AIM - thoughts and comments

Article - "What Haiti needs: A Haitian diaspora"

Melodie Vaury — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 21:06:00 GMT

What Haiti needs: A Haitian diaspora

Haitians wait in line to fill containers with water at a camp in Port-au-Prince on Thursday. (Jae C. Hong/associated Press)

By Elliott Abrams

Friday, January 22, 2010

The outpouring of pledges to "rebuild" Haiti has spurred debate about how much aid will be needed, for how long and who could administer such a large program efficiently. In 2008, the last year for which statistics are available, Haiti received more than $900 million in all forms of aid, and many analysts suggest that total must be doubled if "recovery" is to happen. But it is doubtful whether such additional commitments will be made -- and kept -- as Haiti moves off the front pages.

"Rebuilding" and "recovery" would merely take Haiti, this hemisphere's poorest country, back to where it stood before the Jan. 12 earthquake. Surely, our goal is to do better. We must increase aid but also allow Haitians to help themselves, and there is no way they can do that sitting in a devastated nation. A substantial number of Haitians must be allowed to move to richer countries -- including ours.

Haiti has approximately 9 million citizens, and 1 million to 2 million Haitians live outside their country. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, half a million people born in Haiti live in the United States, and estimates put several hundred thousand in Canada and as many as 100,000 in France. Those migrants send home $1.9 billion in remittances -- double the official aid flows and equal to 30 percent of Haiti's gross domestic product.

These sums are greatly exceeded by some of Haiti's neighbors. The 1.3 million Dominicans living in the United States send home $3 billion in remittances, an amount 20 times as much as official aid flows. A million Hondurans living abroad send home $2.7 billion, providing eight times the global foreign aid Honduras receives. The 1.5 million Salvadorans living here send home $3.8 billion, 15 times official aid flows.

A larger Haitian diaspora would be a far better base for the country's economic future than aid pledges that may or may not be met. If several hundred thousand more Haitians were able to migrate, those Dominican, Honduran or Salvadoran numbers suggest that remittances to Haiti would give its economy a huge and continuing jolt.

This would require Canada, France and the United States -- the First World countries with the largest Haitian diaspora communities -- to adopt a different and more liberal immigration policy toward Haiti. Canada has already stepped up, expediting immigration applications from Haitians with family members living there. Canada's immigration minister noted that "we anticipate there will be a number of new applications, which we will treat on a priority basis."

But France and the United States have so far agreed only to no longer send Haitians back to Haiti. Washington has granted "temporary protected status," or TPS, meaning that deportation of Haitians already in the United States is stayed for 18 months. In fact, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has suggested that Haitians must stay where they are despite conditions on the island, saying in a Jan. 15 statement: "At this moment of tragedy in Haiti it is tempting for people suffering in the aftermath of the earthquake to seek refuge elsewhere. But attempting to leave Haiti now will only bring more hardship to the Haitian people and nation."

The secretary went on: "The Haitians are resilient and determined and their role in addressing this crisis in their homeland will be essential to Haiti's future. It is important to note that TPS will apply only to those individuals who were in the United States as of January 12, 2010. Those who attempt to travel to the United States after January 12, 2010 will not be eligible for TPS and will be repatriated. The Department of Homeland Security continues to extend sympathy to our Haitian neighbors and support the worldwide relief effort underway in every way we can."

Well, not every way we can -- for one of the best ways to help Haiti is to allow some Haitians to move abroad. It is ridiculous to argue that leaving Haiti in the coming year or two "will only bring more hardship to the Haitian people and nation." Migration would mean that Haiti needs to provide fewer hospital beds, schools, meals and jobs -- and migrants' remittances will be key to Haiti's economic recovery for decades to come.

President Obama said that the disaster in Haiti "is one of those moments that calls out for American leadership." He should be asking Congress not only to provide aid funds but also to allow a significant increase in the number of Haitians legally admitted to the United States -- to several times the roughly 25,000 per year in the past decade. Canada and France should do the same. There are no panaceas for Haiti's recovery, but any sensible approach must include migration from the island. If the United States is committed to giving Haiti hope for the future, enlarging the Haitian diaspora is a surefire way to succeed.

The writer, a senior fellow for Middle Eastern studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, was assistant secretary of state for inter-American affairs in the Reagan administration and a deputy national security adviser to President George W. Bush

Article- The importance of remittances to stabilize the Pakistan rupee

Melodie Vaury — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 15:13:00 GMT

Remittance flows in the world (source: http.//www.ifad.org)

http://in.reuters.com/article/companyNews/idINSGE60K0FJ20100121

UPDATE 1-Pakistani o/n rates ease; rupee firms; stocks down

Thu Jan 21, 2010 5:14pm IST

(Updates with stocks end lower)

KARACHI, Jan 21 (Reuters) - Pakistan's short-term money rates ended lower on Thursday because of cash inflows in the interbank market but dealers said they expected rates to rise in coming days as no more inflows were scheduled.

Overnight call rates ended at 9.50 percent, down from Wednesday's close of 12.25 percent.

"There were some inflows today which is why we saw rates ease to the floor," said a brokerage dealer.

Dealers said there was an outflow of about 135 billion rupees on Saturday.

In the currency market, the rupee ended firmer at 84.47/55 to the dollar compared with the previous day's close of 84.65/70 as payment pressure eased.

Dealers said dollar inflows from remittances from overseas Pakistanis had also helped steady the rupee slightly in recent days.

