Britain: don’t marry a foreigner unless you’re rich

Cross-posted from Crooked Timber

I blogged the other day about the new restrictions the UK is planning to impose on would-be migrants, making it mpossible for all but the super-rich to acquire permanent residency and forcing others into Gastarbeiter status (to be kicked out after five years). It gets worse. The government’s Migration Advisory Committee has now recommended that anyone seeking to sponsor a foreign (non-EU) spouse to enter the UK has to be in the top half of the income distribution (I simplify slightly). Read Matt Cavanagh on the topic here and the Free Movement blog here. So think through the implications. A British student goes to grad school in the US (for example), meets an American and marries: such a person would, under these proposals, be unable to return to the UK with their partner to live as a couple. If two countries were to adopt such rules and their nationals met and married, they would have the right to live as a couple in neither country. Iniquitous and unjust.

British government pulls down the shutters

Cross-posted from Crooked Timber

Today brings a well-argued critique of the British government’s latest moves on immigration policy by the Matt Cavanagh of the Institute for Public Policy Research (see also video; New Statesman column) . The UK now proposes (subject to a consultation) to make almost all immigration into the UK by non-EU workers temporary, with an upper limit of five years. There are a few exceptions for footballers, Russian oligarchs and others able and willing to deposit millions of pounds in a UK bank account, but even highly-skilled professionals will be kicked out when their time is up. Though hardly the most vulnerable group globally, I imagine this directly affects a substantial number of regular Crooked Timber readers: postgraduates and early-career academics from places like the US and Australia who apply in droves when we advertise permanent academic positions. In the Cameron-Clegg future, there will be no more Jerry Cohens, Ronald Dworkins, Amartya Sens or Susan Hurleys.

The status of (some) international borders

Recent events in which Palestinians protested the “Nabka” of 1948 have been widely reported as involving crossings of Israel’s international borders. However, in an interesting article in Haaretz, Gideon Biger explains that matters are not that simple:

Israel is an atypical state in that it does not have agreed international borders with all of its neighbors. That is especially true in the case of Lebanon and Syria. Israel and Lebanon are currently separated by the so-called Line of Withdrawal of Israeli Forces from Lebanon, agreed in 2000 between Israel and the United Nations and also known as the Blue Line. It corresponds in part with the international border demarcated by the English and French governments in 1923. In practice, there is currently no border between Israel and Lebanon. The situation on the border with Syria is more complex. …. (read the whole thing)

The US border fence: and the Americans stuck on the “wrong” side

Fascinating article in the British paper the Independent about the US anti-immigrant border fence and the fact that in parts of Texas engineering considerations have put 50,000 acres of US territory on the Mexican side of the fence. For those who live in this pocket, life doesn’t sound much fun:

… this corner of south-eastern Texas had its barrier constructed on a levee that follows a straight line from half a mile to two miles north of the river, leaving Ms Taylor’s bungalow – along with the homes and land of dozens of her angry neighbours – marooned on the Mexican side. “My son-in-law likes to say that we live in a gated community,” she says, explaining that to even visit the shops she must pass through a gate watched over by border-patrol officers. “We’re in a sort of no man’s land. I try to laugh, but it’s hard: that fence hasn’t just spoiled our view, it’s spoiled our lives.”

(via @PhillCole on twitter, x-posted at Crooked Timber )

How to start your own state

An interesting article in Mother Jones:

While places like Kurdistan and Somaliland might occupy more of the government’s time, the ranks of aspiring nations are filled with DIY democracies—places like North Dumpling Island in Long Island Sound, and Molossia in (or surrounded by) northern Nevada—that are often equipped with little more than a flag, an anthem, and a back porch. It’s these communities, known as micronations, that Canadian filmmaker Jody Shapiro set out to profile in his latest documentary, How to Start Your Own Country. Mother Jones spoke with Shapiro recently about micro-national alliances, the future of the nation-state, and what happens when the mother country doesn’t get the joke.

New draft in the pre-publication repository

I’ve replaced the paper I gave at the Dublin workshop last summer with a new draft (almost completely rewritten). There’s actually rather less on territory and justice than the previous version, but I do touch on the topic when I’m attacking the Kantian idea that legitimate private property depends on the existence of an “omnilateral will”.

Justice and property: on the institutional thesis concerning property.

Southern Sudan

Residents of Southern Sudan voted overwhelmingly to separate Southern Sudan from the greater Sudan.

Here‘s a very concise account of the secession vote and upcoming process.

 

Recession impact on migrants

Report on the impact of the recession on migrants from the BBC.  The full report is available in pdf, linked to this article.

Towards Recognition (Useful Blog on Environmental Migration)

I came across this useful blog on environmental migrant issues.

Somalia: The perfect failed state

The case of the failed state is interesting because it forces the question: who has rights over territory and resources when the state has failed?  (And what are the contents of those rights?)

This Der Spiegel (English) article describes Somalia as the ‘perfect’ failed state.  The BBC News also has an informative profile of Somalia along with a list of articles.

Somaliland – by contrast – is a functioning independent democratic republic within the northern part of the geographic domain of Somalia.  They have not yet received international recognition.  Here is a quick profile of the region.