Mobile Lives: Musings about ethnographic research on migration

My blog post with Marek Pawlak on ethnographic research and migration. This is a blog related to a project on Polish female migration to Norway. https://mobilelivesblog.wordpress.com/2016/07/29/mobile-lives-musings-about-ethnographic-research-on-migration/

Brexit…. Precursor to PLexit and Trumpdom?

Like the rest of the world I woke up to the shocking news about Brexit. On a more personal note, the first thing in my Facebook feed was a blog by a colleague, Nando Sigona, on his feeling the morning after ... https://nandosigona.wordpress.com/2016/06/24/unreal-extraordinary-indecen I have no words, in any language, to console Nando. I have …

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Guest post on the Oxford U Press Blog

Happy to share my guest blog post on the Oxford University Press Blog. You can read it here http://blog.oup.com/2016/05/immigration-latino-education-access/

Catholic Poles react to Pope’s washing the feet of refugees

On the evening he was betrayed, Jesus "poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples' feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him" (John 13:5). On Holy Thursday Pope Francis washed and kissed the feet of Muslim, Orthodox, Hindu and Catholic refugees, declaring them children of the same God. …

Miresevini ne Amerike! or Welcome to America!

Those were the words that welcomed weary Kosovar Albanians airlifted out of Macedonia to Fort Dix, New Jersey in 1999. I remember May 6, 1999 when the first plane carrying 453 Kosovar refugees arrived on a nearby McGuire Airbase as if it was yesterday. These Muslim refugees were greeted warmly and compassionately not only by …

Locked in paradise: The paradox of protecting trafficked victims in Thailand

The 20015 TIP report has been issued last week and, as predicted, Thailand landed in Tier 3 again. But I don’t want to dwell on the reactions to the Tier 3 ranking, rather I want to share a few thoughts about the changes Thailand might consider to revise their anti-trafficking efforts, especially when it comes …

Thailand waits with baited breath for the release of the 2015 TIP report

It is almost the middle of July 2015 and the Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report, which is usually released in June, has not been issued yet. Many countries are waiting with baited breath to see their ranking. Thailand is one such country. In 2014 Thailand was downgraded in the TIP Report to the bottom-of-the-pile Tier …

Yes to Kebab, no to Muslim migrants

The Polish blogosphere has been overtaken by ‘discussions’ about--or should I say, expressions of hatred towards—Muslim refugees and migrants. The debate intensified when the European Union proposed binding quotas on asylum seekers for its 28 member states. Poland vehemently opposed these plans. Poles took to the Internet to express their outrage about the possibility of …

Anti-Rumor Campaign in Bilbao: Fighting Fiction with Facts (and some fun)

I spent the month of May 2016 at the Deusto University in Bilbao, Spain teaching in the Erasmus Mundus Master’s in International Migration and Social Cohesion (MISOCO) program. It was a delightful experience. While my students were learning from me about the U.S. refugee resettlement system, the challenges facing Central American children and adolescents fleeing …

Afong means strength

[Here is a sneak peek at the Preface to my book manuscript on trafficked children] It was a crisp fall afternoon in 2013. I was waiting in front of the Silver Diner in suburban Maryland to meet Evelyn. Several years older than when I first interviewed her, Evelyn has not lost her exuberance. Pushing her …