The Migrant Integration Policy Index IV

“Once upon a time a classic first line in fairy tales, used by Charles Dickens, for example in his “A Christmas card” in 1843, or Charles Perrault, the French poet, writer of “Cinderella” and “Sleeping Beauty”, both published in 1697 in “histoires ou contes du temp passé” Once upon a time suggests a nostalgic touch, the good old, romantic days glamourized because negative memories are annihilated and deposed in the dustbin of the human mind. Once upon a time, Beirut, the capital ci ...

Their boat-if you name a large rubber pumped up like a giant tire, was rocked by waves, and the engine halted its movements. On November 24, all the 29 passengers tried to reach coastguard stations in France and England via their cell phones few minutes between life and death. No one answered, and when finally contact was established by another, still floating migrant boat, witnessing the tragedy in the making (New York Times December 14, 2021), they were asked to pinpoint their l ...

In a country as stable as Germany, changes of Chancellor are a rarity. Angela Merkel stayed in power for sixteen years, as did Helmut Kohl in his time. The new three-party coalition (Social Democrats, Greens, Liberals) intends to shake up the country. How should Africa approach this new leadership? Can the new government bring momentum to Euro-African relations? Can Berlin bring about a clear understanding of Africa’s development issues and geopolitical subtleties? ...

His message was one of reassurance, just as a great leader has to react in a crisis. The concerns about Covid 19 was nothing but “a frenzy and psychosis”. The President knew the secret to defeat the virus: vodka, sauna, tractor. Didn’t a US president named Donald Trump suggest  that toilet cleaning disinfectants chase the virus out of infected lungs on national television? (New York Times, April 24, 2020) That was Trump-speak, sure, but the man who uttered the tractor/vodka/nonsense ...

Time was running out. The invisible, enemy combatants floated into the capital like ghosts. Unopposed, ready to take power, twenty years after they were chased out of town by American military might. August 15/16, 2021, historic days for the Taliban known for severe military and humanitarian abuses. The governor of the Central Bank of Afghanistan, Ajmar Ahmadi, did not wait for the Taliban to burst through his office doors. He disappeared, trying to find the plane waiting for his d ...

Feeble eyesight may hinder you from finding Puntland on a map, the unrecognized Federal member state in Somalia, Khaatumo State, Jubaland, or Somaliland, concerning the planet’s size just large enough to be covered by the shadow of a palm tree. Arab entities surrounded by sun and sand and the Gulf of Aden, Somaliland is surviving as a self-declared nation, located on the southern coast of the Gulf of Aden bordered by Djibouti to the northwest, Ethiopia to the south and west, Somalia ...