france24--2019-04-02--EU elections Eastern southern Europeans dread emigration more than immigration

EU elections: Eastern, southern Europeans dread emigration more than immigration

With just seven weeks to go before EU Parliament elections a sweeping study shows that, despite a rise in anti-immigration rhetoric, many Eastern and southern Europeans say they are more worried about emigration.  Despite efforts by some to frame EU legislative elections set for May 23-26 as a referendum on immigration policies, European citizens are not preoccupied by the issue, according to a European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) study conducted by the YouGov polling firm and released Monday.  The survey of 45,000 people across 14 EU countries takes in 80 percent of European Parliament seats, providing an enlightening snapshot of EU public opinion. Only 23 percent of those polled cited immigration as one of the two most important issues facing their country at the moment – a figure comparable to the proportion citing unemployment (20 percent), the cost of living (18 percent), health (17 percent) and corruption (16 percent).  “Most European leaders blindly subscribed to the idea that immigration was European citizens’ one and only preoccupation, but that’s a myth,” ECFR political analyst Pawel Zerka told FRANCE 24 on Monday. Zerka says that most of those surveyed did not note any effect of migration on their own lives, their jobs, their national identity or their personal security. It was only their perception of migration's impact on crime and security at the country-wide level that a majority of citizens deemed its overall effects to be negative.  Only Hungarians ranked migration as the top threat to the EU, which is “little wonder given the endless stream of propaganda that Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban puts out through his state-controlled media”, according to ECFR director Mark Leonard.  In contrast, when the spectre of emigration is raised – people leaving their countries to settle elsewhere – more Hungarians (39 percent) and Italians (32 percent) say they are worried, despite the fiery rhetoric from Orban and Italy’s vehemently anti-migrant Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini.  The same goes for Spain (34 percent), and Romania (55 percent) and Poland (30 percent) farther east.  “It is one of the main revelations of our study: Emigration is a concern that must be addressed,” says Zerka.  Among the countries that worry most about emigration, a majority of those surveyed said they would even support legislation to prevent citizens from leaving their countries for extended periods of time.  “In a Europe that prides itself on tearing down borders and promoting free travel, this move towards self-imprisonment is remarkable, but perhaps understandable,” Leonard writes. “In Romania, one in five citizens have left their country over the last decade." He said those left behind feel so desperate that they seem ready to construct new barriers for themselves, just three decades after the fall of the Berlin Wall.  The issues surrounding immigration are nevertheless likely to resurface during the European legislative campaign period. Far-right parties will likely seek to exploit the sentiments of the 22 percent of those polled who see “Islamic radicalism” as the top threat hanging over Europe by attempting to fuse the issues of radicalisation and immigration.  This article has been translated from the original in French.


globalresearch--2019-11-11--Gaza Specialist Doctors Emigrate Due to Israel Siege

More than 120 highly qualified Palestinian doctors emigrated from the Gaza Strip in 2018 and 2019, pushing the Ministry of Health to close medical departments in hospitals.  According to a report published by Amad.ps on Saturday, the Palestinian doctors who left their posts in Gaza highlighted the pressure of working under the 12-year Israeli siege imposed on Gaza.  Ahmed Shatat, an official at the doctors’ affairs division in Gaza hospitals, said doctors travel aboard to look for “better opportunities” because they “do not have regular salaries” in Gaza as a result of Israel’s actions.  He stated that the problem is not with the emigration of the new graduates, but of the “skilled doctors whose emigration poses a serious danger to the health care system.”  She hailed the efforts of Gaza doctors but reiterated that they are looking for some kind of safety and stability.  “They have served patients and the wounded in the most difficult times,” she said, “but they have spent the best years of their life studying and getting the best skills and experience so they want to get some gains in order to have a secure and stable life for themselves and their families.”  He noted that the sole alternative is treatment abroad and this is very expensive and exhausts a large per cent of its budget.  Note to readers: please click the share buttons above or below. Forward this article to your email lists. Crosspost on your blog site, internet forums. etc.


mediamattersforamerica--2019-04-10--Foxs Lawrence Jones explains emigration from Central American countries They suck its corruptio

Fox's Lawrence Jones explains emigration from Central American countries: "They suck, it's corruption. ... The food is terrible there."

STEVE DOOCY (CO-HOST): The freshman Democrat facing backlash after tweeting this: "The far-right loves to drum you up fear and resistance to immigrants. But have you ever noticed that they never talk about what's causing people to flee their homes in the first place? Perhaps that's because they'd be forced to confront one major factor fueling global migration: climate change."  LAWRENCE JONES (FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR): Well, I'm not surprised because then she would have to confront her whole policies when it comes to socialism and the countries that have emboldened that movement. But look, this is a little ridiculous, even for her. You know, what people fail to realize is that when you support the illegals that are coming across this border, and I understand a lot of them are trying to come to America for a better life. But in order to get across that border you've got to pay, all right? And that's the cartel. And you'reemboldening that movement to get them across -- it's not climate change that is causing the people to get across this border. It's because those countries have governments that are dictators, they suck, it's corruption. The police departments are corrupt. The food is terrible there. That is the crisis that is coming across the border.


rferl--2019-05-31--Pope Highlights Sacrifices Of Romanian Emigrants

Pope Highlights 'Sacrifices' Of Romanian Emigrants

Pope Francis has praised the "sacrifices" of Romanian emigrants on the first day of his trip to the country where he arrived on May 31 amid political tensions caused by accusations that the leftist government hampered voting for expats abroad during recent European parliament elections.      Millions of Romanians have left the country over the past two decades amid rampant unemployment, poverty, and ongoing corruption scandals.      Francis, on his first visit to the Eastern European EU and NATO member, said the exodus had led to the "depopulation of many villages" in Romania, which still faces major social and political problems despite joining the bloc in 2007.      "I pay homage to the sacrifices endured by so many sons and daughters of Romania who... have enriched those countries where they have emigrated, and by the fruit of their hard work have helped their families who have remained at home," he said in a speech at the presidential palace broadcast on national television.      Francis was welcomed at the Bucharest airport earlier on May 31 by pro-European President Klaus Iohannis and cheering crowds waving Romanian flags at the airport and along his route to the capital Bucharest.      The pontiff and the head of the Romanian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Daniel held a private meeting before praying alongside each other in the National Cathedral. Thousands of people gathered inside and outside the cathedral.      When Francis was in neighboring Bulgaria, the local patriarch did not pray with him.      Orthodox-Catholic relations have improved in recent decades, but tensions still remain. Christianity split between the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches in 1054, an event known as the Great Schism.      Romania is the third European Orthodox-majority country Francis has visited over the past month, after Bulgaria and North Macedonia on May 4-7.      The pontiff’s visit comes amid political turmoil in the country, after the ruling Social Democrats, widely perceived as corrupt, suffered a severe defeat in the European parliamentary elections on May 26.      The vote was marred by accusations that the PSD-led coalition had intentionally hampered the voting process abroad to prevent tens of thousands of expats from casting their ballot.      Footage of long lines of Romanians being held outside many embassies across Europe has triggered widespread calls for the resignation of the government led by Prime Minister Viorca Dancila, a protégé of PSD's controversial leader Liviu Dragnea.      On May 27, Dragnea himself went to prison after losing an appeal against a corruption conviction.      In his speech, Francis praised Romania’s achievements in the 30 years since the fall of communism but said problems of social stability and governance remained.      "It is necessary to move forward together with conviction in following the highest calling to which every state must aspire: that of responsibility for the common good of its people," he said.      Later on May 31, Francis officiated mass at the Catholic Saint Joseph's Cathedral in downtown Bucharest, where thousands of people gathered.      On June 1, Francis will lead Mass at Sumuleu Ciuc, a Virgin Mary shrine in the predominantly ethnic-Hungarian eastern part of Romania’s Transylvania region.      A Vatican spokesman said hundreds of thousands of pilgrims are expected to attend the service, including Hungarian President Janos Ader.      On June 2, Francis is due to fly to Blaj, also in Transylvania, for the beatification of seven Romanian Greek Catholic bishops who were tortured and died in prison under communism.      Relations between the Orthodox Church and Romania's 150,000 Greek Catholics have been strained ever since the latter had property confiscated while their religious leaders were jailed.      The pontiff is also due to meet members of the Roma community, who are often victims of discrimination in Romania and elsewhere.      Francis's visit follows 20 years after Pope John Paul II received a warm welcome for his perceived role in the fall of communism.


rferl--2019-11-26--Number Of Young Russians Who Want To Emigrate Hits Highest Level In Decade

A majority of young Russians want to leave the country, according to a new opinion poll, the highest number in a decade.  The survey by the independent Russian pollster Levada Center, released on November 26, found that more than half of Russians between the ages of 18 and 24 want to leave for other countries, while 21 percent of respondents from all age groups said they would like to emigrate.  The next age group that was most interested in emigrating was 25 to 39 at 30 percent, the poll showed.  Russia's sluggish economic growth, which has prompted President Vladimir Putin to order his government to find ways to jump-start the economy, and a summer of pro-democracy protests have posed some of the biggest challenges the president has faced during his two decades in power.  The poll reflected those issues, with respondents citing anxiety for their children's future and the economic situation as the main two reasons for considering emigration.  The country's political situation and the search for better medical service were also cited as reasons to leave.  The results for the 18 to 24 age group were up markedly from a similar poll in 2014, when 20 percent said they would like to leave.  Since then, the number has been gradually rising, especially during the May-September period this year, when political dissent reached a crescendo with a series of protests that saw hundreds arrested amid heavy-handed tactics by police.  The protests were sparked by the refusal of election officials to allow a large number of opposition figures from running in September municipal elections in Moscow and elsewhere.  Fifty-six percent of those who indicated that they want to leave the country say Russia is moving in the "wrong direction" and that they are "ashamed over what is happening in the country."  Of those who consider emigration as a path, 73 percent said they didn't approve of Putin's policies, while 39 percent said they were ready to participate in political events in Russia.


