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CMS Migration Update is a weekly digest of news and other information related to national and international migration.  It is designed to educate faith leaders regarding vulnerable immigrant populations, developments in the immigration field, pastoral resources and the religious touchstones of diverse faith traditions on migrants and newcomers. It should not be relied upon to provide advice or counsel in immigration cases. The publication is provided by the Center for Migration Studies of New York (CMS), an educational institute/think-tank devoted to the study of international migration, to the promotion of understanding between immigrants and receiving communities, and to public policies that safeguard the dignity and rights of migrants, refugees and newcomers. CMS is a member of the Scalabrini International Migration Network, an international network of shelters, welcoming centers, and other ministries for migrants.
Thomas J. Shea
Editor
Rachel Reyes
Director of Communications
June 14, 2016

#WelcomeRefugees: Key Figures

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) (May 29, 2016)
 
The Canadian government’s #WelcomeRefugees campaign sought to resettle 25,000 Syrian refugees between November 4, 2015 and February 29, 2016. Although the government quickly reached its goal, it continues to resettle Syrian refugees. This article provides statistics from the campaign including that: (1) 27,580 Syrian refugees have been resettled in Canada through May 29, 2016; (2) 290 communities throughout Canada have received Syrian refugees; and (3) almost 17,000 refugee resettlement applications are still in process and almost 3,000 applications have been approved with the applicants waiting to travel to Canada.
 
To read more, visit http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/refugees/welcome/milestones.asp.

A Rise in Mediterranean Deaths (Video)

New York Times (June 8, 2016)
 
According to Christopher Catrombone, founder of the Migrant Offshore Aid Station (MOAS) which provides professional search and rescue to people in distress at sea, the central Mediterranean Sea is the deadliest route for migrants and refugees to flee to Europe. In this video, Catrombone reports that, during May 2016, almost 1,000 people died in the central Mediterranean primarily because of shoddy and overcrowded boats. On a daily basis, MOAS rescuers find people washed up on shore face-down. Since January 2016, at least 2,800 people have drowned trying to cross the Mediterranean. Catrombone states, “The reason we are seeing so many deaths at sea this year is because that there are more people coming.”
 
To see more, visit http://video1.nytimes.com/video/2016/06/06/40516_1_07migrants-explainer_wg_360p.mp4.

The Journey from Syria: Part Six (The Backlash)

The New Yorker (May 28, 2016)
 
In this final installment of a six-part documentary series about a Syrian family’s flight to the Netherlands, filmmaker Mathew Cassel shows Aboud and Christine Shaloub and their two children starting a new life after resettlement. The documentary also details a growing nationalist and anti-immigrant sentiment across Europe evidenced by “more than a thousand documented attacks against refugees, asylum centers, and Islamic institutions” in the past year. Mr. Aboud tells Mr. Cassel that the media should focus on why people became refugees, saying, “If you can solve that problem, you won’t have more refugees.”
 
To see this installment and the entire documentary series, visit http://bit.ly/236hl9O.

First Syrian Refugee Family Resettled in Savannah Since Start of War

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (June 7, 2016)
 
Despite efforts by Georgia Governor Nathan Deal to stop the resettlement of Syrian refugees in the state, 193 Syrian refugees have been resettled in Atlanta and a family of five in Savannah. According to this article, resettlement of Syrian refugees in the United States will quicken over the next three months through the end of September 2016 in order for the Obama administration to meet its goal of resettling 10,000 Syrian refugees by the end of FY 2016. To date, only about 3,500 Syrian refugees have been resettled in the United States. The US Department of State maintains that the push to speed up the resettlement will not lessen the “robust security screening” that the refugees must clear before resettlement in the United States.
 
To read more, visit http://www.myajc.com/news/news/state-regional-govt-politics/first-syrian-refugee-family-resettled-in-savannah-/nrcCX/.

Southern Exposure: The Costly Border Plan Mexico Won’t Discuss

The Globe and Mail (June 12, 2016)
 
In July 2014, the Mexican government adopted Programa Frontera Sur, a southern border plan “to overcome common challenges related to migration and respect for human rights” and to establish “a more modern, efficient, prosperous and secure border.” The plan was developed in part to prevent migrants from entering Mexico from the south and using the country as a transit route to the United States. Frontera Sur established layers of checkpoints patrolled by civilian officers, military police, army and navy personnel. Under the plan, train travel was also banned and trains are patrolled and raided. It appears, however, that Frontera Sur has failed to decrease migration and instead has forced migrants to seek new routes. This, in turn, has created new opportunities for traffickers and others to prey on migrants. Rodolfo Córdova, secretary of the International Network on Migration and Development, claims that while the plan has no security benefit for Mexico, the private sector is profiting by building and supplying migrant centers and smugglers are making more money by charging higher prices.
 
