05/12/2008 Immigrant Latinos in the United States are living under a "matrix of laws, social customs, economic institutions and symbolic systems" hauntingly similar to the Jim Crow laws that once institutionalized race segregation in parts of America, writes Roberto Lovato.
From: The Nation

05/08/2008 Innovative local initiatives are strengthening rural regions throughout Mexico, which have been losing both people and their competitive edge in agriculture since Mexico opened its markets to free trade.

04/30/2008 A first batch of Bhutanese refugees living in Nepal has landed in America. Described as one of the largest resettlement programmes in the world, the US has agreed to take in 60,000 refugees. Away from sub-human conditions in the camps, they are finding their new life both strange and full of prospects.

04/24/2008 Dr Marcella D’Souza, executive director of Watershed Organisation Trust (WOTR) in western India, has been awarded the Indian Merchant Chambers' Woman Of The Year Award. During an interview to OneWorld South Asia, she talks of her dream where rural folk live in harmony, secure sustainable livelihoods and enjoy an enhanced quality of life.

04/16/2008 The Blue Alert campaign in five Indian coastal cities witnessed hundreds calling for government action to mitigate climate change threats. An earlier report by Greenpeace has highlighted possible displacement of over 125 million people in India and Bangladesh that puts vulnerable coastlines at risk.

04/03/2008 For people running from bullets and shells their whole lives, the idea of a peaceful future is like a mirage. With peace returning in Sri Lanka the internally displaced population are being resettled. But will they be able to live a normal life? The question lingers.

04/01/2008 In line with the policy of closing down all refugee camps in Pakistan by December next year, the government continues to send back Afghan nationals back to their country. In March alone, over 10,000 of them were repatriated. Currently, over three million registered and unregistered Afghan refugees are living in Pakistan.

03/27/2008 Greenpeace has warned that if current levels of emissions of greenhouses gases are not curtailed and global warming is not kept below 2-degree point, a major humanitarian crisis is awaiting the South Asian region. This can result in massive displacement of 125 million people in India and Bangladesh alone.

03/25/2008 Thousands of bonded labourers released from granite and marble quarries of north India have settled in the southern state of Tamil Nadu. They are now trying to rebuild their lives, free from the exploitative shackles of contractors.

03/14/2008 Lack of employment opportunities and the fear of starvation in rural areas in the wake of last year’s cyclone are forcing Bangladeshis to throng cities in search of livelihood. Most do menial jobs as loaders, and rickshaw pullers, earning barely enough to save their families from hunger back home.

02/19/2008 Afghanistan government has urged Iran not to deport its illegal migrants, as it does not have the capacity to absorb them. More than two million Afghans live in Iran, of which less than half have the status of valid refugees.

02/11/2008 Young women need to be part of an organisation to understand the 'collective consciousness', says Ruth Manorama, whose efforts have helped make a space for Dalit women in the mainstream feminist movement in India. In a close conversation, she looks back at her three decades of struggles and many victories.

02/06/2008 Nepal’s recent decision to resettle refugees from Bhutan in third countries is good news for over 107,000 people who have lived in camps for the last 17 years. The first groups of refugees are expected to begin departing next month.

01/17/2008

01/14/2008 New technological innovations in agriculture, electronics and medicine have helped boost income and reduce the number of people living in poverty, says a new World Bank report. Developing countries also need to strengthen the spread of technology through better infrastructure and improved research, the report adds.

11/05/2007 Children of mothers who work overseas are most likely to be subject to Commercial Sexual Exploitation (CSE), says a leading child protection group in Sri Lanka. There are currently 40,000 commercial child prostitutes in the country, with most of them working in the coastal areas.

10/31/2007 Fourteen minors were recently rescued from the clutches of a sub-contractor, working for clothing giant GAP, by a local NGO in Shahpur Jaat area in the Indian capital. But what about the 100,000 child labourers still engaged in embroidery and zari sweatshops in Delhi?

10/25/2007 Following reports of tigers vanishing from the Sariska Tiger Reserve in the western state of Rajasthan, the state forest department and the Ministry of Environment and Forests have worked out voluntary relocation packages for families living in 11 villages in Sariska. The move will hopefully help bring India’s national animal back to the reserve.