sottnet--2019-07-03--Eastern Europes emigration crisis

Eastern Europe's emigration crisis

how to embrace openness whilst avoiding the erosion of another country's social fabric.  In recent years, most of the debate around the global migration of people has focused on the movement into developed countries and the political battles that ensue. Most famously, Trump has overturned the wisdom of the American political establishment by saying the unsayable on immigration. Politicians from Riga to Rome have won votes (and office) by exploiting similar anxieties. But we seldom talk about the places which, year after year, see more people leave than arrive, and the consequences of countries saying goodbye to some of their best and brightest — often for good.Nowhere is this concern more pressing than in Eastern Europe., and seven of those are in the European Union. One cause for concern among many of these countries is the EU's freedom of movement, one of the four "fundamental freedoms" of goods, capital, services, and people that bind the 28. Although most press coverage of the bloc's easternmost nations has focused on the rise of anti-immigration populism,, with some countries now favouring emigration controls.In essence, the EU's freedom of movement guarantees an absence of barriers for anyone looking for a job within the 28 countries and makes discrimination based on nationality in work or employment illegal. For many of the EU's new entrants in the East — including Poland, Hungary and Romania — a future where capital and people could move more freely between themselves and France, the UK, or Germany looked like a fast-track to the top-tier of developed nations. But somewhat ironically, it has only accelerated the departure of those who are crucial to getting there.In the last century, Eastern Europe has suffered the most dramatic population decline in recent history In the United States, this would be the equivalent of a city the size of Chicago leaving every year. This mass exodus of people is not lost on the country's politicians; last year the Croatian President called the freedom of movement the " biggest drawback " of the EU. "Mobility is good, as long as people come back. But Croatia is now recording strong negative demographic trends," she said during a visit to Brussels.Large-scale migration of healthcare workers from East to West has been an uncomfortable reality for over a decade, and the young needn't travel long distances to drastically increase their standard of living. One Estonian doctor who graduated from medical school in 2001 was able to quadruple his salary by moving only 200 kilometres to Finland.Who can blame those who head for the greener pastures on the other side?One solution, that may seem obvious to many, is to increase inward migration from overseas. There is one big problem, however.ccording to 2017's Gallup's Migration Acceptance Index , all but two of the top 10 countries least accepting of immigration were from Eastern Europe (the others being Israel and the Czech Republic, which is considered Central Europe). Even Japan, a country that has also suffered from population decline — although for different reasons — and is reluctant to accept any large-scale immigration, has now begun to implement measures that will open itself up to labour from foreign countries.The reasons people leave countries in the former Eastern bloc are numerous. Many are concerned about corruption and the limits it places on their country's future. Others already have family living elsewhere on the continent. Most simply are looking for better prospects for themselves, their children, and their children's children. Those taking part in the immigration debate in the West should be careful not to forget this fact., lest we throw away our own humanity.A welcoming nature and a desire to help those less fortunate than ourselves are admirable traits, but we mustn't forget that by welcoming the world's premier doctors, entrepreneurs, academics, and engineers — with few restrictions — we are depriving the places they come from of their potential; robbing them of the chance to make emigration an option, rather than a necessity — as many feel it is today.Ironically, while liberal immigration policies in general, and freedom of movement in particular, undoubtedly help those who leave, for the vast majority left behind, the result is a country that, in the long term, is measurably worse off. More often than not, those who frame the immigration debate in the starkest terms have little to say about this poaching of skills and talent from elsewhere.In Europe, a conundrum we will increasingly have to confront isThis may mean fundamentally reevaluating the freedom of movement, or at least restricting it to economies with comparable pay and conditions. Another solution may come in the form of increased cash transfers, and investment in smaller economies by bigger ones to try and level out standards of living. Something must be done soon, or populations in eastern Europe will continue to disappear.History shows us that mass emigration can change a country forever. In an upstairs window of the Irish president's official residence, one lamp flickers constantly. Lit by President Mary Robinson in 1990, it is a beacon to light the way home for the millions of descendants of the Irish who left their homeland over the centuries.One wonders whether the less prosperous countries of the European Union hit hardest by emigration may light their own lamps soon enough.


sputnik--2019-11-12--Venezuelans Who Return From Emigration and Stories Nobody Tells

Venezuelans who fled the country are starting to return home. According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, last year more than 15,000 citizens returned to Venezuela. The government has created the “Homecoming Plan” (Vuelta a la Patria Plan), which offers free flights to Caracas from several Latin American countries, however the authorities don’t have time to consider the applications of everyone who wants to use the programme, and the waiting list is growing.  Pack your bags, sell everything quickly, and believe that life will be better anywhere else. There will be more opportunities. Migration as an objective, as an imminent need to avoid a vital catastrophe, is the mantra in which a large part of Venezuelans who have left their country in recent years believed.  It doesn’t matter where. It doesn’t matter how. The only thing that matters is to go abroad where in many cases the new (and not so new) generation has no opportunity for personal and family development. The country is in crisis. Venezuela. And the message that floats around is: you have to leave.  According to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), 4.5 million Venezuelans have left the country since the end of 2015. The agency rates these numbers as “alarming.” There are no official government data proving these figures but the truth is that the mass exodus is widely discussed in the country.  Everyone knows someone who is gone. Typically, it’s a cousin, dad, son, nephew or childhood friend who’s left, who is doing well, or we don’t know how they is doing; but occasionally they send a remittance to the family they had to leave.  What the mainstream media hardly talk about is the Venezuelans who are returning. The reasons for the return are diverse: the classic “it is not all gold that glitters”, the prevailing xenophobia against migrants in the destination countries, which are eminently Latin American. A widespread feeling among many of them is that “instead of having a bad time outside, I’d rather have a bad time in my country, with my family.” Overwhelming logic.  The Government of Nicolás Maduro has launched the so-called Homecoming Plan. The programme has been running for about a year and it is an assistance programme for Venezuelans who want to return and have no opportunity to do it. Once back they are included in the social protection system. There are no necessary requirements to get on one of these flights except being Venezuelan and wanting to return.  According the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, a total of 15,856 nationals have so far returned with one of the Plan flights. Brazil is the country from where more Venezuelans have returned, with a total of 7,285 returnees; it’s followed by Peru (3,491) and Ecuador (3,242). Since its launch, the programme has operated a total of 86 completely free flights.  Almost a month ago, 29-year-old Danial returned from Colombia, specifically from the city of Cali, with his wife and 4-year-old son, after a year spent there. They didn’t return with one of these government flights; they did it the same way they had left: by bus, at their own expense. They were saving. First to leave, then to return.  Daniel tells his story sitting in the house that he shares with his whole family (8 people, including brothers, nephews, and other relatives) in the working class neighbourhood of Manicomio in Caracas. “It’s my dad’s house, that’s why I didn’t sell it,” Daniel says jokingly, but seriously. And then he laughs.  He sold everything to leave; the only thing he had was a mattress just in case things wouldn’t go well in Cali. There they had promised him a job. Danial is a cameraman, he worked in television in Venezuela; he managed the recording sets, the camera cranes and the breaking news stress. When his job stopped providing him with money he needed to get the end of the month, he and his wife started considering the idea of emigration. This is the usual history of the common Venezuelan. The crisis and hyperinflation eat wages and devalue the national currency.  In Cali they promised him a job at audiovisual technologies in the mayor’s office. “They even had a drone,” Daniel says. “But then I realised that nothing was what they had promised me. There was no job; that was the reality.”  Daniel and his family chose Colombia because it is a neighbouring country and because they believed that culturally it would be similar to Venezuela. The bus trip was already an odyssey. They failed to get tickets with any travel agency and had to pay a “vaccine”, a commission, to a guy they met by chance who promised to put them on a bus to their destination.  They trusted him and arrived in Cucuta, which is on the Colombian-Venezuelan border; and then to Cali after hours of travel by a “deplorable” bus, as Daniel himself describes it. “Along the way, we had three or four accidents.” And Daniel told a story that makes you want to smile and sweat at the same time. The bus ran over a cow that was crossing the road and killed it. The passengers, about twenty Venezuelans, got off the bus and started to compulsively cut off the meat and put it in pots or improvised plastic containers. This image of need and anxiety is creepy.  Without the promised job, he started looking for anything. He managed to solve the accommodation problem by working as a bricklayer in the Church of a town near the capital of Valle del Cauca. In exchange for that, the priest lent them an apartment that belonged to the parish. During the week he did some freelance work that occasionally came along; sometimes he worked as an assistant to a photographer, and on weekends he sold goodies in a grocery store.  “Be careful, they are Venezuelans, they can steal from you. These were things we heard every day,” he explains. “There are prejudices, even among Venezuelans themselves. We were these ‘brothers’ that always competed with each other.”  Once, Daniel’s son asked him to visit a fire truck at the town station. He knew the head of the station and decided to approach. But his friend wasn’t there at that time; there was another person in charge who asked him if he was Venezuelan. When Daniel answered yes, the answer was: “I hate you.”  Better not imagine that.  Another shocking round-trip story is that of 53-year-old Efrén Avellaneda. Singer and salsa composer, he returned a little over a month ago from Lima, Peru with one of the Homecoming flights.  In his house in Naiguatá, a small coastal town about forty minutes from Caracas, he proudly demonstrates all his albums and scores with the lyrics of his songs.  He traveled with all that in a suitcase because what he wanted was to “internationalise” his music and seek success abroad singing salsa. That suitcase was the only thing that came back with him after everything had been stolen in the street.  In Venezuela, Efrén has always earned his living as a composer, but the crisis doesn’t forgive culture either, so he set out abroad. He first came to Bogotá where he endured three months: “There I sold ice cream with a cart, I sold coffee and sang in the street. I decided to go to Peru because they told me there were more opportunities; but the reality is completely different,” he says.  From the balcony of Efrén's house you can see the pools and rather big yachts of the Puerto Azul Club, one of the oldest and most exclusive private clubs in Venezuela. Not everyone can enter there. The membership fee alone is around $30,000, and the monthly payments are astronomical. Watching that other reality while Efrén is speaking about his hardships of economic exile makes you vomit.  In Naiguatá, Efrén lives with his wife and 15-year-old daughter. He says that they don’t understand why he has returned, especially his daughter, a teenager, who more worried about having resources and the must-haves of youth: goods, leisure, parties, clothes, Instagram… than in the miseries of her own father.  When he argued with his boss for claiming better working conditions, he was thrown out; and without that salary he was unable to pay for the small room he rented for sleeping, so he ended up in the street.  Efrén began sleeping in parks, in arcades or where he could to protect himself from the cold. One night they stole everything from him; and his world collapsed. “I was so depressed that I blocked myself and started jumping under cars. I wanted to kill myself. I cut my whole body with a bottle. I just wanted to die.” Efren shows the deep cuts that still remain in his arms and throughout his body. He covers them with a jacket despite the suffocating heat of the Caribbean coast but they are permanent scars.  One Sunday morning he came to the Venezuelan Embassy in Peru and the security guard told him to return the next day because there was no one in the offices. He went to a park and bought some bananas with the few coins he had in his pocket. “I lay down on a bench to rest but something told me that I should return to the Embassy and that is what I did,” he says. When he returned, by chance, he saw a group of about 40 Venezuelans who were returning from the airport. They were the passengers of the next Homecoming flight that hadn’t been able to leave because there had been some problem with the fuel.  Efrén managed to talk to the ambassador and tell him about his case. They immediately put him on the passenger list. He was given accommodation for three days and the flight finally left on Wednesday. This was a few weeks ago but he now has glint in his eyes and his mood is completely different. He is singing salsa, puts El Cigala on YouTube and plays ball with his dog while answering the questions.  Neither Efren nor Daniel would leave again. Now they believe in Venezuela despite the economic situation, which doesn’t improve or improves very slowly. When they hear friends or family say they leave, they stop them. “Give it a second thought,” they say.  They share their experience and try to give advice; sometimes it works, and sometimes not so much. But they are first person life stories.  The stories of Venezuelans who left and returned are wild tales of frustration. They look like an American dream that at one point turned into a nightmare that seemed hopeless. Packing is not easy even if the international press and mainstream headlines sweeten it as a journey of adventure and opportunities. The tendency to idealise emigration remains until a person is at the very bottom, where only shame and abuse await him. Homecoming is turning into more than a simple necessity.


