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Since the pandemic began, migration in India has gained a negative connotation. But the problem may not be migration itself, but the fact that large chunks of migrants come from source states or regions that are facing acute economic distress. In the destination areas, there is the problem of finding jobs with dignity, coupled with states that are politically driven to keep migrants out. It may fall on the private sector, as much as the government, to figure how to change this if India has to sustainably grow. What can be done in terms of corporate policy and labour policy to improve livelihoods?

The latest edition of Indian Express Thinc, presented by Omidyar Network India, focused on this subject, starting with thoughts from keynote speaker Meher Pudumjee, chairperson of Thermax Limited. In September last year, Thermax joined hands with like-minded corporates across Mumbai, Pune and Ahmedabad, in partnership with NGO Dasra, to launch an initiative called SoCo or Social Compact to ensure greater dignity and equity for industry-employed informal workers in India. The initiative aims at assuring certain standards for the workforce, including safety at the workplace and social security cover.

Speaking about SoCo, Pudumjee said it mainstreams the aspiration that a responsible business is equal to a successful business.

SoCo aspires to address a million informal workers spread across the ecosystem of 150 companies in India. It started as a pilot phase with just 15 companies. Its a self-driven journey by companies who are committing to ensure a set of standards for their workforce, Pudumjee said, citing the example of health insurance, which is usually set for a minimum of one year, despite the fact that some employees stay for only six months. How can companies ensure that they get insurance for that period?

Similar concerns set the tone for a panel discussion, hosted by Udit Misra, Deputy Associate Editor, The Indian Express, which followed the keynote speech. Pudumjee was joined by Rajiv Khandelwal, founder of Aajeevika Bureau; Manish Sabharwal, chairman of TeamLease; Radhicka Kapoor, fellow at ICRIER and Deepak Mishra, professor at JNU.

Mishra, who has recently come out with an edited volume on contemporary migration in India, shed light on whats holding back employment generation for migrant workers. He stressed on the fact that migration flows in India are incredibly diverse and there are specific patterns of vulnerabilities associated with them.

The first thing for a policy maker is to move away from a generalised description of migrant workers to look at the specificities of groups of migrant workers and how they are incorporated in the larger labour market, he said.

Policy makers will have to start with addressing structural vulnerabilities in origin areas, not to reduce or to stop migration, rather to have evidence to argue that minimal targeted interventions, like investment in rural health and education, improve the bargaining power of migrant workers.

Assessing the impact of Covid on Indias already strained migrant workforce, Kapoor said that it was the circular migrant who bore the brunt last year.

Kapoor was looking at cross-country studies which show that productivity in urban areas is about 7-8 times that of productivity in rural areas. The High Powered Expert Committee (HPEC) on Urbanisation in 2011 made an observation that despite this relatively high growth, the Indian economy had witnessed less urbanisation that would have been normally expected at that level of growth and development. This meant that while people were moving to cities, the ability of the cities to actually absorb this labour force productively was limited.

She explained, Basically the ability of the manufacturing sector to exercise a pull away from the agricultural sector has been weaker than normally expectedso where were people being employed? They were either ending up in the construction sector or informal services sector. The fact that basically cities were generating relatively lacklustre employment opportunities meant that much of this migration was circular and reverse in nature and not permanent.

Looking at what policies are needed to change the situation, Sabharwal said that the tool available is structural productivity of our regions, sectors, firms and individuals. He said, Urbanisation is an unstoppable and actually a powerful technology for prosperity. Urbanisation isnt shoving more people into [existing cities]. Its creating more cities with more than a million people. We need better cities is the debate hereMy submission is that we have run out of fiscal room and all those solutions may not solve the problem. Lets just focus on making our cities better and structural changes to the Indian economy

Khandelwal, the founder of Aajeevika Bureau, which has collaborated in SoCos initiatives, pointed out that if Covid added to an existing migrant crisis last year, this year people went back to cities quickly, warnings were not heeded and people got jobs. There was no employment crisis. It is actually a wage, quality of work and work condition crisis, which already existed, and that has continued, he said. The changes are that wages are down, number of days of work are down, a number of markets that were hosting waged workers have moved to piece-rated work. The minimum wage crisis continues to unspool, too.