10/22/2007 Thousands are migrating to Bangladesh’s largest city, Dhaka, on a daily basis having lost earlier means of survival at their rural homes. Heavy rains and floods have impacted over 10 million people in Bangladesh.

10/12/2007 Land acquisitions for industrialization, construction of dams and natural calamities have led to large scale displacement of millions of people in India. It remains to be seen how far the Union Cabinet’s recent approval of the new rehab and resettlement policy will address the problem.

10/12/2007 UNITED NATIONS, Oct 11 (OneWorld) - Despite its enormous wealth and phenomenal growth in technological inventions, the United States remains far behind other industrialized countries in trying to help poor nations embark on the path of development, a new study by an independent think tank concludes.

10/11/2007 October 10 marks one year since the Child Labour Act banned children from working as domestic servants. Yet millions of children continue to work in domestic and hazardous occupations and are vulnerable to abuse. Save The Children has called for concerted campaigns to save these lost childhoods.

10/07/2007 A recent national meet on the educational needs of out-of-school children has called for a database on migrant children and to develop strategies to enfold them into the schooling system. The two-day meeting was organized by Rajasthan UNICEF in alliance with Rajasthan Council for Elementary Education.

10/03/2007 The World Habitat Day on October 1st was globally observed this year at The Hague in Netherlands. This year’s theme ‘A safe city is a just city’ stressed on the need to go beyond policing, to planning more public spaces for men and women and better governance of cities.

10/02/2007 THE HAGUE, Oct 1 (IPS) - The urban poor are the worst affected by crime, natural disasters and insecurity, says the Global Report on Human Settlements published by UN-HABITAT on World Habitat Day Monday.

09/29/2007 I For India uses the home movies and reel-to-reel tape recordings sent to his family in India by Dr Yash Pal Suri, following his migration to Darlington in 1965.

09/28/2007 The recent decision by Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka to grant citizenship to three million people who have no official identity has been hailed by the UN Refugee Agency as a ‘major breakthrough.’

09/26/2007 Global warming could impact one billion people, warned Rajendra K. Pachauri of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) at the opening of the largest-ever gathering of world leaders on climate change. Heads of states, top officials, civil society and business leaders from over 150 nations attended the high-level meeting on 24 September.

09/18/2007 WASHINGTON, Sep 17 (IPS) - U.S. immigrant groups are ratcheting up a boycott of Western Union Co. in hopes of forcing the global money-transfer industry to do good for its customers' families, not just do well for itself.

09/05/2007 Many Afghans returning to their homeland face a number of major challenges, including a lack of employment, health care, education and housing, according to an assessment carried out with the support of the United Nations refugee agency.

08/23/2007

08/23/2007 An Indian American entrepreneur researcher has done a study on the immigration issue and revealed that India has provided more in intellectual capital to US than the financial aid from US to India. The study also shows that for the first time in its history the US faces the prospect of a reverse brain drain because of its flawed immigration policies.

08/13/2007 According to a new report by the International Labour Organization (ILO), the labour force in Asia which is estimated at some 1.8 billion is expected to grow more than 200 million by 2015. The report emphasis on the improvement of the jobs and ensure equal distribution of the benefits for Asia's future economic growth.

07/13/2007 OneWorld has brought together expert panelists to respond to your questions and comments. Check out the dialogue and add your own comments.

07/05/2007 Delhi based non-profit organisation Development Alternatives is organising a training program on Livelihood Approach focusing on trafficking, its prevention and its links to migration. The workshop will be held from August 7-9, 2007 at TARAgram, Appropriate Technology Centre, Orchha, Madhya Pradesh.

06/29/2007 UNFPA reports on the state of world population 2007 attempts to look beyond the current problems which are real, urgent, poignant and call to action. The Report tries to grasp the implications of the imminent doubling of the developing world’s urban population and discusses what needs to be done to prepare for this massive increase.

06/29/2007 A UN Population Fund (UNFPA) report indicates that more than half the global population, projected at 3.3 billion, will be living in towns and cities by 2008. In Asia the urban population will increase from 1.36 billion to 2.64 billion while Africa's urban population will go up from 294 million to 742 million, and that of Latin America and the Caribbean from 394 million to 609 million.

06/28/2007 "We both have the same blood running through our veins," says a young Mexican-American about her undocumented friend. So why can one get a job while the other cannot?