tass--2019-03-29--Government will not restrict emigration to address brain drain issue

MOSCOW, March 29. /TASS/. The Russian authorities will not introduce any restrictions in attempts to stop the exodus of skilled specialists, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said in a live communication session with the users of the social network VKontakte.  "Each individual is free to decide where to live and work. Everything is established under the Constitution. Entry and exit is free within the legal framework. The model that was used in this country before is unacceptable. I recall the exit procedures that were still effective in the 1980s. I believe it is absolutely normal to see people try themselves in this or that capacity abroad," Medvedev said.  In his opinion it is up to the government to create conditions that would persuade young specialists to stay in the country. He dismissed as untrue the claims nearly two million people had left the country since the early 2000s.  "As follows from the available statistics, I should say that in 2005-2008 some 550,000 went abroad," Medvedev said.  He believes that many of those specialists who have gone elsewhere would like to return. For this they will need the feeling they will enjoy all opportunities to display their potential and to see the appropriate research and industrial infrastructure in place.  "We are not very successful in this respect at the moment," he acknowledged. Medvedev recalled that at a meeting with the leading IT companies earlier in the day it was agreed that public-private partnership would be established for retaining good specialists and promoting their return home.  "The government alone will be unable to cope with this. In cooperation with business it will succeed," he said.  In other media


tass--2019-04-05--Russias rate of emigration-minded people no higher than in US Kremlin says

Russia's rate of emigration-minded people no higher than in US, Kremlin says

MOSCOW, April 5. /TASS/. Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov sees nothing unusual in people’s wish to seek their fortunes elsewhere, so the Gallup poll’s finding one in five Russians would like to leave the country is not a very high rate. The number of those who would like to emigrate from the United States is larger, he remarked.  "Such surveys are held by different pollsters in different countries around the world. The rate we’ve seen is not the highest by all means," he said about the Gallup statistics. "The number of Americans who would like to emigrate from the United States is higher than one-fifth."  "It’s a normal process by and large. Some people are more migration-minded than others. This is a usual theme for sociological research," Peskov said, adding that such statistics should be regarded with certain allowances for the likely margins of error.  Earlier, a Gallup poll said that a record-high number of Russians would like to leave the country. According to its latest poll up to 20% Russians (a record-high rate since 2007) said they would like to resettle elsewhere.  In other media


theguardianuk--2019-04-21--Romanian hospitals in crisis as emigration takes its toll

Gabriela Dumitru was supposed to retire years ago, but instead, she’s working longer hours than ever before. The 65-year-old is one half of a team of two doctors at the neonatology ward in Slobozia, a depressed town about two hours’ drive from Romania’s capital, Bucharest.  Dumitru works three or four 24-hour shifts a week, catching an hour of sleep where possible on a sofa in a small box room decorated with pictures of kittens. Her colleague is 75, and he officially retired 15 years ago. Between them, they do the work of four or five doctors, delivering approximately 1,200 babies a year and caring for those born with difficulties or disabilities.  The neonatology ward in Slobozia is a small window into a larger crisis in Romania, where thousands of doctors and nurses have left the country for higher salaries in western Europe over the past decade. In turn, Romania’s medical crisis is a small part of the huge outflows of people from central and eastern European countries since they gained membership of the EU.  Across the region, governments are struggling to deal with the consequences of many of their most talented young people leaving and while many politicians in the region have played on fears of immigration to win support, research has shown that concern over emigration is more acute. In a recent survey, more than 50% of Romanians said they were concerned about the impact of emigration on the country, the highest figure among all the countries studied.  An estimated 3.4 million Romanians left the country in the decade after EU accession, according to a study by Romanian business leaders, while the ministry of health estimates that 43,000 doctors departed during the period. A study by the US-based Population Reference Bureau, meanwhile, forecast Romania’s population will fall by 22% by 2050, the steepest projected global decline, due to a combination of emigration, high mortality and low birth rates. Neighbouring Bulgaria has a similarly worrying forecast.  In Ialomița county, of which Slobozia is the capital, 44% of all positions for doctors are vacant, according to the most recent ministry of health statistics available. Across the country, the figure is 26%, meaning that the country is paying to train young doctors who then leave.  In Slobozia, a new doctor was meant to join the neonatology ward last November, said Dumitru, after the hospital had funded a training residency at a Bucharest hospital to prepare her for the job, but she simply disappeared after completing the training. It was not the first time the hospital was let down by a new hire abandoning them.  Raed Arafat, Romania’s secretary of state for emergency situations, and himself a doctor who previously ran emergency medicine in the city of Târgu Mureș, said the first wave of migration came before Romania joined the EU in 2007, with many nurses travelling to Italy. “Back then, we lost our entire contingent of nurses in Târgu Mureș in the space of two years, then we trained new ones and immediately lost half of those as well,” he recalled.  When the economic crisis hit a year after EU accession, things got really bad. “We lost doctors we thought would never leave, the most highly qualified physicians. It had an impact that couldn’t be repaired,” said Arafat. He said the country was suffering from a particular shortage of emergency physicians and anaesthetists.  Joining the EU provided huge opportunities for talented young Romanians to travel, study and work in western Europe, drawn by higher salaries and more opportunities. There are dozens of flights a day from airports across Romania not only to London, Paris and Rome but to many smaller regional cities where tens of thousands of Romanians have travelled for work. But it has left huge gaps in the labour market at home.  In an attempt to stem the flow of medical professionals leaving the country, the government has doubled wages in the sector over the past year, but the struggle to retain talented people is particularly acute in many of Romania’s provinces, where economic potential is limited.  In Slobozia, there are few opportunities locally for anyone with ambition. Large multicoloured letters spelling out the town’s name face on to the main square, an effort to brighten up the surroundings, but there is little for young people to do and few buildings constructed since the collapse of communism.  At the modest offices of the local newspaper, the journalist Andrei Banu shrugged his shoulders when asked if there was anything to do in Slobozia, and laughed when asked if young people saw much of a future in the town.  It is not just the skilled workers who have left the country. “There are 3 million Romanians living abroad, many of them with low qualifications, and without this we’d have huge rural unemployment,” said Cristian Ghinea, the vice-president of the Save Romania Union. “The real tragedy is that the system is not changing enough to attract them back here.” His party plans to campaign in European elections next month with the slogan: “We will bring back your children.”  The government hopes that increased salaries in the medical sector will be a turning point in the outflow of medical professionals, but so far the results are not promising. The education minister, Ecaterina Andronescu, said earlier this year that 10,000 doctors left Romania in 2017 and 2018.  “The vast majority who left the country did so for economic reasons,” said Călin Popescu-Tăriceanu, the speaker of the Romanian senate. The government had implemented dramatic wage increases, he said, “to put a brake on this unfortunate and unpleasant movement”. He admitted, however, that the results so far had been less than impressive.  Popescu-Tăriceanu said he hoped Brexit would provide an impetus for Romanian doctors and nurses working in the UK to return home and cited a nurse he knew who was being called by friends who had left to work in Britain to ask if the stories they had heard about increased salaries in Romania were really true.  Arafat said the country could be sure that people would no longer leave for money, but said the system was burdened with needless bureaucracy, meaning even if doctors want to return they may have to wait for months to do the paperwork. “We need a proactive programme to get these people back,” he said.  In Slobozia, Dumitru conceded that working conditions in the hospital had improved dramatically since the dire situation in the 1990s inherited from Nicolae Ceaușescu’s isolated communist state, when she started work. She also welcomed the salary increase. But, she said, money is not everything.  “I remember 25 years ago I’d have to wipe down newborns on a snowy window ledge just after a C-section,” she said. “Now we have all the equipment we need, and salaries have gone up. But it’s not just about money, we have to change absolutely everything, including the mentality in society, if people are going to want to stay here and work.”


