Stateless People

Who is a Stateless Person? Someone who is undocumented in the U.S. - doesn't matter if you have lived here since you were an infant, if you do not "papers" you are stateless. There are Stateless people all over the world...

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A Different Kind of Migration

Virtual migration through technology (the web) may have a stronger effect on American culture than the actual physical migration of people. Our virtual contact with the world influences our language, culture, traditions and the way we seek knowledge -

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Making the Global Village a Reality
The Guardian (London)
by Victor Keegan
January 24, 2008

Governments keep worrying about immigration and how they can prevent people from entering their countries. But while they are doing this a subtle form of exodus is taking place. People, especially early adopters, are spending more of their time conversing or doing things with people abroad, a kind of virtual migration. This is because of the explosion of social networks and a parallel phenomenon, the seemingly insatiable desire of people to spread details of their personal lives on the web to be devoured by a global audience.

At one stage it looked as though the movement might be stopped in its tracks when it was revealed that potential employers and university admission staff were combing Facebook, MySpace and other social sites to learn what candidates were really like. But there has been hardly any adverse reaction and it hasn't stopped people unburdening themselves one jot. If anything, the opposite might happen: employers are more likely to say, "What sort of introvert have we got here who hasn't joined a social site?"

There is no sign of it stopping. Recently I have been looking at a pre-production version of Seesmic.com, brainchild of French entrepreneur Loic Le Meur, which is a kind of instant diary or blog, but using video rather than words. You record a video (dead easy now with the built-in webcams in most new laptops) then press a button and hey presto, anyone in the world can see it and respond.

The interesting point is that, unlike blogs, there is no hiding behind nicknames. This is literally in-your-face communication. It is a near-live film of you. Anonymity is strictly for the birds. Already users are making new friends across the globe and its 20,000 early testers (and 70,000 viewers a month) are becoming part-citizens of a space beyond the geography of their own country.

It reminded me that of all the new friends I have acquired in the past year (with whom I have ongoing conversations in areas of mutual interest), the majority have been in another country. I suspect this is a growing trend as a global village arrives in which people congregate on the basis of mutual interests rather than the accidental geography of where they live...

vic.keegan@guardian.co.uk

for link to complete article in The Guardian, click the title of this post.

image: http://128.121.35.98/wp-content/uploads/2006/11/globe-stylized.jpg

PEW Report on Global Trade and Immigration

The PEW center has released a report on global trade and immigration. Below are excerpts of their statement on immigration. According to PEW, people around the world are concerned about immigration - and "losing their traditional culture."

What is the danger of having foreign influences? Is it only certain foreign influences? If they are American or Western European is it ok if they infiltrate the culture?

It would be interesting to see what exactly is the meaning of "need for protecting traditional ways of life."

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... there are widely shared concerns about the free flow of people, ideas and resources that globalization entails. In nearly every country surveyed, people worry about losing their traditional culture and national identities, and they feel their way of life needs protection against foreign influences. Importantly, the poll finds widespread concerns about immigration. Moreover, there is a strong link between immigration fears and concerns about threats to a country's culture and traditions. Those who worry the most about immigration also tend to see the greatest need for protecting traditional ways of life against foreign influences.

Immigration Fears

In both affluent countries in the West and in the developing world, people are concerned about immigration. Large majorities in nearly every country surveyed express the view that there should be greater restriction of immigration and tighter control of their country's borders.

Although Western publics remain concerned about immigration, they generally are less likely to back tighter controls today than they were five years ago, despite heated controversies over this issue in both Europe and the United States over the last few years. In Italy, however, support for greater restrictions has increased -- 87% now support more controls on immigration, up seven points from 2002.

Concerns about immigration have increased in other countries as well, perhaps most notably in Jordan, where an influx of Iraqi refugees has raised the salience of this issue -- 70% of Jordanians back tighter immigration controls, up from 48% five years ago....

Immigration

North Americans generally are more welcoming to immigrants than are Western Europeans. Among Western European publics, Swedes are the most likely to say immigration from North Africa and the Middle East, as well as from Eastern Europe, is a good thing for their country, while Italians and Germans express the most negative views.
Sizable minorities in 11 of the 36 developing countries surveyed say they regularly receive money from relatives living in another country. In Lebanon and Bangladesh, nearly half of respondents say they receive help from family members living abroad...

PEW report: http://pewglobal.org/reports/pdf/258.pdf