The immigrant journey: a funny music video
Finding something funny about migration/refugees/racism is not easy, let alone doing it once a week. But it is Sunday Funday once more, and so the Possie has searched and searched, and found this music video of the immigration journey of two Mexican migrants in the US. You may guess from my tone that it is not the best video we have seen – but pretty good. Until the last minute which gets a bit dumb. Watch until then – and enjoy!

Khan, there’s no asylum seeker panic unless you make one
Is it something I ate? I am forced to agree once again with Andrew Bolt! I noted that Amnesty International secretary general Irene Khan says Australia has a ‘panic mentality ‘about asylum seekers. “There’s a lot of panic here when you think there are 3000 asylum seekers arriving in Australia,” she told SBS. Panic mentality consuming Australians There is not a panic.  There are some arguing that we are being flooded. There are others arguing that we should take more. The people with most to say on the issue are politicians who are trying to gain political mile

Do you know someone experiencing visa difficulties right now?
I am at the International Conference on Migration, Citizenship and Intercultural Relations in Melbourne at the moment. Just heard a great lecture from Stephen Castles – much to think about! Castles predicts that by 2050 the birth rate will have decreased in the Global South to the level of that now in the Global North. Castles asked the audience a  question I have heard asked once or twice before – but it is still a good one: ‘raise  your hand if you were born in Australia’. Answer for this audience – about one quarter. My mind wandered (as it usually does, even in a lecture as good as Castles’) and I thought of a question I w

Can you help? I am all at sea about Tamils
Will someone please help me with this? What is going on with Tamils on boats? Dr Kohona claims that they are just economic migrants, and could go just 22 miles across the water to Tamil Nadu in India instead, but would not make enough money there. Tamils could volunteer as sitting ducks for the Sri Lankan navy: Dr Kohona Brahma Chellaney, professor of strategic studies at the Delhi-based Centre for Policy Research, says that Dr Kohona is deluded, And that they can’t get to India because the Sri Lankan navy would short them out of the water.

Need high tech assistance? Try a refugee camp!
Refugees in Dadaab’s camps are crammed in to spaces meant for only one third of the actual population, most don’t have jobs – they can’t get work permits under Kenyan law- and boys are often recruited to become pirates and child soldiers. And now some of them are earning money with internet-based jobs such as searches, transcription, virtual assistance and app testing, on computers rigged to withstand the heat and dust that permeate the refugee camps. Simple idea – great potential. Samasource is a non-profit organization that outsources web-based jobs to women, youth, and refugees living in poverty. 520 worke