crooksandliars--2019-08-04--Demographics Show Why Republicans Are Pulling Out All Stops To Retain Power Its Their Last Chance

Demographics Show Why Republicans Are Pulling Out All Stops To Retain Power: It's Their Last Chance

We've harped on this before but, via The Washington Post's Phillip Bump, Pew Research brings us some new data points to plug in. The most common age for white Americans is 58 years old, representing the now-aging peak of the baby boomer generation.  The most common age for Latino Americans, in 2019: 11 years old. For black Americans and Asian Americans, it's 27 and 29, respectively; for multiracial Americans, it's 3 years old.  This is just another way of describing the well-known demographic shift at play in the United States: After the baby boomer generation, America has steadily been getting less "white" and more diverse. White Americans still make up most of the population, but birthrates between white and non-white Americans have now reached parity: 40% of the country now identifies as one of these supposed "minorities," and the number is increasing.  The message in the numbers is that the Republican Party play of stoking Fox News-ian panic over non-white Americans in order to drive old racists and not-quite-racists-but to the polls still has clout to it. They have squarely aimed their cultural panic at the baby boomer generation, now old and voting reliably and in absolute droves, even at the price of alienating almost everyone else. But the strategy has the same cholesterol and heart and lower back problems that their target population does: It has an expiration date, and it is rapidly approaching.  People who grew up in the era when minority Americans were segregated out to the sidelines are steadily dying off and non-white Americans are, just as steadily, taking their place. Their own voting and policy preferences will begin to drive the national debate; the days in which a proudly racist bioluminescent blowhole like Trump can attract more voters to the Republican Party than he repulses are, no matter how successful future Republican strategizing might be, at an end.  And we've harped on this before as well, but that is precisely why the current incarnation of the Republican Party, a body that is now almost exclusively white, rural, and racist, has lurched into a new anti-democratic extremism in attempts to fill the judicial ranks and other government posts with white, archconservative allies; has engaged in now-panicked efforts to restrict the voting rolls and carve out majority-white districts out of increasingly non-white communities; and has begun to scream absolute bloody murder about the dangers of non-white Americans and immigrants via increasingly conspiratorial Fox News programs, rabble-rousing "populist" speeches, and other overt forays into white nationalism.  This is the very dangerous last gasp of conservative nationalism. It cannot exist, after this, not without scrapping our democratic processes.  Every action Sen. Mitch McConnell and the party's other top leaders take is in service to staving off that day for as long as possible. The most conservative possible judges are being installed, and non-conservative judges blocked, so that new voter initiatives and newly emerging public norms can be tossed by fiat, as necessary, for however many decades each new human sandbag can hold out.  If that means embracing the most rotten possible of allies, forgiving the most loathsome of behaviors, and outright ignoring a dozen different crimes, it is all being stomached in order to whittle down as much of democracy as can be whittled down before the Republican racist coalition gets put into overly ornate urns and lost among their children's belongings.  For Mitch McConnell and the rest of the old guard, the ones who believe the confederate flag to be "heritage" and who snapped a million different neurons at the election of a man named Barack, this is it. It is now or never. Trump could be exposed as selling nuclear warheads to ISIS for 50 dollars and a Mar-a-Lago membership each, and it would be put up with—for the sake of everything else.


drudgereport--2019-01-17--Generation Z may be most liberal demographic yet

Generation Z may be most liberal demographic yet...

A generation of post-millennials is poised to enter the electorate as perhaps the most liberal age cohort ever, fueled by unprecedented diversity and expansive views of the role of government.  But Generation Z takes an even more liberal view of the role of government in society than do millennials. Seven in 10 members of Generation Z say the government should do more to solve problems, while just 29 percent say government is doing too many things better left to businesses and individuals.  Just under two-thirds of millennials say government should do more. About half of those in Generation X and the baby boom generation agree.  Many of the attitudes held by Generation Z — those born after 1996, who are now between the ages of 13 and 21 — are formed through experience with an unprecedented level of racial and societal diversity, said Kim Parker, Pew’s director of social trends research.  “They’re overwhelmingly the most racially and ethnically diverse generation we’ve seen.  They’re on track to be the most well-educated generation we’ve seen. They’re less likely to drop out of high school and more likely to go to college,” Parker said.  One measure of the evolution of the youngest generation is that more than a third of them, 35 percent, know someone who prefers to be addressed using gender-neutral pronouns, compared with just a quarter of Millennials and less than a sixth of those in Generation X.  Almost 6 in 10 members of Generation Z say forms or online profiles that ask about gender should include options other than “man” or “woman.” And 57 percent say they are very or somewhat comfortable referring to someone else by a gender-neutral pronoun, slightly lower than the 59 percent of millennials who say the same but far higher than older generations.  “They look pretty similar to Millennials in terms of their liberal values and their openness to societal changes,” Parker said.  Majorities of every older generation disapprove of the NFL protests.  Just 3 in 10 members of Generation Z approve of Trump’s job performance, almost identical to his approval rating among millennials. Trump’s approval rating is north of 50 percent among only one age cohort, the silent generation, those between the ages of 73 and 90.  The new report shows a potentially significant generational schism between the country’s youngest and oldest Republicans, one that is likely to influence debates within the GOP if those attitudes hold.  Gen Zers who say they are members of or lean toward the Republican Party are more likely than older Republicans to say that racial diversity is a good thing for the country and that immigrants have a positive impact on the country.  By contrast, those in Generation Z who identify with or lean toward the Democratic Party are virtually identical to Democrats in older generations, on everything from the role government plays to the benefits of diversity and immigration.  “Democrats are more in lock step across generations on these big social and political issues,” Parker said. “You don’t see these kinds of generational divides among Democrats.”  The Pew Research Center study is based on a survey of 920 teens between the ages of 13 and 17, conducted online in September, October and November, and on a nationally representative survey of 10,682 adults over the age of 18 conducted online in September and October.  The total sample of members of Generation Z, 1,178 respondents, carries a margin of error of plus or minus 4.2 percentage points.


drudgereport--2019-02-04--Sharp demographic divides in economy

Sharp demographic divides in economy...