06/28/2007 Despite losing her bid to become a city council person in Watsonville, California, Mireya Gomez brought many young Latinos into the political process.

06/28/2007 An online magazine created by five friends in Boston brings news and networking to their community.

06/28/2007 Writing about her childhood in the Salinas Valley, Rose Castillo Guilbault describes the migrants, the men who came alone, the families, and one "special friend."

06/28/2007 Host Alexander Zevelyov brings trademark zeal to interviews with pop stars, debates over San Francisco streets, and the identity dilemmas of Russian immigrants.

06/28/2007 OneWorld and New America Media bring you the voices and stories of those at the center of the political firestorm.

06/28/2007 Growing up, I recall my mother hardly being at home. She left for work at ten in the morning and returned home at eleven at night. It wasn't that my mother was neglecting me; she was doing what was needed in order to survive.

06/28/2007 Thirty years after fleeing Vietnam, Andrew Lam rediscovers old family letters and tries to recognize the childhood innocence he left behind and decides to write a letter addressing his young self.

06/28/2007 After seven years of struggle and $10,000, Ernesto Javier is finally getting his legal status.

06/28/2007 Teens in the Central Valley of California have seen hundreds of immigrants detained in ICE raids. These are some of their thoughts.

06/28/2007 With close to 9 million Poles in the United States, it would seem a natural for young Poles to come here looking for work, but for various reasons, they are saying "Who needs America?"

06/26/2007 NEW YORK, Jun 26 (OneWorld) - As the U.S. Senate voted today to resume debate on its immigration reform bill, a new poll brings the voices of those at the heart of the debate -- undocumented workers themselves -- into the mix.

06/13/2007 Despite all the talk (and shouting), how much do we really understand about what causes people to move from one country to another? Get your questions answered by experts and advocates.

05/31/2007 The La Strada Open Gate nongovernmental organization expanded the activities of its SOS Phone Line for assistance to victims of trafficking of human beings 0800 11111 and opened an information and education centre that deals with trafficking related issues.

05/30/2007 AFSC is urging supporters to tell their senators to vote for a more family-friendly immigration policy, which includes a path to permanent residency for undocumented immigrants, family reunification, demilitarizing the U.S.-Mexico border, and a halt to worksite raids and detention.

05/25/2007 During the last two decades the urban slum population of India has increased drastically. According to estimates by the Town and Country Planning Organisation the number of urban slum-dwellers rose from 27.9 million in 1981 to 46.2 million in 1991 and
61.8 million in 2001.

05/23/2007 The Centre for Research and Policy Creation presented the regional miscellany of essays Migratory Processes in SEE – Collection of National Perspectives. CRPC representatives presented the latest migratory trends in the region and their impact on security and economy of the country.

05/18/2007

04/24/2007 New Delhi based organisation Citizens Research Collective has compiled data and information on Special Economic Zones (SEZs). SEZs are specially demarcated areas being promoted by the Indian government to boost economy but are also creating social resentment because of large scale displacement.

04/08/2007 SAN FRANCISCO, Apr 6 (OneWorld) - An immigration coalition known as the Rights Working Group held hundreds of community meetings Thursday to push for immigration reform that "restores basic civil liberties and human rights, protects our core American values of fairness and justice, and defends due process for everyone."

04/03/2007 PESHAWAR, Apr 3 (IPS) - "Lack of security in Afghanistan is the main obstacle standing in the way of our going back," said an Afghan vegetable-seller, straddling a muddy narrow lane in Kacha Garhi, the oldest refugee camp in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP), with a push-cart.

03/29/2007 SAN FRANCISCO, Mar 29 (OneWorld) - Immigrant rights activists in Colorado have launched a week-long economic boycott, saying they want to show how big an impact immigrants have on the economy.

03/21/2007 Remittances – money sent home by immigrant workers abroad – are hugely beneficial to many countries across the world.India is the world’s top receiver of remittances. Flows into the country have grown dramatically in recent years, touching US$ 17.4 billion in 2003, up from some US$2 billion a year in the late 1980s.

03/17/2007 SAN FRANCISCO, Mar 17 (OneWorld) - Politicians in Washington are debating the issue of immigration this week. Many Democrats want to create a guest worker program through which undocumented immigrants would be able to earn legalization over time. Conservative Republicans have their own ideas--from stepping up deportations, to building a fence along the U.S.-Mexican border, to punishing employers who hire undocumented workers.

