Guest Post by Martijn Kleppe Even though the Netherlands have been known for their tolerant attitude towards “immigrants”, the last couple of years have seen several debates about the role of those immigrants in Dutch society. Second and third generations immigrants are often accused of not being integrated enough — a public opinion factor that, […]
The new “Africa Rising” narrative propagated largely by a globally-connected middle and upper class diaspora, often obscures the grittier stories of the African immigrant experience. This is partly due to an instinct among African immigrants to want to counter the history of one-dimensional and negative portrayals of both Africa and immigrants in the mainstream Western media. While […]
Guest Post by Anonymous* If you follow current headlines, you may have noticed a seemingly new conflict arising in the Middle East. Recent migratory trends in Israel have led to new challenges beyond the decades long occupation of the Palestinian Territories. The tension surrounding the influx of African asylum seekers and refugees to Israel has […]
Towards the final scenes of Restless City, Jessye Norman’s solo soprano voice scales the great buildings and the conveyor belts of vehicles, between all of which a small red scooter navigates, carrying the slim bodies of Djibril and Trina. They are here, in this city, with all their desires clenched in their mouths. It is Norman’s voice, following the music composed by Richard Strauss to the poetry of Herman Hesse, that lifts our two immigrants’ desires up on the currents of her song, skylarks freed into the night sky.
Photographer Glenna Gordon, no stranger to AIAC, is working on a new project in Staten Island, home to the largest population of Liberians outside of Liberia. I asked her if I could publish some of the work here. You can view the full set here. She also sent this note: Most New Yorkers still think […]
During the Cold War tens of thousands of black students went to study in the Soviet Union. (I know some South Africans who did.) That world is now far away as this video report on Globalpost by journalists Miriam Elder and Dmitri Venkov show. Instead It’s largely a life of drudgery, survival, poverty and fearing […]
“The Wall Street Journal” has an interesting news piece on the growing migration by Portuguese workers to Angola. With 9.2% unemployment (that’s considered a crisis in Europe; it should also be in the third world, but it is not) back in Portugal, the domestic economy expected to shrink by 3.7% this year, and “… temporary […]
A while ago I posted a link to the short film “Impasse.” Blogger Twiga posted another, earlier film, around the same theme: the Oscar-winning short by German director Pepe Danquart, “Schwarzfahrer.” The title is a word-play: literally, “Schwarzfahrer” means “black rider” in German, but is also translatable to “fare-dodger”. This word-play forms the punch line […]
