking all too easily converge. While migration implies a level of individual choice, migrants are sometimes detained and even tortured Read more
In debates about refugees, asylum seekers and mass migration, a crucial issue is the moral and political status of borders. Do we think borders are good or bad, a necessary evil or a moral necessity? My contention is that those who argue for open borders under-value a sense of place and the integrity of the Read more
The kidnapper sounded polite, even deferential, when she called on a Tuesday afternoon last May. Melida Lemus and Alfredo Godoy had left their clapboard house in Trenton, New Jersey, to pick up their two daughters from school. Godoy, who works in construction, was late to meet a client for whom he was building a home Read more
It should go without saying (but often doesn’t): the fact that 2030 New Zealand will be much more ethnically diverse is by no means a bad thing. But it’s also necessary. As the baby boomers age, our population will become disproportionately elderly, with a dependency ratio of about 2.6 people aged between 15 and 64 Read more
Victoria University in Wellington, New Zealand, has awarded a scholarship to New Zealand-born Pacific Islander, Rachel Yates, to investigate the migration of young Pacific Islanders to Asia. Yates says she expects her PhD to take three year to complete but hopes it will motivate other New Zealand Pacific Islanders to study and travel abroad. Read More