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Happy Monday morning.

This is one of those days when we regret starting with bad news.

From the tragedy at the Waukesha Christmas parade to the addition of the United States to the list of backsliding democracies for the first time, heres the news you need to know to start your week.

A driver plowed a vehicle into a crowd at a Christmas parade in Waukesha, Wisconsin, killing five people and injuring more than 40 adults and children. As reported by The Guardian, a red SUV plowed into the crowd at high speed on Sunday afternoon, and authorities are still hesitating to label the incident an act of terrorism.

The welfare spending bill passed the House of Representatives on Friday on a 220-213 vote includes the most comprehensive immigration reform package overhauled by Congress in 35 years, The Hill reported.

If the Senate approved the provision, the immigration measure in the bill would allow undocumented immigrants present in the U.S. from before 2011 up to 10 years of work authorization, falling short of the initial goal of offering them a path to citizenship.

Cuban artistic dissident leader Yunior Garcia left the island after the government blocked the massive artists protest.

As reported by NBC News, the young Cuban playwright announced on Facebook that he and his wife had arrived in Spain alive and well and with their ideas intact.

In recent weeks, Garcia had become the most prominent figure calling for protests to demand greater freedoms from the communist-ruled island. The government largely suppressed protests due to take place last Monday.

Garcia attempted to march alone on Sunday but was prevented from leaving his apartment after police and government supporters surrounded his building. When he tried to communicate with journalists and others by holding a white rose through his window and holding up a sign that read my house is blocked, people on the roof dropped a large Cuban flag to cover his window.

A group of Cuban musicians, including one imprisoned in Cuba, won song of the year at the Latin Grammy Awards on Thursday for their track Patria y Vida, garnering more international attention for a song that has become an anthem for the Cuban opposition.

Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai had disappeared from the public eye for more than two weeks after accusing former Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli on social media of coercing her into having sex at his home. The accusation triggered widespread censorship in China. Since Friday night, a steady stream of photos and videos purporting to show a smiling Peng going about her life in Beijing has appeared on Twitter, all posted by people working for Chinese government-controlled media and the state-run sports system, on a blocked platform in China.

The apparent propaganda push was followed Sunday by a video call between Peng and International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Thomas Bach, during which the three-time Olympian insisted she is safe and well, living at her home in Beijing and would like to have her privacy respected, according to a statement from the IOC.

Venezuelas ruling socialist party claimed a sweeping victory Sunday night in the first election that included the countrys main opposition parties in nearly four years, a low-turnout vote that critics say was rigged from the start.

As reported by the Washington Post, President Nicolas Maduros political allies won 20 of the countrys 23 governorships, according to preliminary results from the electoral council. With a turnout of just 41.8%, one of the lowest rates in the country in the last two decades, the vote reflected an electorate apathetic towards its leadership options in the crumbling socialist state.

The thinktank International IDEA announced over the weekend that the United States had been included for the first time on an annual list of shrinking democracies, noting a visible deterioration that began in 2019.

Alexander Hudson, a co-author of the report, told The Guardian, The United States is a high-performing democracy, and even improved its performance in indicators of impartial administration (corruption and predictable enforcement) in 2020. However, the declines in civil liberties and checks on government indicate that there are serious problems with the fundamentals of democracy.

The report says: A historic turning point came in 2020-21 when former president Donald Trump questioned the legitimacy of the 2020 election results in the United States.

In addition, Hudson pointed to a decline in the quality of freedom of association and assembly during the summer of protests in 2020 after the police killing of George Floyd.

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BELatinas Weekend Recap: Tragedy in Waukesha, Historic Immigration Reform, And More - BELatina

A pro-immigration demonstration on Martin Luther King Day. Two-thirds of Americans say they are concerned about how unaccompanied children and separated families are treated at the border. (NDLA / Creative Commons)

The U.S. lifted its international travel ban earlier this month, which means that many people are likely to be sitting down to Thanksgiving dinner with friends and family from all over the world this holiday.Those delightful moments of re-connecting, played out in dining rooms all over the country will be brought to you in large part by the success of the COVID-19 vaccines.While we are far from seeing the end of this pandemic, we can once more, with care, gather with our loved ones to celebrate the special moments of our lives.