01/24/2007 The International Organization for Migration started the Temporary Return of Qualified Nationals –TRQN Project, aimed to contribute to reconstruction and development efforts in Afghanistan, B&H, Kosovo, Serbia, Montenegro, Sierra Leone and Sudan.

01/12/2007 The ASTRA “Little House of Skill” day centre started working on January 1, 2007, thanks to the support by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and CARE International NWB.

01/08/2007 Seeking Indian diaspora's expertise, experience and capital in a big way for balanced economic development of the country, government identified sectors like infrastructure, agriculture, social and energy as requiring urgent investment.

01/08/2007 Perhaps the most powerful and surprising people's movement of 2006 had many leaders; Renee Saucedo was a driving force behind efforts in San Francisco.

01/05/2007 SAN FRANCISCO, Jan 5 (OneWorld) - A coalition of more than 60 labor, social justice, and immigrants rights organizations issued a statement Thursday calling for an immediate halt to community and workplace raids aimed at detaining and deporting undocumented immigrants.

01/04/2007 Indian immigrants are a significant driving force behind the creation of new engineering and technology companies in the United States in the past decade than their counterparts from the UK, China, Taiwan and Japan put together. Of an estimated 73-hundred US tech startups founded by immigrants, 26 per cent have Indian founders, CEOs, presidents or head researchers, a new study says.

12/28/2006 Washington's offer to resettle most of the 106,000 Bhutanese refugees who have stagnated in camps in Nepal for 16 years has provoked a whirlwind of reaction that could finally sweep away official inertia toward their plight.

12/21/2006 Nobel laureate Amartya Sen on Wednesday said market economy was here to stay but could not be relied upon for developmental tasks. "Land reforms will help reduce distress migration"

12/19/2006 SAN FRANCISCO, Dec 19 (OneWorld) - A Brussels-based non-profit has launched what it describes as the first ever "global radio show connecting migrant communities worldwide to highlight their concerns and achievements."

12/19/2006 The Citizens Pact for SEE (CPSEE), a Novi Sad, Serbia based NGO working to abolish the strict visa regime installed by EU countries for citizens of Western Balkans, presented its new web-site (Need Visa) offering information about necessary documents and procedures to visa seekers.

11/16/2006 According to a report released earlier today, the Ministry of Interior adopted a decision to grant asylum to a seeker, for the first time in Croatia. Asylum was granted to a female Sudanese national who sought asylum on basis of violation of religious freedoms and sexual mutilation.

11/14/2006 SAN FRANCISCO, Nov 14 (OneWorld) - Voters in Michigan gave 58 percent approval to a measure banning Affirmative Action in the public sector last week. It was just one in a series of a measures voters approved nationwide that many activists see as a setback to racial justice.

11/03/2006 Just weeks before the elections, Congress is unable to agree on legislation regarding the nation's 12 million undocumented immigrants. Legislators are at loggerheads over such disparate proposals as conditional legalization, guest-worker programs and massive deportations.

10/28/2006 We at the IRC strongly believe that this is a critical moment for immigration reform in the United States. For several years, we have watched with consternation as restrictionist forces have gained ground in communities, public policy, and political discourse.

10/26/2006 Several major national Albanian children rights organisations promoted, on October 24, 2006, the establishment of a new Coalition against Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation of Children in Albania. The Coalition which will be known under the acronym ACTSEC has been accepted as an associate group of ECPAT International.

10/06/2006 WASHINGTON, D.C., Oct 5 (OneWorld) - The human population of the United States will reach 300 million some time this month amid anxiety over immigration and the environment.

10/05/2006 “Following a phasing out of the transitional arrangements, the legal opportunities for employment of workers from the EU-8 in enterprises that pay wages below the national rate are expanded.” This is one of the major conclusions in a new study on Nordic labour market.

10/03/2006 NEW YORK, Oct 2 (OneWorld) - Environmental groups are concerned about a new plan to build a 700-mile long fence along the border with Mexico.

09/25/2006 A meeting organized by the OSCE's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) and the OSCE Presence in Albania, aims to promote partnerships between anti-trafficking and Roma non-governmental organizations to better fight the increasing phenomenon of trafficking in Roma across Europe.

