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Israel has started issuing deportation orders to African migrants, giving them 60 days to return to their home countries or opt for an unnamed safe haven. Those failing to meet the deadline risk being sent to prison. © Amir Cohen / Reuters Israel’s Population, Immigration and Border Authority delivered the first batch of notices Sunday, telling […]

The lawyer representing a man accused of injuring six in a shooting spree targeting immigrants has said the level of solidarity for the shooter is “alarming”. A handgun is pictured in the back seat of the suspect’s car. Photo: Giuseppe Bellini/AFP Suspect Luca Traini, 28, made a fascist salute after the drive-by shooting, which he has […]

About 8,000 thousands protesters scream, “Hire Koreans,” at Gwanghwamun Square in central Seoul last year. / Korea Times photo by Jung Min-ho In many developed nations, liberals tend to be more supportive of immigration. But in Korea, it is the opposite.  In June last year, the liberal Korean Confederation of Trade Unions led 8,000 construction workers in a protest in Seoul against the increasing number of foreign workers. And four years ago, the country’s first lawmaker with an immigrant background, Jasmine Lee, came from the right-wing party, not the liberal one, reflecting an important first step towards multiculturalism in the government.  Many of these liberal immigration opponents are low-skilled workers, who complain about immigration’s negative effects, such as wage depression and intensifying job competition. However, the reasons Korean conservatives are in favor of immigration are less clear.  “Immigration has always been an issue that has split conservatives. On the one hand, most conservatives represent nativists and nationalist constituencies that don’t like immigration. On the other hand, they represent businesses that want labor,” Margaret Peters, professor of political science at the University of California, Los Angeles, told The Korea Times.  In most advanced nations, globalization means businesses no longer have to worry about immigration because they can move their factories to other countries with cheap labor. This means conservatives in the West can now represent nativists without losing business support.  “But in Korea, there are still a large number of manufacturers producing goods at home who need labor. They are the ones that are pushing conservative parties to bring more foreign workers,” Peters said.  But this trend may not last as was the case for many countries in the West.  “In the past in the United States and Western Europe, attitudes toward immigration did not fit so clearly on a left-right axis. The left was divided between organized labor, which largely opposed large-scale immigration as appears to be the case in Korea,” said Louis DeSipio, political science professor at University of California, Irvine. But liberals in these regions have come to recognize that they can grow politically if they embrace immigrants and their children. Meanwhile, on the right, social conservatives, who fear the cultural change immigrants might bring, have come to dominate right-wing agenda over the business community, he noted.  “So, the positions on immigration have come to a clearer left-right divide,” he said.  Antje Ellermann, political science professor at the University of British Columbia, agrees that Korean liberals, over time, will also embrace them as members of the society.  “As countries open themselves up to immigration (which usually starts out in the form of economic immigration), trade unions initially tend to oppose foreign worker recruitment for obvious reasons, including wage depression. But the unions tend to adopt pro-immigration attitudes, in part because of their support of worker/immigrant rights, but also because they can boost their membership base by accepting foreign workers,” she said.  In the long run, Ellermann reckons Koreans ― both on the right and left ― will accept more immigrants. “But looking at the case of Germany, which in the postwar period had a similarly ethnically closed understanding of citizenship, it took over half a century. And it’s still in progress,” she said, indicating that Korea will eventually experience such changes.  As Korea’s birthrate ― around 1.2 per woman ― remains among the world’s lowest, some scholars say this change may occur much faster in Korea than it did in the West.  […]

Wall Street stocks endured a brutal session Monday, with the Dow seeing one of its steepest ever one-day point drops, as the heady bullishness of early 2018 gave way to extreme volatility. The Dow Jones Industrial Average tumbled 4.6 percent to 24,345.75, having at one point plummeted nearly 1,600 points to hit a session low of 23,923.88. […]

Angered at perceived US efforts to replace its current leadership, PA says Jason Greenblatt’s efforts ‘have no chances of succeedin US Special Envoy Jason Greenblatt attends a press conference regarding the water agreement between Israel and the Palestinian Authority on July 13, 2017. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90) A series of statements made by US Middle East envoy […]

The spokesman for the Arab Coalition in Yemen confirmed at a press conference in Riyadh on Monday that humanitarian aid is still entering Yemen through all entry ports, also revealing that Iran has supplied Houthi militias with weapons to target the international shipping in Bab al-Mandeb strait. Colonel Turki al-Malki said that Houthi militias target […]

Numerous Democratic senators, led by Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), warned President Donald Trump in a letter Monday, that he lacks “congressional” authority to launch a preemptive military strike against North Korea. The 18 senators, led by Martin Heinrich, stressed the risk of retaliation if the White House continued to pursue a strike. | Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images “Like […]

The Maldives Independent website is under attack and we believe the attack was designed to coincide with the state of emergency being declared. We will try to update the live blog but it may not be possible as the attacks are ongoing. For updates throughout the night please follow us on Twitter @IndependentMV.  10.17pm – The […]

A Ground Self-Defense Force helicopter crashed in a residential area in southwestern Japan on Monday afternoon, setting one empty home ablaze and possibly killing the two crew members aboard, local authorities said. This photo provided by Japan’s Ground Self-Defense Force shows a AH-64D helicopter, the same model as the one that crashed on Monday.  Photo: JGSDF via […]

The only surviving suspect in the 2015 Paris attacks, Salah Abdeslam, refused to answer questions on Monday as he went on trial in Brussels over a bloody shootout with police that led to his capture. Belgian police officers stand guard prior to the opening of the trial of prime suspect in the November 2015 Paris […]