Id like to think that these gatherings will be both boisterous and gentle, free-flowing and forgiving, as we reinvent the ways we talk to each other across a crowded table.And because we are revisiting and rediscovering our old ways, it is a unique opportunity to change the focus and flow of many past conversations.In fact, this holiday could give us a chance to start over with a national conversation on immigration that is unifying, rather than polarizing.

Such a conversation starts with identifying shared values and employing active listening.I have foundthat many heated immigration conversations can be turned around by asking people about their own roots. What is their immigration story? What did their family experience?Do you know where they entered the U.S. or how they found a place to stay?These questions are valuable even if your friends and relatives are descended from enslaved peoples or are immigrants themselves, because all of us can get stuck in portraying new immigrants as somehow other or different from us. Probing our family origin stories creates the opportunity for noting similarities and asking questions, and sometimes providing answers on misinformation.

Many heated immigration conversations can be turned around by asking people about their own roots. What is their immigration story? What did their family experience?Do you know where they entered the U.S. or how they found a place to stay?

This is also an opportunity to bring our values as feminists to the table.The immigration system was designed with single, male immigrants in mind, during a time when men journeyed to the U.S. first and sent for their families after they had become establishedor in some cases, such as the Chinese Exclusion Act, where men were prohibited from even bringing their families to the U.S.The contributions of women as heads of households and in many low-wage, but essential jobs, is often undervalued in the immigration debateand yet finding a path forward to improve the lives of all women in the U.S. must includea conversation about immigration.

Right now, there are several excellent opportunities for finding common ground on immigration matters.The U.S. evacuation of Afghan allies and other vulnerable Afghans that began in August of this year has prompted an amazing outpouring of support for refugees.America cares about those who are oppressed and threatened, and those who have suffered greatly.

Similarly, when asked about the plight of unaccompanied children and separated families, two-thirds of Americans say they are concerned about how these vulnerable groups are treated at the border. If you can reach agreement on these vital pointsthat Americans care about those who are vulnerable and in needyou have the basis for having a meaningful conversation about Americas response to the refugee crisis.And if your partners in conversation are confused by some of the myths often recounted about refugees, this excellent interview with refugee service providers offers thoughtful, value-driven responses as well as concise information on the worldwide refugee situation that can be a big help.

If you can reach agreement on these vital pointsthat Americans care about those who are vulnerable and in needyou have the basis for having a meaningful conversation about Americas response to the refugee crisis.

Similarly,the Build Back Better Act, despite its adoption along party lines, offers terrific tools for reframing the usual immigration debate.Because Build Back Better is not a comprehensive immigration reform billin fact, only about 15 of its 2500-plus pages covers immigrationit provides some context for understanding how improving our immigration system is interconnected with a much broader goal of creating more prosperity and a stronger safety net for all, particularly for women. These immigration provisions focus primarily on legal immigration, providing USCIS with more funds to process backlogs that delay legal immigrants from obtaining permanent status or reuniting with their families, increasing fees and surcharges to pay for other immigration needs, and the recapture of thousands of visas that were never used in past years.

It also allows immigrants who were eligible for or had received visas but were blocked from entering the U.S. because of the Muslim ban or pandemic restrictions to reapply for admission.These provisions are all about restoring fairness, increasing efficiency and cleaning up backlogs.

The capstone provision is more ambitious, creating a temporary work program for millions of undocumented immigrants in the country prior to 2011. The original text, which would have created a path to citizenship for this group, was determined by the Senate parliamentarian to be outside the scope of the budget reconciliation process. Thus, despite widespread support for a path to citizenship, Build Back Better is offering a more temporary solution, but it would eliminate the threat of deportation for millions, reduce the likelihood of employers undercutting wages or abusing workers, and recognize the incredible contributions unauthorized immigrants make to the country every day. In each of these ways, it also creates a more equitable system for everyone.

In essence, Build Back Better offers breathing room for the political process to come up with better solutions in the future. There is far more that must be done, including significant reforms to our immigration enforcement system, but Senate passage of theBuild Back Better Act, with its immigration provisions intact, would give the country a chance to start over.

And that is what we have this Thanksgiving.A chance to start new traditions,an opportunity to restore our values, and a space for new, more thoughtful conversations on the things that matter most.