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Thinc session examines need for jobs with dignity for migrants in urban areas, policy changes needed - The Indian Express

A version of this article first appeared in the "Reliable Sources" newsletter. You can sign up for free right here.

On this day of history, with America's war in Afghanistan officially over, I asked a cross-section of journalists and activists to weigh in on what's next. Pretend to be an assignment editor, I said, and answer this question: "With the US officially leaving Afghanistan, what's the No. 1 angle that needs to be covered now?"

Here are the answers:

>> CNN Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr: "Humanitarian relief. I think it's central to everything. We know the Taliban need it to come into the country and it's a potential lever for the new 'diplomatic' agenda for President Biden. And it may be the only way the people survive."

>> Paul Rieckhoff, founder of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America: "The plight of the Afghan people. And especially our Afghan allies who are in particular grave danger under the Taliban. They are terrified about being left behind. They are more terrified about being forgotten. Biden may say the war is over. It's not over for them."

>> PBS "NewsHour" special correspondent Jane Ferguson, who flew out of Kabul just a few days ago: "Can the Taliban hold onto control over Afghanistan, or will everything descend into chaotic civil war and failed state? Because if it is the latter -- similar to Somalia in early 90s -- US troops will be back in some capacity, and a major migrant crisis and humanitarian catastrophe will be the result. What happens with Taliban rule/strength will determine the global implications of the fallout of this drawdown over everything else."

>> Philadelphia Inquirer national columnist Will Bunch, an outspoken critic of America's involvement in "forever wars:" "Whether America can complete a shift away from more than 20 years of failed militarism and reap a peace dividend by curbing Pentagon spending."

>> Commentary associate editor Noah Rothman, an equally outspoken critic of Biden's withdrawal decisions: "I would definitely be focused like a laser on US passport holders trying to get out. But also the Pentagon's effort to gloss over legal permanent residents -- people with jobs, families, homes, and bank accounts here. To say nothing of visa holders and visa eligibles. It all adds up to a number the administration hoped to elide, but my suspicion it is in the thousands. And I don't suspect the press will need prodding to cover their stories. My strong suspicion is that they will be too horrible to ignore."

>> The Nation publisher Katrina vanden Heuvel, a longtime opponent of the US war effort: "Will media look at next wars, endless, in the world -- from Syria to Iraq to Africa? Will there be a new cohort of media-savvy analysts to speak to rethinking of a new security/foreign policy agenda? Also, who is the new Barbara Lee? Where is the new generation of diplomats, especially those with a knowledge of the Middle East? And how will the Biden team challenge The Blob?"

>> Joseph Azam, a lawyer and Afghan-American immigrant who serves on the board of the Afghan-American Foundation: "What happens to the people left behind? Depending on how you cut the data, there may be upwards of 1 million of them. American and coalition allies; at risk individuals and their families; Americans, Afghans, other nationalities. The withdrawal has a large wake, we can't even begin to see what's caught in it, but someone needs to be in the water to tell those stories."

>> Committee to Protect Journalists board chair Kathleen Carroll, former exec editor of The AP: "What will history tell us about the end of this 20-year war and can we see that now? Can we pull back the stick from the chaos and heartache and betrayal on the ground and look for what there is to be learned for us as a society, a nation, a people? Can we only see the important moments long after the fact? Or is there a way to see them when they are happening and explore their meaning in our coverage?"

Sky News has the FT and other papers here. The NYT's banner headline says "U.S. FORCES LEAVE KABUL; EVACUATION ENDS." WaPo's is three big words: "America exits Afghanistan."

-- NYT Mag contributing writer Matthieu Aikins: "Good morning, Kabul. The last US troops have left Afghanistan, and the Taliban control the airport. Today is the first day of a new and uncertain era."

-- Al Jazeera's Charlotte Bellis: "Famous Taliban saying changes tense. You had the watches, we had the time."

-- LA Times photog Marcus Yam: Taliban fighters stormed the Kabul airport "wielding American supplied weapons, equipment & uniforms -- after the U.S. Military have completed their withdrawal. Fighters celebrated with gunfire & chants through the night."

-- Yam's colleague Nabih Bulos posted video of fighters entering a hangar and examining US helicopters.

-- BBC's Lyse Doucet: "The last American soldier leaves but the last battles aren't over..."

The-CNN-Wire & 2021 Cable News Network, Inc., a WarnerMedia Company. All rights reserved.

