Migration 101 Episodes 6 - 7

Episode 6: Can we "fix" poorer countries to keep people from emigrating? (Actually, development can speed up movement rather than slowing it, by giving people more opportunities to move and better infrastructure to move on. Middle- to higher-income countries like the Philippines, Mexico, Turkey, Morocco and Tunisia have a large proportion of emigrants. The poorest countries, like those in sub-Saharan Africa, have the lowest emigration rates.)

Episode 7: Who are we allowing in? Who are we trying to keep out? Professionals and students and their families are actually more welcome than before. Those who are considered undesirable are (1) refugees and (2) low-skilled migrants. But refugees are going to come anyway, and even though European countries deny that they need low-skilled labor, they in fact do need them in agriculture, construction, catering, and child- and elder-care. Basically, current policies are further privileging already-privileged migrant groups. We are creating a global class system: if you have the right degree and enough money, it's pretty easy to migrate,

Recommended Reading
Check out this map to see how EU countries have opened their borders to refugees, as per their labour needs at the time.
This Bloomberg article on Spain’s massive labor shortage (of a certain type), despite 5 million unemployed.
An individual is three times more likely to be admitted to Harvard than to be admitted to the U.S. as a refugee, says Embrace Refugees, a project on the grueling asylum application process.
Even Japan, a long-time foe of immigration, is coming around to a selective policy for a certain type of worker, says this article from The Japan Times.
This case study from Hein’s book The Age of Migration further explores the decisions Japan must make, concerning migration policy.