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View original post here:
How to Have a Thanksgiving Conversation on Immigration That's Unifying, Not Polarizing - Ms. Magazine

Editorsnote: In November,The National Interestorganized a symposium on the confluence of demographics, migration, and climate change. We asked a variety of scholars the following question: Canmigrationbe a solution to the various demographic challenges facing many nations, or is it a challenge in its own right? How should states adapt to and/or mitigate the effects of changing demographics and influxes of migrants?" The following article is one of their responses:

In 1950, the median age of what are todays most developed regions was twenty-nine years. Many were experiencing postwar baby booms, including Japan, which captured the cover of Newsweek magazine with worries over mass starvation in the face of equally massive population growth. But such population dynamics were short-lived. By 2020, the median age of those regions was forty-two and, by the middle of the next decade, it will be forty-five. This steadily upward trajectory means that, with every passing year, developed states find themselves in uncharted territory, scrambling to develop a menu of viable policy options to either forestall aging itself or its economic effects. One of the proposed solutions is significantly more open borders. Many argue that aging states must bring in more immigrants or face dire consequences. Yet what such discussions tend to disregard is that sometimes states will choose the consequences.

One reason states and societies may be hesitant to increase immigrationor actively oppose itis that immigration often hastens shifts in ethnic composition. While 76percent of those U.S.-born identify as single-race white, only 45 percent of immigrants in 2019 did. Changes or perceived changes in ethnic composition affect political behavior as we saw with anti-immigrant voters tipping the Brexit vote. With a shrinking total population and the oldest median age in the worldforty-eight yearsthe Japanese have thus far decided that the social consequences of immigration outweigh the economic consequences of population aging. The exception is the immigration of care workers as the strains of old-age care are palpable for Japanese families. Immigrants number about 2percent of Japans population, and there are significant institutional barriers to immigrants settling permanently.

Some states are reticent about the ethnic consequences of immigration but find the economic benefits outweigh the social consequences. South Korea, which in recent years has held the world record for lowest fertility rate, has tried to entice ethnic Koreans living abroad to immigrate, similar to Russia. Korean policymakers have been liberalizing beyond ethnic Korean immigrants as one of several policies designed to counter aging.

Examples such as the immigration of care workers implicatea need to analyze the impact of aging on particular sectors. In the United States, construction workers are aging; 40 percent of these workers are between the ages of forty-five and sixty-four, and 65 percent of heavy equipment operators are over forty years old. Even with some productivity gains from automation, there will soon come a day when older construction workers will have to retire. Who will wield the tools for the ambitious infrastructure plans of the Biden administration? We need a broad view of what immigration can look like, one that includes temporary, legal pathways, but partisanship has frozen U.S. immigration reform for decades.

Another issue with immigration is the age and aging of immigrants themselves. Few children migrate, and fertility rates for immigrants quickly revert to that of the domestic-born population. Immigrants who stay eventually age. In 2019 (our last year for pre-Covid-19data), over three-quarters of immigrants to the United States were of prime working ageseighteen to sixty-four years old. Thats a net positive from a labor standpoint but also means that immigration wont directly counter Americas population aging.

With fewer workers by the year, immigration seems like a natural solution to a shrinking workforce, but it is no panacea. In fact, there is no panaceajust because a country is aging doesnt mean increasing immigration isa solution.

Jennifer D. Sciubba, author of 8 Billion and Counting: How Sex, Death, and Migration Shape Our World (W. W. Norton, 2022), is an associate professor at Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennessee.

Image: Reuters.

Read the original:
Beyond Immigration: How Countries Contend With Aging Populations - The National Interest

Embrace diversity

On behalf of Journey study group, Central United Methodist Church:

Welcome to the world of diversity where we are all winners. The world is shrinking, and we've all become neighbors. In northern Michigan, you may have noticed signs everywhere needing workers: farmers, hospitals, restaurants, care homes, private businesses. We have jobs and no takers.

Michigan needs immigrants. Per the Bureau of Labor Statistics:

Immigrants helped in the past and are needed now. Many of us are the beneficiaries of immigrant labor and of businesses started by folks who came to begin new lives in our country. In Michigan we will soon have the opportunity to welcome refugees from a country where citizens helped save the lives of our fellow Americans, where they have been educated and held good positions in their home country.

Our votes are our voice. We have given power to our representatives to provide laws that enhance our lives and protect our future. Join us in asking our senators and representatives to pursue meaningful immigration reform now.

As Christians we are called to welcome the stranger.