Click here to print this page  WASHINGTON (AP) — Just how financially secure you feel depends on your age, your race, your education and — perhaps not surprisingly — your income.  A new survey by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research shows that college graduates feel far more confident than high school graduates that they could afford an emergency $1,000 expense.  People ages 18 to 29 are more optimistic about finding a good job than those in their 60s are.  But Americans in their 60s are more confident than adults under 30 are about affording credit card and other expenses.  Most white Americans say they can manage their housing costs; blacks and Hispanics are far less confident that they can keep up.  The poll's findings reflect the sharp demographic divides in the U.S. economy. The nation's prosperity since the Great Recession ended nearly a decade ago has benefited some groups of people far more than others and is obscuring economic soft spots caused by a persistent wealth gap.  Overall, about 6 in 10 Americans describe their personal finances as good. Most of the rest say they're in poor shape financially.  The nation's unemployment rate is a healthy 4 percent, the pace of hiring has accelerated in recent months and average hourly earnings have risen 3.2 percent over the past 12 months. Yet whatever financial confidence people feel depends largely on their individual circumstances and challenges. And compared with last year, fewer Americans overall expect the good economy to last in 2019.  Some of the doubts reflect souring opinions of President Donald Trump, who partially shut down the government for 35 days over his demand for a wall along the southern U.S. border with Mexico. Though Trump failed to secure his requested $5.7 billion, the resulting temporary standoff deprived many government workers of paychecks and raised doubts about the president's economic stewardship.  The poll shows that Trump's rating on handling the economy — a strength throughout his presidency — fell to 44 percent in January from 50 percent in December. His overall approval rating in the poll was 34 percent.  "I can't say he's been all bad on the economy," said Ellen Collins, 70, of Centerville, Ohio. "But he's a child. He's egotistical."  Forty-four percent say they think the economy will worsen over the next year. About a quarter (27 percent) say the economy will improve; just as many think it will stay the same. That's in contrast to a year ago, when expectations of the year ahead were almost evenly split: 33 percent said then that they thought conditions would deteriorate, and 34 percent expected them to improve.  Collins said the stock market's sell-off in the closing months of 2018, likely fueled in part by Trump's trade war with China, hurt her retirement savings. She figures, though, that stocks will ultimately rebound to cover those losses.  Collins, a retired teacher and information technology specialist, stressed how fortunate she felt to have enough savings and insurance to cover the costs of two years of chemotherapy treatments she needed for cancer.  "I don't know what people who don't have insurance do," she said.  Health care costs and other unexpected expenses are a source of concern for many in the AP-NORC survey. Americans who are most likely to feel financially secure are those who earn more than $100,000 — nearly double the median household income.  Likewise, a college education appears to be a significant buffer against financial risks. A majority of college graduates (58 percent) say they're very confident they could afford an emergency expense of $1,000. By contrast, more than half of Americans with a high school education or less (54 percent) say they have little or no confidence that they could pay a surprise bill that high.  And while younger workers might not have as high a starting income as previous generations did, people 18 to 29 are more hopeful about finding decent jobs than Americans in their 60s are. Thirty-five percent of those under 30 say they're very confident about hiring possibilities. Just 23 percent of those over 60 feel that way.  Even some workers in their 50s find it difficult to land a job that meets their financial needs.  Sarah Apwisch, 52, said she was recently laid off as a market researcher only to be rehired in a new role at the same company at just 60 percent of her previous pay.  "I'm honestly taking this job because I'm afraid of losing health care," said Apwisch, who is married and lives in the small city of Three Rivers, Michigan, where she works remotely for a company in Chicago.  She says she's optimistic about the overall economy but says the growing role of big data and social media has caused the market research industry to fall into decline.  "If I lose the connection with my current employer, it will be harder for me to get a job in my industry because most of the jobs are in the big cities," she said.  Though older Americans don't feel as much job security, most of them do have the benefit of decades of income and savings. About six in 10 Americans in their 60s say they're confident about paying their credit card and other payments, while 43 percent of Americans under 30 feel that way.  On housing affordability, a stark racial divide exists: About six in 10 white Americans say they can manage their housing costs, compared with just about a third of black and Hispanic Americans. White Americans are far likelier to own a home than are those minority groups, who face rising rents in many high-cost urban areas.  Chris Edwards, a 28-year-old African-American in Columbia, Missouri, said he couldn't afford a major emergency expense. A renter, Edwards relies on Medicaid and income from Social Security's disability program.  If he were hit by a sudden expense of $400?  "I wouldn't know," Edwards said. "I wouldn't know."  The AP-NORC poll of 1,062 adults was conducted Jan. 16 to 20 using a sample drawn from NORC's probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 4.1 percentage points.  Respondents were first selected randomly using address-based sampling methods, and later interviewed online or by phone.  Copyright © The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


freedombunker--2019-04-08--Brickbat Demographics Are Destiny

Brickbat: Demographics Are Destiny

The Illinois House of Representatives has voted to require the boards of all publicly traded corporations headquartered in the state to have at least one female and one black member starting in 2021. Those that fail to comply faces fines of up to $300,000.


freedomoutpost--2019-11-12--NYT, WaPo: Mass Immigration, Demographic Changes Fueled Virginia’s Democrat Wins

The New York Times and The Washington Post declared that mass immigration and changes in demographics were an important reason that Democrats took complete control of Virginia.  They now control the governor’s seat, both chambers of the state’s legislature and the lieutenant governor’s seat for the first time in almost 30 years.  The New York Times and The Washington Post admitted that mass immigration and changes in demographics were a significant reason that Democrats took complete control of Virginia last week. take our poll - story continues below Would election by popular vote be better than the electoral college? • None Would election by popular vote be better than the electoral college? • None Would election by popular vote be better than the electoral college? • None The democrats want it so they can steal elections. • None This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged. Completing this poll grants you access to Freedom Outpost updates free of charge. You may opt out at anytime. You also agree to this site's Privacy Policy and Terms of Use. Democrats now control the governor’s seat, both chambers of the state’s legislature and the lieutenant governor’s seat for the first time in nearly 30 years. Following the Democrats’ dominate night in Virginia, The New York Times admitted that years of mass immigration are starting to radically change the electoral map “from Richmond to Atlanta, Houston, Denver and elsewhere and Democrats are starting to breach Republicans’ firewalls in elections.” More  Not long ago, this rolling green stretch of Northern Virginia was farmland. Most people who could vote had grown up here. And when they did, they usually chose Republicans. The fields of Loudoun County are disappearing. In their place is row upon row of cookie-cutter townhouses, clipped lawns and cul-de-sacs — a suburban landscape for as far as the eye can see. Unlike three decades ago, the residents are often from other places, like India and Korea. And when they vote, it is often for Democrats. Once the heart of the confederacy, Virginia is now the land of Indian grocery stores, Korean churches and Diwali festivals. The state population has boomed — up by 38 percent since 1990, with the biggest growth in densely settled suburban areas like South Riding. One in 10 people eligible to vote in the state were born outside the United States, up from one in 28 in 1990. It is also significantly less white. In 1990, the census tracts that make up Mr. Katkuri’s Senate district were home to about 35,000 people — 91 percent of them white. Today, its population of 225,000 is just 64 percent white.  The Washington Post essentially reported the same thing following last week’s election results:  Virginia now stands as a fearful avatar for Republicans of what the nation’s unrelenting demographic and cultural changes mean for the party, as the moderate-to-liberal urban and suburban areas grow and more conservative rural areas lose ground. Similar shifts are starting to hit such states as North Carolina, Arizona, Georgia and Texas, as minority populations increase and white college-educated voters continue to turn away from the Republican brand.  The democrats can no longer win an election fair and square. They have to flood districts with immigrants who will vote democrat, continue on with voter fraud, redraw districts, whatever is necessary to win.  They truly do not care about US citizens or about our great nation. They want to destroy it. It’s all about power and greed. It can only be stopped by voting Republican, enacting term limits, and draining the swamp. Stop listening to Fake News and start thinking about how we can help Trump save our country.


globalresearch--2019-04-30--Demographic Crisis Russia to Facilitate the Granting of Russian Citizenship to Ukrainians

Demographic Crisis: Russia to Facilitate the Granting of Russian Citizenship to Ukrainians

President Putin’s proposal to make it easier for all Ukrainians to receive Russian citizenship represents a bold effort to court his country’s civilizationally similar neighbors as “replacement migrants” and will lead to a competition with Russia’s historical rival Poland for this valuable “human resource”.  It’s no secret that Russia has had serious problems maintaining its population levels ever since the collapse of the Soviet Union, and last year actually saw its first drop in a decade. This process is occurring concurrently with a surge in birthrates among the country’s Muslim minority and leading to the likelihood that approximately one-third of its inhabitants will follow Islam within the next 15 years, according to Russia’s grand mufti.  Moscow is well aware of the socio-political challenges that this profound demographic shift might entail, especially if its controversial Article 282 proves insufficient for preemptively dealing with the dangerous rise of far-right ultra-nationalist ideas that might eventually inspire Christchurch-like terrorist attacks that seek to provoke a destabilizing so-called “Clash of Civilizations” within its borders. No matter how visionary President Putin’s 2012 manifesto on ethnicity and immigration is, it’s impossible for it to be perfectly applied in practice so it should therefore be taken for granted that some security incidents will eventually happen.  The UN predicted last year that Russia’s population will shrink by 11 million before 2050, which is one of the reasons why Prime Minister Medvedev warned earlier this month about the need to prevent a demographic collapse similar to the one that happened in the 1990s. The other implied one might also have to do with the fact that this expected population loss that will presumably be led by the country’s ageing titular nationality of Orthodox Russian Slavs will result in an even larger percentage of its citizens being Muslim by that point, which could possibly accentuate the socio-political challenges that are usually associated with this sort of demographic transition in majority-Christian countries. Although President Putin implemented a policy to give generous subsidies to women who give birth to two or more children, he probably realizes that it won’t be as successful as needed to maintain both the country’s population levels and its existing religious balance, hence why he’s now proactively trying to court Ukrainians as “replacement migrants”.  These neighboring people are “civilizationally similar” to Russians in that they’re mostly Orthodox Slavs who speak a related language, and their possible large-scale migration to the country could theoretically balance the surging birthrates of Russia’s Muslim population and offset its predicted overall population decline. This was probably one of the reasons why President Putin just passed a decree making it much easier for the people of Donbass to obtain Russian citizenship and then soon thereafter declared that this policy might be extended to include all of Ukraine’s over 40 million people. There were slightly less than 2 million Ukrainians living in Russia nearly a decade ago as recorded by the country’s census at the time, which is roughly equal to how many have moved to Poland since the 2014 EuroMaidan coup in search of work, where most of them presently have no path to citizenship and many are now reportedly considering moving to Germany or other Western European countries.  Nevertheless, Poland’s population is also afflicted with similar problems as Russia’s own in the sense that it also suffers from the natural decline that many developed economies do, so Ukrainians could conceivably also function as “civilizationally similar” “replacement migrants” for Warsaw just as they could for Moscow, meaning that these two historic rivals might end up competing with one another for this valuable “human resource”. Unlike in times past, this competition won’t be waged by military means and take place in the geopolitical realm, but will be a battle of soft power with an outcome that will ultimately be determined by which of the two countries provides more appealing economic prospects for the “new arrivals”. While Russia has the geographically expansive Moscow-led Eurasian Economic Union, Poland has the promising Warsaw-led “Three Seas Initiative” that comes with the added benefit of EU membership.  It’s difficult to predict whether the Ukrainians that are living in Poland would relocate to Russia in response to President Putin’s citizenship proposal or if a new batch of their countrymen that are still living in their homeland will move there instead, but what’s clear is that Moscow is now competing with Warsaw to woo Ukrainians as “civilizationally similar” “replacement migrants” to offset its natural population decline and maintain its existing religious balance that’s poised to dramatically change in the coming years following a surge in Muslim birthrates. Unlike Merkel and her implicit policy of “replacement migration” from the “Global South”, President Putin would prefer to court Ukrainians from the former Soviet Union, but in both cases each leader seems to have resigned themselves to the fact that their country’s demographic problems won’t be solved without a large-scale influx of immigrants.  Note to readers: please click the share buttons below. Forward this article to your email lists. Crosspost on your blog site, internet forums. etc.  This article was originally published on Eurasia Future.  Andrew Korybko is an American Moscow-based political analyst specializing in the relationship between the US strategy in Afro-Eurasia, China’s One Belt One Road global vision of New Silk Road connectivity, and Hybrid Warfare. He is a frequent contributor to Global Research.