According to official data released last week, remittances rose more than 24 percent to $4.531 billion in the first six months of the (July-June) financial year.

The rupee hit a record low of 84.90 to the dollar last week.

Stocks ended lower as dealers said the market faced resistance as the index approached the 10,000-point barrier.

The Karachi Stock Exchange's benchmark 100-share index .KSE ended 1.52 percent, or 150.90 points, lower at 9,753.84 on turnover of 167.34 million shares.

"This correction was much needed as the market tried to breach the psychological barrier of 10,000 points," said Sajid Bhanji, a dealer at Arif Habib Ltd.

Dealers said there was also selling pressure because of political uncertainty in connection with the Supreme Court's rejection of an amnesty that had protected President Asif Ali Zardari and some of his top aides from old corruption charges. (Reporting by Sahar Ahmed; Editing by Robert Birsel) (For more Reuters coverage of Afghanistan and Pakistan, see: here)

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Article - One in four Olympic site workers in London is from abroad

Melodie Vaury — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 15:03:00 GMT

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23797966-one-in-four-olympic-site-workers-is-from-abroad.do

One in four Olympic site workers is from abroad

Matthew Beard, Sports News Correspondent

21.01.10

The £6 billion Olympic building project employs one in four workers from overseas, official figures revealed today.

Employment data published by theOlympic Delivery Authority showed that foreigners made up 24 per cent of the 6,277 workers on the Olympic Park in the past 12 months.

Eastern European workers mainly from Romania, Lithuania and Poland made up six per cent of the Games workforce, with workers from Nepal and India accounting for four per cent. Seventy six per cent were British workers with eight per cent coming from Ireland.

The number of overseas workers has fallen from 29 per cent in the previous 12 months.

It is thought the recession has bought more British construction workers to the Government-funded Stratford site as other privately-funded projects across the UK have been mothballed.

Experts said it was probably evidence of other large European economies such asGermany beginning to attract migrant workers from eastern Europe.

Nationality of the Games workforce has come under the spotlight since Prime Minister Gordon Brown heralded the 2012 project as an opportunity to create “British jobs for British workers”.

The ODA said 53 per cent of workers were from London and 20 per cent were “local” workers classified as those living in one of the five Olympic host boroughs, Hackney,Tower Hamlets, Waltham Forest, Newham and Greenwich. The ODA classify a worker as local even if they have been living in those East End boroughs for just one day.

But concerns remain that the official data exaggerates the true employment benefit to the East End. Doubts about whether the workforce is “local” were railed when it was revealed that in 2008 Newham received a record 20,000 applications for national Insurance numbers needed to register for work.

In total there are 9,164 Olympic workers including the 2,887 building the £1bn Olympic village.

But the ODA did not include village workers in its statistical breakdown as the project was not taken over by the Government until midway through 2009.

An Olympic source said: “These figures nail some of the myths about the proportion of the Olympic Park workforce having a large number of foreign workers, the majority are British workers.”

Our deepest condolences to Haiti

Melodie Vaury — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 10:48:00 GMT

The Haitian earthquake is an immediate humanitarian tragedy and a long-term challenge for human mobility, both inside Haiti and internationally (in regular or irregular channels).

All of the members of AIM send their deepest condolences and extend our profound sympathy to the families of the victims. Our thoughts are with the government and people of Haiti. The two founders of AIM have visited Haiti in recent years, especially Brunson McKinley, who has strong connections in the country, where he was U.S. Ambassador. They both send their deepest condolences.

We hope you make donations for those suffering from this devastating earthquake, and if you believe that AIM itself might play a useful role, we would be happy to hear from you and work on it.

Sincerely,

The AIM team

AIM-International in 2009

Melodie Vaury — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 10:47:00 GMT

The first year of our Association’s existence bore witness to good progress in the better management of human mobility.

After the launch of the Association in Davos in January, we set to work on conceptualizing the Services Platform for Mobile Populations. Our idea is to provide diasporas with a secure and convenient internet facility for all kinds of transactions specific to the needs of mobile populations.

With the Fondation Hassan II, the Moroccan institution charged with maintaining relations with Moroccans abroad, we signed our first MOU. As a result, the Hassan II website is currently being updated to accommodate a Moroccan services platform.

AIM is in active discussion with partners in Russia and India to create jointly with them similar services platforms for their own overseas communities.

We have refined our approach to the Labour Mobility Index and hope to launch it soon. AIM organized a successful and interesting two-day session on international mobility on the occasion of the World Public Forum’s Dialogue of Civilizations in Rhodes, Greece, October 8-11, 2009. The publication by AIM and the World Public Forum of the Rhodes Declaration on Human Mobility, which you will find on this website, marked an important step in encouraging governments and civil society to address mobility as one of the fundamental factors in the development of global society in the 21st century.

The Members of AIM look forward to working with you in 2010 and wish you a peaceful and successful New Year.

Switzerland Shows the Way

Brunson McKinley — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 18:47:00 GMT

The voters of Switzerland today approved a measure to keep the country's borders open to citizens of the European Union, including its new member states Bulgaria and Rumania. In a country sometimes reputed to be hostile to foreigners -- wrongly, as I can attest from my own experience here over the last ten years -- the nearly 60 % YES vote marks a clear victory for Swiss pragmatism, good sense and humanitarian feeling. In fact, the Swiss economy, like that of all rich countries, derives great benefit from the presence of foreign-born workers and professionals in many industries, tourism, construction and health aomg them. So hats off to Switzerland's direct democracy and thanks for a nice birthday present. Brunson