Lou Ann McKimmy

Rapid City

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Letter: McKimmy | Letters To The Editor - Traverse City Record Eagle

Joe Biden has less than a year to cement his legacy as our 46th president. By the time next years midterms are over, his party is likely to lose control of the House and perhaps the Senate. If there ever was a time to go for broke, Joe, that time is now.

If you look at the accomplishments of presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump, they took place during the first two years of their presidencies. Obama got very little done after he rescued the country from the economic abyss caused by the 2008 financial crisis and managed in 2010 to get Obamacare passed. He was held hostage in his last six years in office by a Republican-controlled Congress hellbent on making sure he never achieved another legislative victory.

For Trump, who began his one term in office with his party in control of the House and the Senate, the only significant piece of legislation he signed was the massive tax cuts given mostly to the rich and to a lesser extent the middle classes. He was pretty much a lame duck president once the Democrats took back control of the House in 2018.

Biden needs to heed the lessons of recent history, namely, that DC gridlock closely resembles driving on the 405 freeway in L.A. Its essential for him to get stuff done before next fall when his party may suffer crushing defeats and his role as president diminishes. After their parties lost in the midterms, both Obama and Trump were reduced to issuing executive orders as their only means of exercising presidential power.

I think Biden is in a unique and pivotal position because I doubt very much he will run for reelection. At 79, he appears frail and elderly. Its doubtful he will look more robust three years from now when he turns 82; far better for him to summon his remaining strength and strive to immediately accomplish as much as he can. Not having to worry about re-election should give him the courage to act boldly and decisively. Time is not on his side in many ways.

What should be his priorities? First, get signed into law the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, and then fix a broken immigration system so that a clear pathway to citizenship can be given to the estimated 10.5 to 12 million undocumented immigrants now living in the country. The voting rights act is needed to preserve the integrity of our democracy and prevent Republicans at the state level from disenfranchising millions of minority voters. Passing immigration reform would improve the lives of the many immigrants living in limbo here for years who contribute to the economy by paying taxes and yet are forced to live in the shadows for fear of deportation.

Getting both priorities through Congress will be a daunting challenge. The Democrats really dont have a mandate based on last years election results to pursue their lofty progressive agenda. Biden was elected as a Bill Clinton centrist but wants to govern like an FDR New Deal president.

Roosevelt had sizable majorities in both chambers when he took office in 1932. He pushed 15 major bills through Congress in his administrations first 100 days. Biden has a razor-thin majority in the House and more like minority status in the Senate because Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema vote like moderate Republicans. The jury is still out on whether Biden can convince both of them to waive their opposition to eliminating the filibuster. If he cant, the Democrats will be stymied in their hope of getting any more significant legislation passed.

In spite of the criticism Biden has received for the botched withdrawal from Afghanistan and the fact that inflation is spiraling out of control under his watch, his first year in office has produced bipartisan legislation of historic importance. Getting a bitterly divided Congress to approve a $1.9 trillion COVID Relief Bill and a $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act is the political equivalent of Moses parting the Red Sea.

While the money spent on economic assistance during the pandemic will be short lived and soon forgotten, the same cannot be said for the safer bridges, smoother roads, improved train travel and expanded access to broadband that urban and rural America will enjoy for generations.

Not since FDR established a federal program, the Tennessee Valley Authority, which brought electricity to rural parts of seven states in the South that were reliant upon kerosene lamps, will so many Americans directly benefit on a daily basis from government investments in improving the quality of their lives.

Even if sleepy, slow-moving, slow-talking, old Joe Biden doesnt succeed in getting his fractious party to sign on to reconciliation bills which dont require any Republican support, his two-year presidency will be remembered for what he did and not what he didnt do.

Yes, the Republicans will probably make his last two years in office miserable if they take back Congress in 2022, but they wont be able to repeal his signature legislation. Biden still has the power of the veto at his disposal which should be enough to kill any bills brought to his desk that attempt to repudiate what should serve as the crowning achievements of his presidency.

Biden can then ride off into the sunset at 82 knowing he not only was able to get Republicans to sign off on $3.1 trillion in federal spending but restored a respect for the rule of law in a country which only two weeks before he took office barely survived an insurrection incited by his predecessor.

Jay Wissot is a resident of Denver and Vail. Email him at jayhwissot@mac.com.

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Wissot: The two-year presidency | VailDaily.com - Vail Daily News