latimes--2019-11-18--California's changing demographics will further doom Republicans

Democrats dominate politics in California and Republicans are doomed for one simple, overriding reason: shifting demographics.  In short, the GOP’s core constituency is white people and they’re a declining slice of the California population pie. Conversely, Democrat-backing Latinos and Asian Americans have been expanding their slices.  That pattern is projected to continue, although at a slower pace. So the raw numbers won’t be getting any better for the already weakened California GOP.  “Republicans are heading into a demographic cul-de-sac,” says longtime Democratic strategist Bob Shrum, director of the Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics at USC.  “This is not just in California, but nationally. It’s happening here first. But it’ll tend to happen around the country.”  Republican guru Mike Murphy, who has worked on six presidential campaigns and managed several gubernatorial races — including former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s in 2003 — says “the Republican Party does great with white voters, particularly older white voters. But they’re shrinking as part of the electorate.”  “California is the future. It tends to be more non-Caucasian than most states. But we’re heading into that for the rest of the nation. And how are Republicans doing in California? They’ve got to figure out how to compete here or it’s the ice age.”  Demographics are an eye-glazer, but California’s historic shift has been a political game-changer. The state has turned from battleground purple to one-sided deep blue in 25 years.  It’s not solely — arguably not even mostly — because of the 1994 Republican-backed anti-illegal immigration initiative, Proposition 187. That measure usually gets the credit or blame, depending on one’s politics.  The initiative would have denied most public services, including schooling, to people living here illegally. Voters approved it in a landslide. But federal judges tossed it out.  No question, the harsh campaign pitch for Proposition 187 angered and frightened millions of Latinos, turning them even more against the GOP. It also sparked a new generation of Latino state political leaders.  This is Murphy’s analogy: “Pretend you’re buying a car. You go to a Republican dealership and the salesman’s first line is, ‘I want to throw your parents and grandparents in jail. Now let me tell you about the new Chevys.’ And the dealership wonders why it isn’t selling any cars.”  Today, six of eight statewide elected officials are people of color — three are Latino, two are Asian American and one is African American. All eight are Democrats. Republicans haven’t elected a statewide official since 2006. Democrats hold supermajorities in both legislative bodies and own California’s U.S. House delegation 46 to 7.  But all this probably would have happened even if Proposition 187 had never existed. The divisive initiative just made the transition to total power easier for Democrats.  The GOP demise was inevitable given its increasingly hard-line conservatism as pragmatic moderates left the party. The shrinking GOP was on opposite sides of Democrats and independents on many issues: gun control, abortion, environmental protection, taxes and spending, immigration and a border wall — not to mention their opinions of the immigrant-bashing polarizer in chief, President Trump.  In 1990, Republicans made up 39% of California’s registered voters. Today they’re down to 23.6%. That’s third place behind independents, who since 1990 have soared from 9% to 26.7% Democrats have dropped slightly, from nearly 50% to 44%.  It’s all in the numbers.  In 1990, 57% of California’s population was white. Latinos constituted about 26%, with Asians at 9% and African Americans at 7%. In 2020, the population is estimated to be 39.4% Latino, 38.2% white, 13% Asian and 5.7% black, according to the state Finance Department’s Demographic Research Unit. Projecting to 2040, the population pie is expected to be about 42% Latino, 35.6% white, 12.5% Asian and 5.9% black.  In Los Angeles County, a little over 26% of the population is white and that number is projected to dip to 24% by 2040. Latinos now are at nearly 50% and will rise to almost 53% in 2040.  The reason all this matters politically is that voters of color are snubbing the Republican Party and they’re increasing in numbers.  The majority of Latino likely voters, 58%, are registered as Democrats, according to the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California. An additional 23% are independents. Only 15% are Republicans.  Among Asian likely voters, 43% are Democrats and 36% are independents. Republicans claim just 18%.  White voters? They’re mixed, as they’ve always been: 40% Democrat, 35% Republican and 20% independent.  The caveat for Latinos is that they’ve never exerted their full strength on election day. Their turnouts have been subpar.  But last November — probably because Trump was their lightning rod — they showed up in better numbers. They cast 21% of the total votes, according to Paul Mitchell, who runs a political data firm. Still, that’s underperforming. They were 26% of registered voters.  I called the California Republican Party’s new chairwoman, Jessica Patterson, the first woman and Latina to hold that post.  What can she do to revive the party? “It’s an incredible challenge,” she acknowledged.  “I’m focusing on the future, including engaging communities that haven’t always heard from Republicans — focusing on key issues facing California like homelessness and the skyrocketing cost of living … education, public safety….  “We need to talk about the Democrats’ failures, but also what we would do instead. We have to be more than a party of ‘no.’”  Don’t talk about the wall, however, unless you’re ready to say “no.” Trump’s wall is merely another barrier between Latinos and Republicans.