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The war is 'not over for them:' Reporters, activists urge press to stay focused on Afghan civilians - wlfi.com

This content was published on August 28, 2021 - 21:13August 28, 2021 - 21:13

By Phoebe Fronista and Stelios Misinas

ATHENS (Reuters) - Hundreds of Afghans marched to the U.S. Embassy in Athens on Saturday, making a plea to the international community for peace and holding banners reading, "Afghanistan is bleeding" and "hands off our land."

Following the Taliban's takeover of the country earlier this month, U.S. troops have begun their withdrawal from Kabul airport, after a two-week scramble by Washington and its allies to fly out their nationals and vulnerable Afghans by a Tuesday deadline set by President Joe Biden.

As it neared the end of a 20-year military engagement in the country, the United States said it had killed two Islamic State militants planning attacks in Afghanistan, following a deadly suicide bombing outside Kabul airport on Thursday.

"We are tired of war, we are tired of violence, we are tired of seeing dead bodies. We all came here together, we want peace from the world, we want to end this war," said Omey Naziam, 24, who joined the peaceful protest in the Greek capital.

Other protesters shouted, "stop killing Afghans" and "we want justice."

Greece was the frontline of a migrant crisis in 2015 when more than a million people, most of them Syrians, Afghans and Iraqis, arrived seeking refuge. Many of them still live in Greek camps, waiting for their asylum applications to be processed.

Fearing new migrant flows from Afghanistan, Greece has completed a 40-km fence on its border with Turkey and a new surveillance system was in place to stop possible asylum seekers from trying to reach Europe.

"We are here in order to be the voice of voiceless people in Afghanistan that are trapped," said Parwan Amiri, 17, who lives at a migrant camp outside Athens and whose parents and sister are still in Afghanistan. "More than ever we are thinking that we don't have a land, we don't have a homeland."

European Union home affairs ministers will hold a special meeting on Tuesday to discuss the latest developments in Afghanistan and its consequences for security and migration in the 27-nation bloc.

(Writing by Angeliki Koutantou; Editing by Leslie Adler)

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'We want peace from the world,' Afghans protest in Athens - swissinfo.ch

Athens is continuing to use the language of threats against Turkey, Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said Sunday, calling on Turkey's neighbor Greece to leave behind their provocative acts and words.

"Greece should see that it cannot get anywhere with expansionist attitudes, approaches and provocative behaviors and these policies are far from mathematical, reason and understanding, and mean nothing but chasing a vain hope," Akar said in Edirne, a northwestern province bordering Greece.

Accompanied by top army generals, Akar inspected measures taken along the Greek border.

The defense chief reiterated that Turkey favors solving problems in the Aegean Sea through good neighborly relations and dialogue and in line with international laws.

We wish and aim that both countries people live in welfare, but we have difficulty in explaining this, Akar said, referring to Athens.

Akar recalled the mutual and positive dialogue on cooperation in the fight against the forest fires that ripped through both countries last month, but he also criticized "provocations and unlawful aggressive actions" by the Greek side.

"We expect everyone, especially the administrators of our neighbor Greece, to see that having good relations with neighbors is also important for the people of neighboring countries. But unfortunately, we constantly face provocations, unlawful aggressive actions and discourse from the Greek side."

He said Athens tries to limit Ankara's movements by claiming both sea areas and airspace, adding it is not possible to get anywhere in this way and that they should see this very clearly.

Turkey will protect its rights, the minister pledged.

They make demands as if they are the sole owners of the Aegean and engage in efforts to militarize all islands. They make constant accusatory statements and provocations against Turkey, he noted.

Akar underlined that Greece has militarized 16 islands out of 23 that are under demilitarized status according to agreements. It is not possible to accept this, he said.

Relations between the two NATO members, often strained, deteriorated sharply last year, with warships facing off in the Eastern Mediterranean in a dispute over maritime boundaries and energy rights.

Turkey, the country with the longest coastline on the Eastern Mediterranean, has sent drillships with a military escort to explore for energy on its continental shelf, saying that it and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) have rights in the region.

To reduce tensions, Turkey has called for dialogue to ensure the fair sharing of the region's resources.

