Based on fieldwork in Tunisia, the article offers an overview of the traditional external markets of Tunisian labour and surveys the development of irregular migration from Tunisia to Europe. It also discusses Tunisia’s migration policies in the wake of the post-2011 democratisation processes, including the cooperation with the European Union on issues of migration. Finally, it covers key data about irregular migration originating from Tunisia.
Read more

The demographics of France are being rapidly transformed by immigration, due to the combined effect of the acceleration in migratory flows, and the different birth rates among immigrants. The paper assesses the impacts of those measurable trends on public finances, housing, wages, crime and delinquency, as well as broader social cohesion.
Read more

The dramatic political, social, and technological changes since World War II have made the asylum regime established by the 1951 Refugee Convention unsustainable. Because asylum is seen as a “right”, it has become a challenge – arguably an existential challenge – to the sovereignty of developed nations. The measures proposed or taken so far have failed to address the fundamental contradiction between international asylum rules and modern conditions. The beginning of a solution, then, must be to withdraw from multilateral treaties that relate to asylum and for each nation to develop its own asylum policies based on its own interests.
Read more

Net migration has been the main driver of U.S. population growth for several decades, resulting in direct and lasting ecological effects. Calls for population stabilization were at the forefront of the U.S. environmental movement from the 1970s until the late 1990s. Multiple bipartisan federal commissions recommended that the U.S. government pursue population stabilization as a policy objective and recognized immigration as the main driver of future U.S. population growth. By the year 2000, the Sierra Club and the other major U.S. environmental groups had reversed their position and now lobby against any effective immigration restrictions. While the European Union is facing a much different demographic situation than the United States, both of their futures will be determined in large part by immigration policies.
Read more

In the United States, the political balance has been challenged by the millions of new immigrants from Spanish-speaking nations. Now approaching 20% of the U.S. population, Hispanics, as these persons and their descendants are called, are becoming a larger portion of U.S. voters. Like most immigrant groups, Hispanics began as mostly supporters of the Democratic Party. However, as Hispanics assimilate into the economic, cultural, and political life of the country, more and more are voting Republican. This article explains what is behind this political shift. It also gives a short history of Hispanics in the U.S. and looks at possible futures.
Read more