09/15/2006 Ministry of labour has opened a multilingual site that provides information for employers hiring foreigners and foreigners coming to work in Finland or already living in Finland. The material explains the rules of working life, permits needed to work in Finland and the Finnish working culture.

09/12/2006 This year's report, A Passage to Hope: Women and International Migration, highlights the diverse experiences of women migrants and emphasizes the need for migration laws and policies that safeguard the rights of women and support their needs for health care and other essential services.

09/07/2006 SAN FRANCISCO, Sep 7 (OneWorld) - Thousands of Latino community leaders from across the country convened in Los Angeles Wednesday for what organizers say is the first massive gathering of Latino community leaders, organizations, and elected officials since 1977.

09/07/2006 Governments must do more to address the human rights violations and lack of opportunities that force women and girls, who make up half the world’s 95 million migrants, to leave their homes, while countries need to work together to make migration safer and in particular stamp out human trafficking, according to new reports issued today by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).

09/07/2006 Dominican Republic women who migrated abroad to earn more money were empowered by their new roles as household breadwinners and decision-makers but were still expected to conform to traditional gender roles, according to a study released today by the UN International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women (INSTRAW).

09/07/2006 Women constitute almost half of all global migrants worldwide — 95 million or 49.6 per cent — yet, it is only recently that the international community has begun to recognise their contribution to the economy and social well-being of populations living in both the origin and receiving countries and the challenges women confront in the new land.

09/04/2006 Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General in Kosovo (SRSG) Joachim Rucker today welcomed the commencement by the World Health Organisation (WHO) of specialized medical treatment for lead toxicity for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) of the Roma-Ashkali-Egyptian (RAE) communities.

08/24/2006 DHAKA, Aug 23 (Reuters): Bangladesh on Wednesday sought international assistance, including from the United States, to help find a new home for thousands of refugees from Myanmar, saying it couldn't afford to keep them any longer. Some 21,000 Rohingya Muslims from mainly Buddhist Myanmar have been living in two camps in Cox's Bazar district, 450 km (280 miles) southeast of the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka for more than a decade.

08/18/2006 Millions of tonnes of iron ore from scores of small mines that have sprung up in the onion fields around this small town in southern Karnataka state are going into building China's gleaming, steel and glass office towers and stadiums for the 2008 Olympic Games.

08/17/2006 from It's Getting Hot in Here blog:
The 250,000 climate refugees since Hurricane Katrina are an example of how global warming is forcing the U.S. coastal population to move inland, says Joe Florence.

08/17/2006 from Islands of Spice blog:
“Climate change is fueling migration and making people move to areas where other people don’t want them. And it’s all about water, and it’s all about energy.” An interview with Leslie Fields, a woman with a mission.

08/14/2006 The UNICEF Regional Office for Central and Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CEE/CIS) has launched the Reference Guide on Protecting the Rights of Child Victims of Trafficking in Europe, a new tool designed specifically for use by those working to protect children victims of trafficking within the European region.

08/14/2006 Leading national and global developmental organisations have called for developing concrete measures to ensure safe labour migration across the world. This was stressed at a regional consultation organised by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the South Asia Regional Initiative and Equity Support Programme in the Capital where several key issues relating to the safety of migrants and natives were discussed.

08/01/2006 The new series of documentary films, titled SOS – Dossier (Violence in the Family), with authentic stories of women from Southern Serbia victims of violence, was produced by the Vranje Human Rights Committee and the department of video production of the Vranje Press Agency (AVP).

07/25/2006 The MTV EXIT concert tour, organized by MTV and SIDA, working to raise awareness with young men and women about the problem of trafficking in human beings, will start from Sarajevo, July 29, 20:00 hours, with a big humanitarian concert on “Metalac” open-air stage.

07/21/2006 The Union Government will shortly launch a National Manufacturing Initiative to give a thrust to 20 key labour-intensive sectors such as IT hardware, textiles, SMEs and auto components.

07/17/2006 After debating for several weeks about the touchy subject of immigration reform, the United States Senate approved the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2006 (S. 2611) on May 25.

07/14/2006 With a significant increase in the flow of migrants -- both legal and illegal -- over the last few years, the United States is heading towards a demographic milestone: a 300 million population before the end of this year, rising from its current 298 million.

07/13/2006