Earlier this year, Turkey and Greece launched the first direct exploratory talks in nearly five years to address their disputes related to sovereignty rights in the Eastern Mediterranean. The two countries have also been holding rounds of meetings on confidence-building measures as well as deconfliction mechanisms.

Addressing the refugee crisis as well, Akar said it should not be approached as a problem concerning only Turkey.

"We expect everyone, especially the European Union, to assume responsibility on this issue," he said.

It is unacceptable that Greece pushes refugees back and exposes them to inhumane practices, he added.

Turkey has recently seen an increase in refugees, particularly from Afghanistan.

Concerns have risen over a possible spike in migrants from Afghanistan due to the United States' pullout from the country after two decades.

Within the scope of fighting irregular migration, a 243-kilometer (151-mile) concrete wall, topped with barbed wire and surrounded by trenches, is being erected along Turkeys 534-kilometer frontier with Iran.

Turkey is not the only country putting up barriers; its neighbor Greece has just completed a 40-kilometer fence and surveillance system to keep out migrants who still manage to enter Turkey and try to reach the EU.

Authorities say there are 182,000 registered Afghan migrants in Turkey and up to an estimated 120,000 unregistered ones. President Recep Tayyip Erdoan urged European countries to take responsibility for any new influx, warning that Turkey had no intention of becoming "Europe's migrant storage unit."

The issue is also likely to feature in talks between Ankara and Brussels about updating a 2016 deal under which Turkey received aid for hosting migrants seeking refuge in the EU.

Akar also pointed out that Greece has been protecting many terrorists for years, including members of the Glenist Terror Group (FET), the group behind the 2016 defeated coup in Turkey.

"And yet, it is not credible and moral that the Greek administrators seem to complain about the spread of terrorism, religious fanaticism and fundamentalism. This is a hypocritical attitude that does not reflect the facts," he stated.

Originally posted here:
Greece continues to use threatening language against Turkey: Akar | Daily Sabah - Daily Sabah

Anyone who has followed the internal politics of the European Union over the past few years will know that the bloc, which relies on unity and mutual appreciation of rules, has struggled to stay on the same page on several important issues.

Petty spats between the leaders of the EU's political institutions have led to critics saying that those at the top of the Brussels food chain are prioritizing their own careers and personal power over the lives of European citizens.

As the Covid-19 pandemic approaches something resembling its end, and geopolitical challenges -- such as the fallout from the crisis in Afghanistan -- take hold, this open disunity presents the bloc with a series of fundamental problems to which there are no obvious solutions.

First things first: The Union itself is not facing extinction. The EU has remarkable staying power and the self-interest of its member states means there is no real chance of it falling apart any time soon.

What is in question, however, is the Union's long-term purpose and legitimacy.

Last week, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen wrote to the president of the EU Parliament, David Sassoli, declining to act on a resolution that had been passed by a huge majority in the EU's legislative and only publicly elected body.

The Parliament believes that two member states, Hungary and Poland, have violated the EU's rule of law and as such should have central funding halted. The offenses on which this is based range from violating the independence of the judiciary to discriminating against LGBT communities -- both assaults on fundamental cornerstones of EU membership.

Parliament says that the Commission must now apply a regulation that was agreed last year, as the EU negotiated its long-term budget alongside Covid recovery funds. At the time, the regulation -- which ties EU money to obeying the rule of law -- was a priority. The tools at the EU's disposal for punishing member states had proven inadequate.

However, when push came to shove and the two delinquent nations threatened to exercise their veto rights, the regulation was watered down to such an extent that it would require iron-clad evidence that EU funds were being used to violate the rule of law, rather than a broader interpretation of violations occurring in general.

"It's fair to say that after the regulation was agreed, the parties most keen on taking action against Hungary and Poland hoped the Commission would take the political decision to take a broad interpretation," says Ronan McCrea, professor of European law at University College London. "This could be the first sign it will take a more cautious approach."

In the letter, von der Leyen said that Sassoli's letter was not "sufficiently clear and precise" on exactly what violations had taken place, resting on the narrow nature of the "complex assessments" required to enact the regulation.

Parliamentarians who have spent the past few years highlighting abuses are spitting blood at what they see as von der Leyen's complicity with violations.

"It is literally written into the treaties that the Commission is accountable to the Parliament," says Sophie in 't Veld, a Dutch liberal MEP.