lewrockwell--2019-11-08--Top 25 Cool Demographics Facts

Top 25 Cool Demographics Facts

I am not going to cover things that well-informed normies already know: How Israel is a weird outlier in fertility by First World standards, and the collapse of fertility in the Islamic world; how life expectancy has been soaring nearly everywhere; the “Great White Death” in the US and how all races in the US outperform their counterparts elsewhere, except for American Whites, who live less than almost all Europeans. Nor am I going to cover truly banal stuff, such as how tiny Bangladesh has more people than Russia. Nor particularly controversial stuff such as Eurabia, Great Replacement, etc. which I have covered elsewhere.  For all of this you have websites like Our World in Data and books by Steven Pinker.  I am instead going to focus on the truly little known and esoteric that I happen to find most interesting, especially from a historical or futurist perspective.  (1) The world population of Greeks has been steady at ~10 million since the age of Alexander the Great. Their percentage of the world total plummeted from ~5% to slightly more than 0.1% today.  Source: Hansen, Mogens Herman. 2008. “An Update on the Shotgun Method.” Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies 48 (3): 259–86.  (2) In 1900, Europe’s population (~400M) was quintuple that of Sub-Saharan Africa’s (~80M).  By 2100, Sub-Saharan Africa’s population (~4B) will be eight times as great as Europe’s (~650M).  (3a) Comparing the populations of modern nation-states to their medieval (pre-Black Death) counterparts is a fascinating exercise: • France grew only 3x from ~20M to today’s ~65M • Byzantines-Greeks remained at just ~10M (see above)  (3b) So despite the vast losses of Russia’s demographic potential during the 20th century, it still did rather well in the long-term, increasing its share of Europe’s population from ~5% to ~20% (~25% if inc. UKR/BEL). Swapped places with France in this respect. Glory to the musket and the potato!  (3c) At a larger scale, while both Europe and China were at ~100M in Middle Ages, now China has twice as many people, 1.4B to 700M. The advantages of backwardness – delayed fertility transition left more time for population to soar.  (4) France was the world’s first modern nation to undergo the fertility transition. It had its genesis with the French nobility during 18C. Subsequently, France would fall from having 1/5 Europe’s population in Middle Ages to <10% by late 19C.  Source: Spolaore, Enrico, and Romain Wacziarg. 2019. “Fertility and Modernity.” Working Paper Series. National Bureau of Economic Research.  (5) Huge demographic losses on the level of World War II in Eastern Europe were typical in the Malthusian era. • 30 Years War in Germany, Mongol invasion of Russia and Persia, reduced their populations by a third. • Wars & anarchy accompanying the end of dynasties usually killed 33%-50% of Chinese.  (6) Were the Turks the big demographic winners of the 20th century? • 2017: 80.8M Turks vs. 13.7M Greeks+Armenians (6:1) & ~150M in RF – secure as never before.  (7) The population ratio between Russia and the Ukraine fell from less than 3:1 to almost 5:1 since 1992. It is ironic that Ukrainian independence has been worse for Ukraine’s population balance vis-a-vis Russia than anything that Lazar Kaganovich and the Nazis did.  (8a) Russia just within its current borders, assuming otherwise analogous fertility and migration trends, would have had 261.8 million people by 2017 without the triple demographic disasters of Bolshevism, WW2, and the 1990s – that’s double its actual population of 146 million.  (8b) According to my very rough calculations, based on various sources, the population change for each of the following in their current borders between 1913/14 and 1945/46 was about as follows:  Assuming a threefold expansion in all of these populations, we could have been looking to a Russian Empire or Republic with a further ~120M fully Russified Belorussians and largely Russified Ukrainians, for a total Slavic population of almost 400M.  That’s twice bigger than the number of White Americans today, the most populous single European ethnicity, and almost as much as all of today’s Western Europe.  (8c) Total population of a hypothetical Russian Empire that also retained Central Asia and the Caucasus, and that hadn’t been bled white by commies, Nazis, and Westernizers during the course of the 20th century, would likely have been not that far off from Dmitry Mendeleev’s 1906 projection of 594 million for 2000.  Source: Understanding Russia by Dmitry Mendeleev (yes, the chemist).  (9) So far as I can tell, the Latvians, Estonians, and Ashkenazi Jews are the only peoples with fewer people today than in 1914. It is ironic that they played the most disproportionate roles (per capita) in cementing Bolshevism in Russia. God must really hate commies.  (10) That said, the Irish have an even more extreme and unique anti-record: There are fewer of them today (~6.6M in all Ireland) than in 1840 (8.5M)! I wonder what they did to anger God so.  (11) Communism isn’t always an unmitigated demographic disaster. As @Cicerone973 has discovered, for the first time ever, births in Best Korea (25M) probably overtook South Korea (52M) last year.  (Even if, as Myers argued, Songun/Juche has almost zilch to do with Marxism).  (12) The wonders of Maoism: Between 1960 and 1978, the share of China’s urban population FELL from 20% to 18%.  (13) We have no solid idea if China’s TFR is ~1.6 children per woman, ~1.1 children per woman, or anywhere in between, e.g. see here, here, and here.  This seems rather important given China’s importance.  (14a) Russia’s middle-aged male mortality in the 1990s and early 2000s was worse than under late Tsarism. In particular, alcohol abuse accounted contributed to about a third of all deaths. (This has all since drastically improved).  (14b) Contra Pinker, Russia has seen a “de-civilizing” process in terms of homicide rates (and many other indicators of social wellbeing) in the last third of the 20th century. This was perfectly correlated with its alcoholization epidemic.  In recent years, the Russian homicide rate has retreated back to its pre-1965 “steady state” of ~5/100,000.  Of course, there is still plenty of lost ground, since c.1900 Russia’s rates were similar to those of Italy, Finland, and Japan, whereas all these countries are now at least 5x less violent.  (14c) During the later Soviet era, the Ukraine consistently had a 2 years higher life expectancy than Russia – a difference that dates back well to the 19th century (probably on account of them drinking less, even back then).  But Ukraine has been stagnating since early 2010s; still below its 1960s all time peak, Russia overtook by 2018.  (15) Central Asians went from 10% of Russian population in 1914 to half today, while births have almost equalized since the early 1990s.  Central Asians increasingly looking to work in South Korea, which is ~20 years ahead of China in terms of demographic and socio-economic development. Once China’s urbanization maxes out at ~75-80% by ~2040, I expect labor migration from C. Asia to reorient there.  Amazon.com Gift Card i... Buy New $10.00 Amazon.com Gift Card i... Buy New $50.00 Amazon.com Gift Card i... Buy New $25.00 Amazon.com Gift Card i... Buy New $15.00


mediamattersforamerica--2019-01-17--Laura Ingraham warns that demographic changes are coming to your state

Laura Ingraham warns that "demographic changes" are "coming to your state"

LAURA INGRAHAM (HOST): The problems New York faces are because of the federal government. It has nothing to do with the fact that you are among the highest taxed people in the country, driving business out, over-regulating, giving free healthcare and -- at least in Manhattan -- to illegal immigrants, becoming a sanctuary state, for all intents and purposes, none of that has a drain on the state budget.  Why are we talking New York on the Laura Ingraham podcast? Because just like we exposed what's going on in California, coming to a state near you if these demographic changes keep flipping states from Republican to Democrat, you can expect the same types of dynamics to be at play in your state.  You see these teacher walkouts in California? We got -- we got hundreds of thousands of kids effected, well, guess what? Expect it in your state if these high-tax policies roll into other parts of this country.


nationalinterest--2019-10-13--Forget North Korea: South Korea's Biggest Problem is a Demographics Disaster

Key point: Not an easy problem to fix?  Threats to South Korea’s survival are not only from the North. Even as Seoul seeks detente with its communist neighbor while engaging in an increasingly bitter row with Japan, the nation’s demographic decline could see its economy facing a similar structural slowdown that puts a permanent brake on growth.  The challenge facing Korean policymakers was highlighted by a recent government report, which showed that its falling fertility rate could see its population start declining as early as 2020.  Previous estimates in 2016 suggested the population would peak in 2023 under only the most pessimistic scenario.  Released in March this year, the report by Statistics Korea predicted South Korea’s population could peak at around fifty-one million this year, before dropping to the 1972 level of around thirty-four million by 2067 under the most pessimistic scenario.  Seniors aged sixty-five and older would account for nearly half the population by 2065 under even the medium-growth scenario, making it the grayest developed nation in the world and potentially threatening its military capabilities.  In contrast, immigration-friendly countries such as the United States, Canada and Australia are seen having a quarter or less of their populations who are sixty-five years old or older over the same period.  South Korean women are clearly having fewer children, according to the latest figures, with a fertility rate—the average number of children born per woman—dropping to a record low of 0.98 in 2018. This was lower than Japan’s 1.43 and well below the estimated “replacement-level fertility” rate of around 2.1 for most nations.  In 2017, just 14 percent of South Korea’s population was sixty-five years old or older—around half Japan’s share. Its proportion of working-age people between fifteen and sixty-four was 73 percent, but this could shrink to just 46 percent by 2065 under the medium-case scenario, putting it even below Japan’s 51 percent ratio.  Similar to Japan, the aging population reflects economic challenges for the youth in tying the knot. A 2015 survey found that 58 percent of men ages twenty to forty-four were unwed, along with 48 percent of women—a damning statistic where just 1.9 percent of children are born outside of marriage.  Statistics Korea estimates that the total dependency ratio, representing the number of dependents (children and senior citizens) supported by every one hundred members of the productive population, could rise from 36.7 in 2017 to 120.2 by 2067. The median age is also seen rising from 42 in 2017 to 62.2 over the same period.  Experts blame the expense of childrearing, the high youth jobless rate and the burden placed on working mothers, who still carry out the majority of household chores and childcare. Intensely competitive education and job markets are also seen as factors behind the baby strike.  This [Korean] society is just way too competitive. I don’t think it’s right for any child to go through this system,” a thirty-four-year-old Korean woman told the Agence France-Presse.  Like their Western counterparts, Korean women are increasingly delaying marriage to put priority on higher education and career. The latest data showed more than 30 percent of all women who gave birth in 2018 were thirty-five years or older.  And with the highest gender pay gap in the OECD, South Korean women have little incentive to climb the career ladder, with nearly a quarter quitting work due to “marriage, childbirth or childcare.”  Per-capita gross domestic product (GDP) can still expand in the face of a declining population, as seen in Japan. Yet an aging society drags down investment and productivity growth, ultimately slowing GDP growth.  For the government, fewer workers to support an expanding elderly population will challenge its finances, increasing social welfare spending even while taxation revenues decline.  South Korea’s Hyundai Research Institute sees the nation’s potential growth rate dropping from 2.7 percent to as low as the 1 percent range “as soon as 2030,” senior analyst Hong Joon-pyo told Japan’s Nikkei.  Moody’s Investors Service has warned that the credit ratings of both South Korea and Japan could come under negative pressure due to “the combination of lower economic growth, higher government debt and weaker debt affordability amid slowing expansion in and aging of their workforces particularly in the 2030s.”  “Weaker debt affordability will materialize in the 2030s as its debt burden increases more sharply, weighing on the government’s fiscal strength,” the credit-rating agency added.  With Korean media claiming the baby bust as “a bigger risk than a currency crisis,” Seoul responded by spending some 117 trillion won ($97 billion) between 2016 and 2018 on measures aimed at lifting the birthrate.  These have included introducing paid maternity leave, providing subsidies for fertility treatment, free medical care for babies and childcare subsidies.  Yet analysts including Hong still see the government facing challenges to preventing a graying society.  “To raise economic growth potential, we will need to create a friendly working environment for women, relax immigration policies, and further develop a friendly investment environment that includes deregulation and creating new industries,” Hong said.  Another analyst warned of the threat to retirees.  “At this rate, it will be difficult to maintain the pension system,” Yonsei University economist Sung Tae-yoon told the Japanese daily. “We will need a drastic change to our current policies, such as the intake of immigrants.”  Yet even the most favorable government policies may not reverse the trend.  According to economist Lyman Stone, the current decline in fertility across the developed world “is nearly unmatched in its global breadth and its severity” since the end of the baby boom in the 1960s and 1970s.  For policymakers though, even Nordic-style policies offering extensive family support “appear to have very limited impacts on long-term fertility,” he suggests.  Barring a sudden transformation in the South, could reunification with the North solve the problem?  Not according to the United Nations, which has estimated that North Korea’s fertility rate has started to slowly decline, currently below replacement level at 1.9.  An indicator of what might lie ahead comes from Germany, where reunification led to a rapid decline in the birthrate in eastern Germany post-unification, falling to 0.8, according to Troy Stangarone, senior director and fellow at the Korea Economic Institute of America.  While the number of births in the east eventually recovered, the higher fertility rate of 1.6 in some former East German states still remains well below the replacement level.  Although Korean reunification might proceed in a more orderly manner conducive to a steady fertility rate, “there is little indication that one could expect birth rates in the North to increase significantly once unification or economic integration occurred,” Stangarone argues.  For anyone expecting Koreans to suddenly welcome mass immigration such as seen in the West, last year’s protests over Yemeni refugees should dispel any illusions.  Just 561 refugees from the war in Yemen arrived in South Korea’s Jeju Province, a trivial number compared to the 890,000 asylum-seekers who arrived in Germany in 2015.  Yet despite being restricted to the relatively isolated island of Jeju, the public reacted with “hysteria” according to Foreign Policy, with a petition to the president demanding the government reject the refugees garnering more than seven hundred thousand signatures.  South Korea’s declining population will also pose challenges for its military, which currently has around 625,000 troops defending against the North’s estimated 1.2 million active personnel.  As the number of youth eligible for military service declines, Seoul will find it difficult to maintain its current structure, increasing the pressure on allies such as the United States, which currently has around 28,500 troops stationed in South Korea.  In its latest forecasts, the International Monetary Fund sees South Korea’s GDP growth easing from 2.7 percent last year to 2.6 percent in 2019, driven by weakening external demand. Other analysts such as ANZ Research are projecting just 2 percent GDP growth this year.  The Washington-based IMF notes that “potential growth has slowed down and its prospects are hampered by unfavorable demographics and slowing productivity growth, driven by structural weaknesses.”  For Asia’s fourth-largest economy, averting its demographic decline could prove even more challenging than handling a volatile North Korea or rebuilding ties with Japan, which is already watching its population decrease. Korean policymakers need not travel too far to see a glimpse into the future.  Anthony Fensom is an Australia-based freelance writer and consultant with more than a decade of experience in Asia-Pacific financial/media industries. This article appeared earlier this year.