To read more, visit http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/the-costly-border-plan-mexico-wontdiscuss/article30397720/.

Yale-Bound Valedictorian Comes Out As Undocumented in Emotional Speech

NBC News (June 9, 2016)
 
During her graduation speech at McKinney Boyd High School in McKinney, Texas, valedictorian Larissa Martinez revealed that she is undocumented, saying, “I am one of the 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the shadows of the United States." The Yale University-bound student added, "I decided to stand before you today and reveal these unexpected realities, because this might be my only chance to convey the truth to all of you that undocumented immigrants are people too." The article also reported that Ms. Martinez praised those “who yearn to help make America great again without the construction of a wall built on hatred and prejudice" in reference to the Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s call to deport all of the estimated 11 million undocumented people living in the United States and to build a wall along the southern border to keep immigrants out.
 
To read more, visit http://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/yale-bound-valedictorian-comes-out-undocumented-emotional-speech-n589191.

Slam Poet George Masao Yamazawa Nails What It's Like to Be a Child of Immigrants

Identities.mic (March 18, 2016)
 
In his poem “The Bridge,” National Slam Poetry Champion George Masao Yamazawa describes the identity crisis faced by many immigrants in the United States. Although he is a son of Japanese immigrants, Mr. Yamazawa does not speak Japanese, causing him to fear that he will disrupt the family line. He worries that by not being able to pass his father’s language down to his children, his father’s “accent will sound more foreign than family” to his children.
 
To read more and to view Mr. Yamazawa recite his poem, visit https://mic.com/articles/138236/slam-poet-george-masao-yamazawa-nails-what-it-s-like-to-be-a-child-of-immigrants#.rYxW8jdly.

Australia’s Offshore Cruelty (Op-Ed)

The New York Times (May 23, 2016)
 
Roger Cohen, International Affairs and Diplomacy correspondent for the New York Times, calls on the Australian government to stop its cruel policy of detaining migrants and refugees on the Pacific islands of Nauru and Manus Island in Papua New Guinea. Euphemistically referred to as “offshore processing,” this four-year-old policy views all “illegals” detained on Nauru and Manus Island as security threats to Australia. Cohen writes that more than 1,350 people are detained in squalid conditions on the two islands “with no notion of how their limbo will end, where they will go or how to get answers to their predicament.” The detainees are subject to sexual abuse and violence. According to Cohen, the Australian government refuses to resettle any of the detainees in Australia, extending their limbo in substandard conditions.
 
To read more, visit http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/24/opinion/australias-offshore-cruelty.html?emc=edit_tnt_20160524&nlid=47251438&tntemail0=y&_r=0.

UN Inquiry Finds Crimes Against Humanity in Eritrea 

United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (Press Release) (June 8, 2016)
 
This press release reports that 47,025 Eritreans applied for asylum in Europe during 2015. Many of them traveled via unsafe boats from Africa across the Mediterranean and were abused by smugglers. The cause of so many Eritreans fleeing their country is due in part to the many crimes against humanity that the authoritarian government has perpetrated against its citizens over the past 25 years. The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights reports that Eritreans have been subjected to enslavement, imprisonment, enforced disappearances, torture, persecution, rape, murder and other inhumane acts in Eritrean detention facilities, military training camps and other locations across the country.
 
To read more, visit http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=20067&LangID=E.
 
To read the 26-page report, visit http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/HRBodies/HRCouncil/CoIEritrea/A_HRC_32_47_AEV.pdf.

NEW FROM CMS


CMS Releases Estimated on Total US Undocumented and DAPA- and DACA-Eligible Populations by Metropolitan Area

(June 13, 2016)
 
In anticipation of the Supreme Court’s decision in the Texas v. United States, CMS has released estimates by metropolitan area of the total US undocumented population and the populations of US residents who are potentially eligible for the original Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, the expanded Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA-plus) program and Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents (DAPA). 

To read more, visit http://cmsny.org/2014-us-undocumented-by-metro/.

If you are a migrant or pastoral worker and wish to submit an article or reflection to the CMS Migration Update, please email Tom Shea at tshea@cmsny.org

Copyright © 2016 Center for Migration Studies, New York, All rights reserved.


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