She and many of her colleagues and European officials believe that von der Leyen, rather than acting as guardian of the EU's treaties, is acting in the interests of the governments of the EU nations that make up the 27-member EU Council. The more support that von der Leyen can elicit from the member states, the more power she has to ignore the calls of Parliament and work exclusively to her own agenda.

"She is in the job because Parliament gave up on electing its own candidate and rubber-stamped the member states' candidate. She owes them to a certain extent," Veld adds.

Daniel Freund, a German Green MEP, says that it's always "difficult for the commission to go against a member state because they will always need their support down the line." He adds that this might be particularly difficult for von der Leyen because she was elected with a majority that included Hungary and Poland's political leadership -- votes for which she willingly lobbied.

Politicking in Brussels is nothing new, and ardent Europhiles are sick of narrow interests at HQ overshadowing real issues facing the Union.

"So many people working at the EU level become obsessed with arguments over how the EU operates and who should have what power rather than getting on with making the Union fit for the 21st century," says Neale Richmond, an Irish lawmaker who was previously appointed to represent Ireland in Brussels.

"For years now we've been debating the future of Europe and its position on the world stage. We all want a strong, open Europe that is united in promoting liberal values and a world leader on things like climate change and geopolitics. But that won't happen if these petty inter-institutional squabbles keep getting in the way of everything," he adds.

If the EU is to be its best self, its stakeholders at the very least need to believe that all parties are acting in good faith. This has become increasingly hard as the row over the rule of law has rumbled on.

"We have repeatedly seen Hungary block resolutions in the Council on things like human rights in Hong Kong or when fighting erupted in Israel earlier this year, presumably to poke the member states agitating against its own violations in the eye," says Freund. Disunity and inaction on issues like these, of course, somewhat fly in the face of the EU's goal to be a global promoter of democratic values.

And when the stakeholders are distrustful of one another, it can have real-world consequences.

"Previously when the question of refugees fleeing war zones has come up, the 27 member states have been more comfortable dealing with and paying autocrats to host refugees than reaching a sensible deal among themselves," says Veld.

The lack of unity and painful process with which each decision is made means that the EU's woes are often dealt with on an issue-by-issue basis, despite the fact its crises tend to dovetail.

Take the question of Afghan refugees. The EU said last week that it will aid those fleeing the Taliban by supporting regional partners to host refugees. It is also hellbent against repeating the migrant crisis of 2015 when millions traveled to Europe to escape Syria's brutal civil war.

In 2016, the EU gave Turkey -- a regional partner -- cash to host Syrian refugees. Turkey was subsequently able to weaponize those refugees when it became politically convenient to do so. Why? Because member states were reluctant to welcome large numbers of migrants into their countries and in some instances took extreme measures to keep them out.

That migrant crisis played a large part in driving Euroskeptic, populist sentiment across the continent, as well as the victory of the pro-Brexit campaign in the UK in 2016.

Obviously, none of this was good for the EU, and it's far from implausible that the current short-sightedness on Afghanistan could see this repeated.

This might seem a dramatic overreaction to a row between the European Parliament and Commission over whether to act on a resolution. But, as Freund points out, the rule of law debate really does get to the fundamentals of how the EU will face the challenges hurtling towards every corner of the planet: as a united group with a common purpose or a collection of more isolationist nation states.

"The way the row over Hungary and Poland has played is putting the whole EU into question. If member states don't follow the treaties, if the Commission and Council don't punish rule breakers, then what is left of the EU," he asks.

These are questions that the bloc's leadership will need to answer in the coming year, as Europe pieces itself back together after the pandemic, elections in its two biggest countries -- France and Germany -- and attempts to navigate the geopolitical minefield that the past 18 months has left the world in.

If the EU is serious about its ambitions to be a major power on the world stage and -- in light of what's happened in the past fortnight -- step in where America might have previously, it needs all members on the same page and playing by the same rules.

The reality of this latest dilemma, however, is that keeping all 27 member states happy at the same time is a near-impossible balancing act. The longer these divisions exist, the wider the gaps in trust between stakeholders become. And at some point, that distance might become too large for anyone to bridge.

The-CNN-Wire & 2021 Cable News Network, Inc., a WarnerMedia Company. All rights reserved.

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Europe's disunity and lack of trust imperils the continent's future - wlfi.com