abcnews--2019-10-31--St. Louis official 'horrified' by gay discrimination defense

A top St. Louis County official is blasting legal staff for arguing that gay discrimination in Missouri is legal in a case in which nearly $20 million was awarded to a police sergeant.  The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that St. Louis County Executive Sam Page said Wednesday in a statement that he was "horrified and surprised that argument was used" in Sgt. Keith Wildhaber's case. Wildhaber says he was told to "tone down his gayness" and passed up for promotion 23 times.  County Counselor Beth Orwick says she instructed two lawyers working on the case not to make the argument. She says she was mortified and surprised when they wrote in a motion that the Missouri Human Rights Act "explicitly omits any reference to sexual orientation as a protected class."


abcnews--2019-10-31--WeWork's ex-CEO faces new pregnancy discrimination complaint

A former top aide to WeWork co-founder Adam Neumann has filed a federal discrimination complaint against him, saying she was demoted for becoming pregnant, subjected to derisive comments and ultimately fired for raising concerns.  The complaint seeks class action status against WeWork, alleging a pattern of discrimination against women at the office-sharing company. The case comes as WeWork is striving to regain the confidence of its employees, investors and customers in the wake of a failed attempt to enter the stock market.  Medina Bardhi filed the complaint Thursday with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. She was Neumann's chief of staff until she was fired on Oct. 2., shortly before Neumann was pushed out as CEO.  WeWork spokeswoman Gwen Rocco said the company will "vigorously defend itself against this claim."


abcnews--2019-11-09--MLK daughter slams Comcast over racial discrimination suit

A daughter of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. has sent a letter to Comcast executives in which she accuses the company of trying to "dismantle" a law barring racial discrimination.  The letter released Saturday from the Rev. Bernice King addresses a $20 billion lawsuit from comedian and media mogul Byron Allen that is headed to the U.S. Supreme Court . Justices are scheduled to hear arguments in the case Wednesday.  A lower court ruled in favor of Allen, who says Comcast declined to distribute his channels because he's black.  Justices are weighing whether Allen needs to show that race was just a factor in Comcast's decision or whether it was the sole factor.  If Comcast wins, the bar will be high to bring and succeed with similar suits.  King says if Comcast wins, "pivotal" anti-discrimination legislation could be compromised.  "Are you prepared to say business decisions based on racism are acceptable if combined with other non-racist reasons?" King wrote to Comcast CEO Brian Roberts.  Comcast has said its decision not to carry Allen's channels has nothing to do with race. It has called Allen's content "not particularly high quality."  "We have been forced to appeal this decision to defend against a meritless $20 billion claim, but have kept our argument narrowly focused," a Comcast spokesperson said in response to King's letter. "This case cannot detract from Comcast's strong civil rights and diversity record or our outstanding record of supporting and fostering diverse programming from African-American owned channels. There has been no finding of discriminatory conduct by Comcast against this plaintiff by any court, and there has been none."


abcnews--2019-11-14--Mo’Nique sues Netflix for discrimination in show offer

Mo’Nique sued Netflix on Thursday for race and sex discrimination in its offer for a proposed comedy special, accusing the streaming service of giving her a lowball offer that was part of a larger company tendency to underpay black women.  The comedian and Oscar-winning actress says Netflix officials were effusive in their praise of her work before they offered her $500,000 in early 2018 for a comedy special and refused to negotiate further.  The suit says that stands in contrast to deals reportedly worth tens of millions of dollars for comedy specials from Chris Rock, Ellen DeGeneres, Dave Chapelle and Ricky Gervais, and that the streaming service was willing to negotiate with other comics.  She called for a boycott of Netflix a week after the deal fell through in January 2018 and has been publicly critical of the company since.  "We care deeply about inclusion, equity, and diversity and take any accusations of discrimination very seriously,” the statement said. “We believe our opening offer to Mo'Nique was fair — which is why we will be fighting this lawsuit.”  The suit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court alleges Netflix violated California’s fair employment and civil rights laws and is representative of the major pay inequity in all employment for black women.  “I had a choice to make,” Mo’Nique said in a post on her Instagram account after the suit was filed. “I could accept what I felt was pay discrimination or I could stand up for those who came before me and those who will come after me. I chose to stand up.”  The suit claims Netflix has a corporate culture that tolerates racial insensitivity and impropriety, lacks diversity and underpays women and minorities. It cites the revelation last year that actor Matt Smith was paid more for his supporting role on Netflix’s “The Crown” than actress Claire Foy was paid to play the title role.  And it alleges that Netflix’s refusal to deal with Mo’Nique, shutting her out of what has become an essential home for comedy specials, amounts to retaliation.  The 51-year-old whose real name is Monique Angela Hicks first gained fame as one of stand-up’s Queens of Comedy, and starred in the UPN series “The Parkers.” She won an Academy Award for best supporting actress for her performance in the 2009 film, “Precious.”


bbc--2019-02-19--New York City bans hair discrimination to fight racism

The New York City Commission on Human Rights has released guidelines against targeting people on the basis of their hairstyle, classing this as racist discrimination.  The guidelines aim to protect the rights of New Yorkers in schools, work places and public places, where black people are disproportionately affected by policies banning hairstyles such as afros, cornrows and locs.  A report from the commission said black hairstyles are often deemed "unprofessional" and by limiting how workers and students wear their hair, organisations "perpetuate racist stereotypes".  NYC Human Rights Commissioner Chair Carmelyn P Malalis said hairstyle policies were not about professionalism but rather a way of "limiting the way black people move through workplaces, public spaces and other settings".  She said the guidelines will help organisations "understand that black New Yorkers have the right to wear their hair however they choose without fear of stigma or retaliation".  Brittny Saunders and Demoya Gordon were both part of the team at the commission writing the guidelines and could offer personal experiences of hair discrimination.  "When I started work, I chemically straightened my hair because I understood that the expectation would be that I would present myself with straight hair," said Ms Saunders. "It would be against expectations to have natural hair."  "You police yourself accordingly," agreed Ms Gordon.  "When I started going to interviews at law firms I knew that there would already be a lot of scepticism about my place as a black woman in that space and that wearing my locs down would not be considered 'professional'.  "It was almost 6 years into my career that I stopped pinning my locs up and started wearing them down most of the time.  "It was only when I moved from working in a law firm to a non-profit organisation that I felt able to do this and even then I would still wear it up when I had to go to court or take a deposition."  Businesses found to have flouted the guidelines could face fines of up to $250,000 (£191,000).  But this is not a problem specific to New York.  One woman from London, who preferred not to be named, said she was once sent home from working in a clothes shop because she wore her hair in braids. She was 18 at the time.  "They said: 'Go home, take those braids out of your hair- this is not our look.' But the hairstyle they did want was a straight hair weave, which is not natural. They wanted me to adhere to European standards of beauty," she said.  Now aged 26, she said that at the time she did not question her managers because she did not feel she could. "I wish someone would," she added.  Now working in a more relaxed workplace, she wears her hair in an afro, but has black female friends who wear a "work wig" in an attempt to "fit in, to cause less tension for themselves".  A 23-year-old from the UK said her school which was majority white, banned "extreme" hairstyles.  "I wasn't sure what that meant, but it meant cornrows. They said they were gang affiliated," she said. Afros were also banned, described as "distracting".  "I relaxed my hair when I was 13 because when it was straight they didn't mind," she added.  Commissioner Malalis emphasised the importance of the guidelines in schools. "It's so important for young people to themselves and to be valued for who they are," she said.