Refugees, Asylum Seekers, and other Immigrants: Help for Teachers with Problematic Definitions

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to provide historical and legal definitions for categories of immigrants while helping educators use facts to address their students’ misperceptions about the terms “migrants,” “undocumented immigrants,” “refugees,” “asylum seekers,” and “internally displaced persons.” The 1951 Convention related to the status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol provided a clear definition for refugees, also used to create the 1980 Refugee Act. However, recent political and media rhetoric have increased public misunderstanding of immigration terms. Design/methodology/approach: The paper uses over 30 news reports to demonstrate recent perceptions of refugees and other migrants. Other citations provide historical accounts, international documents, and legislation to explain ways in which the USA and other countries have defined refugees. Findings: Findings suggest ways in which leadership have ignored research by denouncing resettlement in spite of statistics indicating that refugees are not a threat to the American people. Research limitations/implications: The author’s perspective is as a researcher who has conducted research with resettled refugees for over 15 years. The author’s findings have created a pro-refugee stance. Practical implications: This paper suggests the importance of exploring multiple perspectives and not settling for the claims of popular media. It also provides information for teachers to provide educational materials about refugees and other immigrants. Social implications: Readers are called to look beyond popular opinion to consider accurate information about refugees and immigrants. Refugees and asylum seekers flee from terrorism; they are not terrorists. Originality/value: This paper confronts contentious popular media reporting on refugees and migration. This is especially valuable in the current time, as negative misconceptions about such people abound

Does Immigration Impact Economic Freedom?

The economics literature generally finds a positive, but small, gain in income to native‐born populations from immigrants and potentially large gains in world incomes. But immigrants can also impact a recipient nation’s institutions. A growing empirical literature supports the importance of strong private property rights, a rule of law, and an environment of economic freedom for promoting long run prosperity. Comparatively little work has tried to explain economic freedom as a dependent variable. This paper empirically examines how immigration impacts a region’s policies and institutions. We find small but positive increases in institutional quality as a result of immigration.

Effect of Uncaria and Tabebuia extracts on molecular epidemiological biomarkers in patients with colorectal cancer

The combined effect of surgical treatment and consumption of so-called “CoD™ tea” (containing Uncaria guianensis, U. tomentosa and Tabebuia avellanedae) on expression of c-myc, Ha-ras, Bcl-2, Ki-ras and p53 key onco/suppressor genes, the carbohydrate antigen (CA19-9) and carcino-embryonic antigen (CEA) tumour markers in blood samples of patients with colorectal cancer (CRC) were investigated. Expression of genes followed the effect of the surgical treatment combined with neoadjuvant chemotherapeutic treatment; this may predict the outcome of carcinoma. Moreover their expressions might show possible additional effect of supportive therapy, e.g. CoD™ consumption. The antioxidant capacity of blood was also examined. Blood samples were taken at the day of, and one week, 3, 6 and 12 months after the surgical treatment. During that period patients got 0.25 l standard portion of CoD™ tea three times a day. The surgical treatment and neoadjuvant therapy were able to suppress the expression of c-myc, Ha-ras, Bcl-2, Ki-ras, p53 genes up to the twelfth month. Moreover, CoD™ tea together with conventional treatment caused a strong decrease in the expression of c-myc and Ha-ras oncogenes in comparison to the non-consumer control

Multiplying Diversity: Family Unification and the Regional Origins of Late-Age US Immigrants

Building on claims that the family unification provisions of 1965 Amendments drive changes in both the age composition and the regional origins of US legal permanent residents, we use administrative data to examine empirically whether and how chain migration links these two trends. Specifically, we ask: (1) How does the prevalence of family chain migration differ among major sending regions, and (2) how does the surge in late-age immigration since 1980 vary by source regions and major sending countries? Specifically, we derive age-specific migration multipliers for the major sending regions and the four top source countries. These nations also feature the largest backlogs for numerically capped family visas (Wasem 2012), which has implications for the age composition of sponsored relatives who age as they wait for visas in multi-year queues. In addition to improving on prior estimates of chain migration, our analyses clarify why the age composition of the foreign stock population from Asia and Latin America diverged (He 2002; Grieco et al. 2012). Before describing the data and estimation methods we provide a brief overview of the logic that led to Congress’s gross miscalculation of the impact of the 1965 Amendments on the regional origins of US immigrants. The concluding section discusses the implications of family chain migration in the context of an aging society and contemplated comprehensive reform